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At a hotel in the heart of Silicon Valley on Monday, a group of entrepreneurs and junior miners from around the world pored over geological data during a simulation project organized by Australian mining giant BHP. 

Why it matters: BHP is leaning into an accelerator program to tap startups and tech innovation as demand for critical minerals like copper soars. 

Zoom in: The simulation exercise was part of Xplor Scale Camp, a several-day event in Sunnyvale, Calif., that brought together a cohort of 10 startups for mentorship, group activities and meetings with BHP executives.

The camp is part of BHP's Xplor program, an accelerator in its fourth year that is focused on mineral exploration projects and awards groups $500,000 in non-dilutive funding. 

This year, the cohort includes the largest intake of tech startups alongside exploration companies. 

"We cannot appropriately build the supply needed for the energy transition if we don't increase discovery rates," Marley Palin, VP of Innovation with BHP, tells Axios Pro. 

State of play: The founders of Pennsylvania-based startup VectOres Science attended the camp and say the Xplor program has helped them "take the first major leap from academia into industry," as VectOres co-founder and CTO Ryan Mathur put it. 

VectOres, which detects signs of buried mineral systems in groundwater, is planning to raise a $7 million Series A to move into new lab space and scale up capacity. 

Another startup in the program, Montreal-based Mineural, has developed a new type of neural network able to take into account all different types and formats of geological data at once, delivering better exploration results for lower cost. 

Mineural plans to spend some of the BHP funding on salaries and compute, says Mineural co-founder and CTO Julien Carayol.

Other startups and exploration companies in the cohort include Discovery Genomics, Frontier Exploration and RadiXplore. 

The intrigue: Corporate accelerator programs are a dime a dozen in Silicon Valley, but if designed well can help a slow-moving giant find talent and tech innovation outside of its four walls. 

The Xplor program has given BHP important market intelligence around what are promising projects and tech trends, and BHP has ultimately established longer-term relationships with about 50% of the Xplor exploration projects, says Palin. 

Catch up quick: BHP also has a venture arm, BHP Ventures, which is highly focused on mining tech startups and makes equity investments. 

The big picture: Much of the Xplor cohort, and BHP itself, is focused on finding more copper projects more quickly and more efficiently to serve the insatiable demand for data centers and electrification.

"We want to land with a cohort that's got the most likelihood to convert, which in BHP's case is going to be copper," says Palin. 

S&P expects global copper production to increase about 15% by 2030, but the market is constrained and predicts a copper shortfall of roughly 3 million metric tons by 2036. 

What's next: BHP Xplor plans to open up applications for its next cohort in the fall and kick off the fifth program in January 2027. 

Inside BHP's mineral exploration accelerator

Xplor program is increasingly partnering with tech startups to speed up copper discovery.

Several people with name badges lean over a large map on a table, discussing. They wear bright clothing, including a pink floral shirt and a green hat; a buffet and water dispensers are visible.

Mining startup executives huddle around geological resources maps at BHP's Xplor Scale Camp. Photo: Katie Fehrenbacher/Axios

At a hotel in the heart of Silicon Valley on Monday, a group of entrepreneurs and junior miners from around the world pored over geological data during a simulation project organized by Australian mining giant BHP. Why it matters: BHP is leaning into an accelerator program to tap startups and tech innovation as demand for critical minerals like copper soars.

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Inside BHP's mineral exploration accelerator

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