Mineral exploration company KoBold Metals, backed by billionaires including Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates, said on Thursday it would begin drilling in Greenland for critical materials used in electric vehicles.
The joint venture will use drones to make a high-resolution magnetic survey of the area and plans to drill a total of 3,000 meters this year to depths of between 150 and 400 meters where the metals are located. Prices for nickel, used in stainless steel and electric vehicle batteries, more than doubled earlier this month in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which sparked Western sanctions against Moscow. Russia supplies about 10 per cent of the world’s nickel needs.
KoBold is a privately-held company whose principal investors include Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a climate and technology fund backed by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Bloomberg founder Michael Bloomberg, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.