ALEX MACPHERSON, SASKATOON STARPHOENIXCalifornia company backed by Gates, Bezos staking claims in Sask.
KoBold Metals, which is based in California, is looking for ethical sources of cobalt, which is used in electric car batteries.
ALEX MACPHERSON, SASKATOON STARPHOENIX Updated: April 26, 2019
An American startup whose search for cobalt for batteries is backed by some of the world’s wealthiest people, including Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, is staking claims in the northeast corner of Saskatchewan.
Public records show Faith in Gravity Holdings Inc., which is registered in British Columbia, staked its mineral claims this month. The holding company’s directors are the top three executives of California-based KoBold Metals.
Kobold Metals has raised money from the California venture capital firm Andreesen Horowitz as well as Breakthrough Energy, a two-year-old fund backed by, among others, Gates, Bezos, Richard Branson and Michael Bloomberg.
In an interview, KoBold Metals CEO Kurt House said Saskatchewan is one of many jurisdictions across five continents the company is exploring in its search for cobalt to increase the supply and reliability of batteries in a changing world.
“We need to rebuild the world’s energy infrastructure completely within the next 50 years, and that requires an enormous amount of new materials, different materials than we’ve used in the past — in particular, battery materials,” House said.
“All of this will push forward greater use and ultimately demand for battery materials,” House said.
Much of the world’s cobalt supply is a byproduct of nickel and copper mining, and the majority is sourced from the Democratic Republic of Congo. However, few companies have looked for deposits of the element on its own.
One that has is Saskatoon-based UEX Corp., which has been searching for cobalt for more than a decade. Its West Bear deposit in the Athabasca Basin is thought to be the province’s most developed.
According to its website, which echoes the view of others in the industry, KoBold Metals believes “the incumbent cobalt supply is ethically challenged, concentrated in unstable jurisdictions, and insufficient to meet growing demand.”
The claims staked by Faith in Gravity Holdings run northeast from Black Lake, which is about 800 kilometres north of Saskatoon, to a point near the Northwest Territories border. Staking a claim is the first step in the mining exploration process; few are developed into mines.
House said while he could not get into specifics, KoBold Metals has an exploration plan in place for its properties in Saskatchewan, which it considers interesting for several geological factors.
“It is a very interesting area for us, there’s no doubt about that. We’re very serious about it, we intend to invest a lot in it, but it is one of many, many, many (regions KoBold is exploring).”
amacpherson@postmedia.com twitter.com/macphersona