Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos-backed KoBold Metals breaks ground on a $2.5 billion Zambia copper mine and bets $50 million on Congo lithium

KoBold Metals, the American exploration company backed by Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Sam Altman, has broken ground at the Mingomba copper project in Zambia, committing to a mine that will require more than $2.5 billion to build and is expected to produce more than 300,000 tonnes of copper per year at full capacity.

The groundbreaking comes weeks after the company announced plans to spend at least $50 million on lithium exploration in the Democratic Republic of Congo, placing 2 of the most consequential critical mineral bets in Africa in quick succession. The copper and lithium moves together reflect KoBold's position as one of the most aggressive new entrants in Africa's mining sector, deploying capital that traces back directly to some of Silicon Valley's most recognisable names.

Mingomba sits within Zambia's Copperbelt, one of the most geologically endowed copper provinces on earth, and has been among the region's most closely watched undeveloped projects. Its scale puts it in the category of mine developments that take years and billions of dollars to complete but reshape the output of entire national mining industries when they do. KoBold has set an early 2030s target for first production, a timeline that reflects the reality of building a major underground copper mine from scratch.

Why copper, why now

The investment case for copper is not complicated. Every electric vehicle requires roughly 4 times more copper than a combustion engine vehicle. Every wind turbine and solar farm requires copper for wiring and grid connection at a scale that conventional power infrastructure does not. Charging networks, grid upgrades and energy storage systems all run on copper. The global mining industry has not been adding copper supply fast enough to meet projected demand from the energy transition, and the gap between what existing mines will produce and what the global economy needs is expected to widen materially through the 2030s.

Zambia has a national target to lift its copper output to approximately 3 million metric tonnes per year by 2031, more than double its current production. The government has been moving to encourage faster development of large projects and to attract foreign capital into mines that have sat undeveloped for years. Mingomba is the kind of project that fits that agenda precisely: a large, proven deposit that needs a committed, well-capitalised developer willing to see a decade-long project through to production.

The DRC lithium bet

KoBold's DRC investment targets the Manono region in Tanganyika Province, which geologists have identified as one of the most prospective hard-rock lithium zones anywhere in the world. Lithium is essential for the batteries that power electric vehicles and store renewable energy, and Manono sits on a pegmatite field that has drawn serious attention from multiple international mining companies over the past several years.

KoBold has outlined plans to spend more than $50 million on exploration in the DRC by 2027 and aims to expand its licensed exploration footprint in the country to approximately 5,000 square kilometres by the end of 2026. The Manono investment is early-stage: the money buys exploration work, geological surveys and drilling programmes that will determine whether the lithium resource is economically viable to develop at scale. Congo already produces approximately 70% of the world's cobalt. The lithium potential, if proven, would add another critical mineral dimension to its resource profile.

What KoBold is

Founded in 2018, KoBold Metals describes its approach as applying data modelling and advanced computing to mineral exploration decisions, replacing or supplementing traditional prospecting methods with large-scale analysis of geological datasets, historical surveys and remote sensing information. The company argues that this approach allows it to identify high-potential targets faster and with greater precision than conventional methods.

Its backers include Breakthrough Energy Ventures, the clean energy investment fund co-founded by Gates, as well as Bezos, Altman, Andreessen Horowitz and others. The company has been valued at nearly $3 billion in recent funding rounds. Its portfolio spans copper, cobalt, lithium and nickel assets across Africa, Australia and Canada, with Africa representing its most active and capital-intensive deployment zone.

Beyond Zambia and the DRC, KoBold is reviewing lithium and nickel opportunities in Namibia and has begun early-stage copper exploration in Botswana, both countries that have been receiving growing interest from critical mineral investors as the more established zones in the DRC and Zambia attract larger capital commitments.

Gates's net worth sits at approximately $108 billion. His involvement in KoBold through Breakthrough Energy Ventures reflects a consistent investment thesis that decarbonisation requires securing the physical materials supply chain, not just the technology to use them. Copper is the material that connects every other clean energy technology to the grid and to the vehicle, and Mingomba, when it reaches production in the early 2030s, will be one of the largest new sources of it in the world.