In the latest episode of the A16z Podcast, Turner Caldwell, founder of Mariana Minerals, sits down with American Dynamism general partner Erin Price-Wright and partner Ryan McEntush to discuss the critical role of minerals in the modern world and the challenges faced by the mining industry. Caldwell, who spent nearly a decade at Tesla working on factory design, battery materials, and mining, is now building a new kind of mining and refining company that is vertically integrated and software-first, designed to meet the demands of our industrial future.
Critical minerals are the backbone of our everyday technologies, from smartphones and laptops to electric vehicles and aerospace applications. However, the mining industry has been largely untouched by the technological advancements that have transformed other sectors. Caldwell explains the complex process of turning rocks into usable materials, highlighting the bespoke nature of each mine due to unique ore characteristics and impurities.
Critical minerals fundamentally underpin everything that we do every day. It’s in your phone, in your AirPods, your screens, your laptops, everything that we use, how they’re refined, and how they’re mined, that all happens in the background.
The mining industry faces numerous challenges, including a lack of automation, reliance on human labor, remote locations, and difficulty in attracting and retaining talent. Caldwell also points out the incentive misalignment between the commodity-driven mining industry and the manufacturing industry, which requires scale and innovation.
Drawing from his experience at Tesla, Caldwell shares the lessons he learned about vertical integration, working upstream in the value chain, and understanding cost drivers. Mariana Minerals aims to address these challenges by focusing on the back end of the minerals value chain, leveraging recent advances in large language models (LLMs) and artificial intelligence (AI) to automate workflows, reduce churn in construction, and optimize chemical processing and refining operations.
“There aren’t that many massive markets left that have been largely untapped by technology and mining screens, one of the largest markets in the world.”
The podcast also delves into the geopolitical context of the mining industry, discussing the rise of Chinese mining companies and their top-down recognition of the importance of critical minerals. Caldwell highlights the large, skilled, and experienced talent pool in China as a key factor in their success.
Mariana Minerals’ strategy involves initially focusing on being a better integrator and operator of commercially demonstrated unit operations while exploring potential partnerships with companies working on novel process technologies. Caldwell also discusses the critical minerals of interest, such as copper, aluminum, zinc, nickel, lithium, manganese, and rare earths, and their various applications in electrification, infrastructure, defense, and batteries.
To accelerate mining in the United States, Caldwell recommends streamlining permitting processes for exploration and development, supporting the demand side through offtake agreements and price floors, and reducing the burden of receiving government funds. While Mariana Minerals is starting in the US, they plan to expand internationally to scale beyond the domestic resource base, with a goal to build 10 projects in 10 years and demonstrate the capability to build complex infrastructure.
As the world becomes increasingly reliant on critical minerals for its industrial future, companies like Mariana Minerals are at the forefront of reimagining the mining industry. By embracing vertical integration, leveraging cutting-edge technologies, and addressing the challenges faced by the sector, they aim to secure a stable and responsible supply of the materials that power our modern world.
To listen to the full episode and explore more insights on the future of mining and critical minerals, tune in to the A16z Podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
