TED Talks Daily The emerging science of finding critical metals | Mfikeyi Makayi
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Sep 24, 2025 Mfikeyi Makayi, a Zambian mining innovator, tackles the urgent need for critical minerals essential for our tech-driven world. She reveals how the mining industry has struggled to discover new deposits due to underinvestment and outdated methods. With AI-powered technology, Makayi's team aims to predict mineral locations at lightning speed, vastly improving efficiency in exploration. Her insights on sustainable mine design and the Mingomba project highlight the future of responsible mining practices and local development.
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Zambian Roots And Mining Mission
- Mfikeyi Makayi recounts being born in Zambia and naturally drawn into mining due to her country's copper history.
- She uses this background to frame the global need for critical minerals in electrification and circular economies.
Exploration Is Dramatically Underfunded
- Makayi highlights how mining underinvests in exploration compared with pharma and tech, harming discovery rates.
- She notes we are ten times worse at discovering ore bodies than 30 years ago due to that neglect.
We Don’t Lack Ore — We Lack Information
- Most ore deposits still exist but are deeper and harder to detect than historic surface-exposed deposits.
- The real problem is lack of information, not lack of ore bodies, so prediction is key.