Mineral mining
company KoBold Metals, which is backed by billionaires such Amazon founder Jeff
Bezos and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, has partnered with London and
Frankfurt-listed Bluejay Mining to search for precious metals used in the
manufacture of electric vehicles in Greenland.

The company
uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to seek out the best
locations for minerals. In a statement, Bluejay said KoBold will pay $15
million in exploration funding for the Disko-Nuussuaq project in West Greenland
and will get 51% stake in the project, Reuters reported.

Bluejay shares
climbed 15% higher following the news.

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KoBold, a
private company, is primarily funded by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a climate
and technology fund backed by Bill Gates, Bloomberg founder Michael Bloomberg
and the world’s largest hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, founded by Ray
Dalio.

Other
investors in KoBold include venture capital fund Andreessen Horowitz and Norway’s
state-controlled energy firm Equinor.

The license
acquired by KoBold includes mining for metals such as nickel, copper, cobalt
and platinum, with the funding covering evaluation and initial drilling.

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Bluejay has
said that previous studies in western Greenland have found that its geology is similar
to Russia’s Nrilsk region, where metals like nickel and palladium are found in
abundance. “This agreement is transformative for Bluejay,” the firm’s CEO Bo
Steensgaard said.

“We are
delighted to have a partner at the pinnacle of technical innovation for new
exploration methods, backed by some of the most successful investors in the
world,” he added.

Meanwhile,
KoBold CEO Kurt House said, “The Disko region has seen the rare convergence of
events in earth’s history that could have resulted in forming a world-class
battery metal deposit.”

“KoBold’s
technology is perfectly suited to discovering new resources at Disko. Our
proprietary library of analytical tools, Machine Prospector, will enable
effective deployment of exploration capital and maximize our chances of
discovery at Disko-Nuussuaq.”