KoBold Metals appoints female CEO to lead their Copper unit in Zambia
KoBold Metals, a Silicon Valley start-up that utilizes artificial intelligence to detect battery metal deposits, has appointed a lady CEO to head its copper unit in Zambia, making her the first female executive to hold such a position in a mining exploration company in the country.
Zambia is Africa’s second largest copper producer and is witnessing a high demand for copper in the transition to a low-carbon economy.
Data from S&P Global Market Intelligence reveal that as of 2022, top female executives at global metals and mining companies held just over 11% of C-suite positions.
Mfikeyi Makayi, who hails from Zambia and holds a master’s degree in mining engineering from Britain’s Camborne School of Mines, has worked with Canadian miner First Quantum Minerals and Caterpillar before assuming her current leadership position in Zambia.
In an interview, Makayi expressed her excitement, saying, “I am the first Zambian woman running an exploration or even a mining company in the country… (Mining) is something that will drive our economy into the future if we get this right.”
Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema is targeting an increase in the country’s copper production to three million tonnes a year by 2032, from around 850,000 tonnes last year. Hichilema emphasized that “KoBold Zambia, with Mfikeyi at the helm,” will play a critical role in achieving the country’s ambitions to increase copper output.
KoBold has exploration partnerships with mining giants BHP Group and Rio Tinto and is supported by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a climate and technology fund founded by Microsoft’s Bill Gates and backed by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Virgin’s Richard Branson. Its Mingomba copper project in Zambia contains 247 million tonnes of ore with a high grade of copper, and it requires about $1 billion in investment to be built. It is a joint venture with Australian private equity firm EMR Capital and state-backed miner ZCCM-IH.
