The year is 2024. No one cares about critical minerals. I was there.

I was at the back of the room squished up against a wall.

There were that many people there.

A panel of financiers.

And mining legend Pierre Lassonde.

Yesterday, I promised I’d share with you what I learned back then in 2024.

The panel discussed the fate of critical minerals in the West and the advent of AI.

Bear in mind that the market to this point had savaged critical minerals stocks for two years.

The mood was low.

This phrase was key…

Lassonde said that AI will be very useful for companies with existing resources.

The data collection around big deposits will only be enhanced.

But the frontier of mining that is exploration?

Luckily for those that walk the ground, that is the last bastion of work that can’t be fully automated.

I’ve walked the ground with exploration geologists before, and a lot if it boils down to heuristic judgements about soil samples and, yes, even using a compass to work out your geological thesis.

By walking the ground over and over, the human mind can understand the frontier of data where Big Tech and the robots still can’t quite operate.

Yet.

That means the geos still have a job (for now) – and I’ve heard big claims made about satellites and their ability to process radiometric or other geophysical data…translating that into new discoveries.

For me, that sounds far-fetched right now.

But here’s the rub…

The big implication here is that developers of AI critical minerals stand the most to gain from BOTH the application of the technology to resource growth AND the machines that require more of these commodities.

The world is no longer AI vs commodities. It’s both at the same time.

A monumental feedback loop for the ages.

And Lassonde’s famous curve might even be getting compressed too.

By the very force which is driving the compression.

Tomorrow I’ll share some examples of what I’m seeing in the market, that show this connection clear as day.

Opportunities like this do not show up cleanly on an index chart. They appear in the gap between the AI panic on your screen and the very real money flooding into power, metals and “stuff” off it.

Heck, the chips in your machine you’re staring at right now don’t happen by accident.