The global mining sector is experiencing a renewed surge in interest, fuelled by record gold prices and rising demand for critical minerals linked to AI and electrification.
- The global mining sector is witnessing significant advancements, propelled by record gold valuation and the increasing necessity for minerals vital to modern technologies like AI and electrification.
- Innovation in mining is being led by startups employing tools like AI, automation, and sustainable practices
- A notable insight from the Dealroom’s ranking of mining startups highlights a lack of presence from Africa, despite its rich mineral reserves.
- This gap is attributed to structural challenges in the region, such as limited venture capital and regulatory constraints, affecting scalability and innovation.
Unlike previous cycles, growth is now being driven by startups applying automation, advanced data tools, and sustainability-first models.
Dealroom’s ranking of the top 10 mining and metals startups captures this shift across the gold industry.
The companies on the list, which include KoBold Metals, EARTH AI, and Gravis Robotics, are largely focused on improving efficiency, reducing costs, and extending the life of mineral assets in a sector under pressure to modernise.
Notably, while these startups serve the gold and broader metals value chain, none are headquartered in Africa – a striking gap given that the continent holds over 30% of the world’s known mineral reserves and hosts some of the world’s most prolific gold belts, including the Birimian Greenstone Belt stretching across West Africa.
The new Dealroom dataset highlighting the top 10 global mining and metals startups reveals how innovation is reshaping the gold industry from AI-driven exploration to autonomous haulage, advanced metals processing, and cleaner extraction technologies.
Innovation gap despite Africa’s mineral dominance
According to Dealroom data, the companies leading global mining innovation are based in North America, Europe, and China, reflecting where capital, advanced research ecosystems, and risk-tolerant funding remain concentrated.
The Dealroom signal number, which ranks startups on completeness, founding team strength, growth rate, and market timing, provides a composite measure of each company’s overall potential and global competitiveness.
African mining firms, by contrast, are largely absent from these startup rankings, not for lack of resources, but due to structural challenges such as limited venture capital, weak downstream industrialisation, and regulatory frameworks historically designed around foreign extractive firms rather than local innovators.
This gap persists even as African countries remain heavily dependent on exporting raw gold and minerals, capturing only a fraction of the value along the supply chain. The continent is rich in resources but underrepresented in the technologies that shape exploration, processing, and monetisation.
At the same time, several African governments are revisiting mineral ownership and control, introducing policies that emphasise national participation, local beneficiation, and, in some cases, partial nationalisation of strategic assets.
Countries including Ghana, Tanzania, Namibia, and the AES region have tightened local content rules, revised mining codes, or expanded state stakes in mineral projects.
Proponents argue these policies could help Africa retain more value domestically, foster home-grown mining champions, and catalyse investment in local processing, refining, and technology. Critics warn that poorly implemented nationalisation could deter investment.
Without deliberate efforts to build African mining technology firms, the continent risks remaining a supplier of raw materials to a global industry increasingly defined and dominated by innovation developed elsewhere.
