CEO at URSA Mining
Johann Dias
Despite my interest in the industry, I actually wanted nothing to do with mining growing up. Being born in the industry does that to you. After studying particle physics at CERN, I rediscovered my love for mining while working for my dad at one of his mines. I've always been a bit of a dreamer, and I kept thinking, "Autonomy just makes sense for this." And the rest is history.
Questions & Answers
Why are you excited about your company/product?
The mining sector is suffering from a lack of fresh blood. Mining is such a cool industry that you'd think that was weird, but reality paints a much different picture. To put it bluntly, nobody wants to work in the middle of nowhere, and the few that would don't even think about pursuing mining as a career. Don't get me wrong– making really big robots perform complex tasks by themselves is really cool, but in our case it's also really important. If it isn't grown, it's mined. I've witnessed just how large the gap in the market is for making mining cool. People always say, "Wow, mining! That's really cool." But they'd never consider working in the industry. So, there's this massive opportunity that exists for those that are capable of capturing and distilling it.
How is your team uniquely positioned to solve the problem you're tackling?
For as long as I can remember, I've seen first-hand how hard it is to develop and scale (active) mines because of my dad, who's owned and operated numerous mines around the world. I'm also fairly technical, having studied physics in university and researched particle physics at CERN. Those experiences, combined with our larger-than-life vision for humanity's future, have attracted the world's top research engineers. Over half of our team is from ETH Zurich– our founding engineers have written papers on autonomous earth-moving equipment. Furthermore, my co-founder is an engineering savant who's designed IOT systems for the DOD. Combined with our unprecedented access to conducting R&D at an active mine, I know we have the perfect recipe to build the world's first fully autonomous mine. Autonomous mines are an inevitability, but companies that have attempted to break into the industry haven't done so because the timing wasn't right. Well, now it is.
What's the story behind your company?
URSA is the culmination of my life's experiences, perspectives, and imagination. Some of my fondest memories growing up include getting to blow up sticks of dynamite down mine shafts in the jungles of Colombia. My dad always told me that I'd eventually need to take over and fill his shoes one day. Naturally, I spent the better part of a decade and a half running away from that. I didn't realize it for many years, but mining is as much a part of me as the blood that runs through my veins. I remember getting lost in my imagination one day while working at my dad's mine. What would an autonomous mine look like? What processes would be improved? What would be the implications of those improvements? Then it hit me. Autonomous mining is an inevitability, a glimpse into the future of our species that will last as long as humans exist. And the company that achieves it first will go down in history.
