Highlights
- Startup: Durin Mining Technologies
- Goal: Transform mineral exploration by automating drilling processes
- Industry Challenge: Costly and inefficient manual approach
- Current Success Rate: 3 in 1,000 drilling attempts succeed
- Technology Benefits:
- Reduces exploration risks
- Lowers labor costs
- Improves safety through sensor-embedded, data-driven drill rigs
- Vision: Create self-operating drill rigs that provide real-time data
- Potential Impact: Reshape the discovery and extraction of critical minerals
Finding new sources of critical minerals has become one of the biggest challenges in modern industry—and one of the most expensive. According to (opens in a new tab) TechCrunch, global spending on mineral exploration hovered around $12 to $13 billion in 2023, yet the odds of actually finding a viable deposit are dismal: only about three in every 1,000 drilling attempts succeed. That’s a lot of money sunk into a process that still leans heavily on guesswork and grueling manual labor.
Enter Durin Mining Technologies (opens in a new tab), a startup aiming to turn this narrative on its head with an innovative approach that combines robotics, automation, and a deep understanding of the mining industry. As reported by TechCrunch today, Durin has just secured a $3.4 million pre-seed investment led by 8090 Industries, with backing from notable investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, Lux Capital, and Contrary. The goal? Automate the most costly and inefficient part of exploration: drilling.
Durin’s founder and CEO, Ted Feldmann, knows this world intimately—he grew up in a mining family and saw firsthand how much of the industry’s money bleeds out during the drilling phase. “Drilling is prohibitively expensive,” Feldmann told TechCrunch, noting that about 70% of exploration budgets are eaten up by this one process alone. And the reason behind that high cost is no mystery: “Labor is about 60% of their cost,” he said.
On a typical drill site, two or three people manage a rig. One or two keep it supplied with materials, and the other monitors the machine, listening for subtle audio cues and reading analog gauges to make adjustments based on what kind of rock the drill is cutting through. It’s an old-school approach in a high-tech world.
On the Durin website (opens in a new tab), the company breaks down the true cost and complexity of exploration. A single drilling campaign can run up to $30 million, mainly because core drilling—used to extract samples from beneath the earth—hasn’t fundamentally changed in decades. Not only is it expensive, but it’s also time-consuming and risky.
Durin’s answer is a new breed of drill rig—one embedded with sensors, automation tools, and data-gathering technology that can eventually replace the need for humans to stand beside a whirring machine, making decisions based on sound and vibration. The company has already built a prototype capable of boring 300 meters deep, and although it is currently manually operated, the system is gathering the data necessary to inform a fully automated version in the near future.
This is more than just a cost-saving measure. Automation promises to enhance precision, reduce errors, and significantly improve safety. “What we’re trying to eliminate is a need for there to be guys standing around the rig while it’s operating,” Feldmann said to TechCrunch. Instead, teams will supervise from a distance, deliver supplies, and collect core samples—freeing them from the most dangerous and repetitive parts of the job.
On its site, Durin outlines its vision of mining as the foundational industry of human progress, tracing the importance of mineral resources back to the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages. The message is clear: civilizations rise and fall based on access to energy and minerals. And today, as global competition intensifies and half the mining workforce heads toward retirement, the stakes have never been higher.
Durin is building toward a future where drill rigs are more innovative, safer, and self-operating. By sending real-time data directly from the drill to the geologists, they aim to dramatically accelerate the exploration process, minimize capital risk, and ultimately pave the way for a new generation of mining operations. The company also plans to vertically integrate its services—assays, geophysics, and analytics—to eliminate intermediaries and expedite decision-making.
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