#263 Solving the Critical Mineral Supply Crisis Using Robotic Drills

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#263 Solving the Critical Mineral Supply Crisis Using Robotic Drills | Ted Feldman (Durin Mining)

The Energy Transition Needs Critical Minerals to Succeed -- During is Helping Secure Those and Build Out Domestic Supply Chains of These Minerals Through Their Automated Exploration Rigs

Silas Mähner and CleanTechies Notes

Oct 08, 2025

Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Pocket Casts

Select Quotes From This Episode:

“Mining as a whole does not like to invest in R&D. We’re not particularly good at R&D, and that is because commodities are cyclical.” — Ted Feldman
“The solution is to find a better, cleaner, and faster way to get these minerals out of the ground.” — Ted Feldman
“Drilling is more than 50% of exploration spend.” — Ted Feldman
“We think 50 to 100% increase [in efficiency] as well as I think we can better optimize our mud additives use. And so overall, 50 to 75% cost reduction in this drilling set.” — Ted Feldman
“We can mine nickel in the US or we can mine it in Indonesia, which produces half the world’s nickel, where they are dumping acid into the ocean. And it is absolutely awful.” — Ted Feldman
“I want to ensure that raw materials are not a constraint on humanity.” — Ted Feldman

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Hey everyone, welcome back to CleanTechies! I’m Silas Mahner, your favorite CleanTech headhunter, and today we’re digging into a topic that’s often overlooked but absolutely critical to our clean future: critical minerals.

Think electric vehicles, solar panels, and those massive transmission lines—they all demand a huge amount of metals and minerals.

The problem?

We don’t have enough, and the supply chains we do rely on are often environmentally destructive. The solution lies in finding a better, cleaner, and faster way to extract these essential resources.

That’s why today, we’re talking with Ted Feldman is the CEO and Founder of During Mining. Durin is unlocking the supply bottleneck by building automated drilling rigs that dramatically cut the time and cost of finding new mineral deposits.

Listen today to learn how they are doing this — what tailwinds they are seeing from the current administration — how they are attracting killer talent — and how they raised from climate and non climate investors.

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