Best Mining Companies in California, United States
The 65 best Mining companies in California, United States in 2026, ranked by funding and momentum. Funding, investors, founders, valuation, tech stack and live signals. Top: New Gold.
Our analysis of 100 Mining companies
$17.0b in tracked funding; 82% of the stack-profiled cohort runs cloud-native; funding activity peaked in 2025.
Ranked: Best Mining companies in California
| # | Company | Disclosed funding | Last round | Employees | Founder | Patents & IP focus | Recent signals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New Gold Gold mining company | $963M | 15 mo ago | 1,578 | Renaud Adams CEO & President | — | — |
| 2 | KoBold Metals 🦄 Developer of mineral exploration technology and operator of mining projects 80Funding top 17%Moat top 22%Talent top 28%Patents top 30% All 11 signals ▾Fundingtop 17% Moattop 22% Talenttop 28% Patentstop 30% AItop 30% Innovationtop 31% Growthtop 35% Markettop 46% Techtop 50% Globalbottom 48% Newsbottom 32% Funding: Raised $892M across 4 rounds · 4 rounds over 7 yrs (0.6/yr) Moat: Editorial + unicorn rating 9/10 · IP moat: 22 patents rank vs industry peers · Fliar Intelligence Index 80/100 | $892M | 7 mo ago | 62 | Josh Goldman Co-Founder & President | 22 patents Muon tomography and superconducting induction loops for subsurface mineral exploration. | — |
| 3 | Lilac Solutions Provider of lithium extraction solutions | $318M | 28 mo ago | 120 | — | 154 patents Advanced ion‑exchange processes for lithium brine extraction and impurity removal | 1 partnership · 1 award |
| 4 | Blue Moon Minin Mineral exploration and development company | $98M | 13 mo ago | — | Patrick McGrath CEO | — | — |
| 5 | Mariana Minerals Developer of vertically integrated minerals projects focused on modern energy technologies | $74M | 12 mo ago | — | Baker Tilney Co-Founder & CFO | — | 2 awards |
| 6 | Safe AI Cloud and AI-enabled autonomous driving solutions for off-road vehicles | $68M | 42 mo ago | 90 | Bibhrajit Halder Founder | 19 patents Inflatable lap‑belt restraint systems for vehicle occupant safety | — |
| 7 | Atlas Lithium Provider of lithium exploration services | $50M | 26 mo ago | 76 76 → 74 (-3%) | Marc Fogassa Chairman and CEO | — | — |
| 8 | Shasta Gold Gold mining and exploration company | $34M | 141 mo ago | — | Tim Farley CEO | — | — |
| 9 | Atana Elements Developer of resource intelligence technology for critical mineral exploration and development | $27M | 4 mo ago | — | Thomas Wilson Founder & CEO | — | — |
| 10 | Geofortis Manufacturer and distributor of products and services for the concrete industry | $22M | 110 mo ago | 12 | Jim Bowen VP Business Development/Founder | — | — |
| 11 | GeoMechanics Technologies Provider of technical services for mining sector | $19M | 95 mo ago | — | Michael Bruno Owner | 39 patents Real-time borehole stress and fault characterization for wellbore steering and pressure prediction | — |
| 12 | EARTH AI Online platform for metals and minerals exploration solutions | $17M | 18 mo ago | 14 | Roman Teslyuk Co-Founder & CEO | 40 patents Mobile low-impact diamond core drilling systems for efficient surface mineral exploration | — |
| 13 | Teleo AI Provider of AI-powered remote-controlled solutions for construction dozers | $12M | 20 mo ago | 17 | Rom Clement Co-founder & CTO at Teleo | 10 patents Patents concentrated in computing, sensing & instrumentation | — |
| 14 | DataCloud Global mining tech leader providing precision and speed solutions | $12M | 90 mo ago | 14 | Pablo Vicente Albert Maestro Co-Founder | 2 patents Design and optimization of explosive blast parameters for mining and demolition | — |
| 15 | Impossible Metals Manufacturer of battery metals | $10M | 48 mo ago | 24 | Kenneth Nealson Co-Founder | 22 patents Deep-sea mining buoyancy control and autonomous underwater vehicle recovery systems | — |
| 16 | Athena Gold Provider of gold exploration and development services | $5M | 7 mo ago | 1 | — | — | 1 expansion |
| 17 | Durin Developer of automated drill rigs to accelerate mineral discovery | $3M | 14 mo ago | — | Ted Feldmann Founder & CEO | — | — |
| 18 | Ensurge Provider of mining and exploration services focused on gold and diamond projects | $3M | 174 mo ago | 20 | Names Riera CEO | — | — |
| 19 | Alkemio Provider of modular technology for rare earth elements refining and separation | $2M | 3 mo ago | — | Federico Pereyra-Bonnet Co-Founder & CEO | — | 1 job opening |
| 20 | BANIQL Mining startup developing teach based solutions for nickel and cobalt extraction processes | $2M | 8 mo ago | 4 | Willy Halim Co-Founder & CEO | — | — |
| 21 | Purebase Harvester and producer of soil nutrients | $1M | 63 mo ago | 5 | — | — | — |
| 22 | Olokun Minerals Provider of mineral-based products that help divert harmful drainage water away from ocean life | $1M | 40 mo ago | 4 | Pilanda Watkins-Curry Co-Founder and CTO | — | — |
| 23 | Mineflow Developer of mineral exploration software using artificial intelligence for predictions | $500K | 24 mo ago | — | Ryan Goggins Founder | — | — |
| 24 | African Lion Resources Provider of gold exploration & development services | $486K | 49 mo ago | — | Franco Jordaan CEO | — | — |
| 25 | AlkaLi Labs Biotechnology research company developing a biological platform for mineral extraction | $275K | 32 mo ago | 3 | Luis Valencia Co-Founder & CEO | — | — |
| 26 | 1849 bio Biotechnology company developing sustainable microbes for extracting metals | $125K | 23 mo ago | — | Jai Padmakumar Co-Founder | — | — |
| 27 | LISUS Provider of AI interfaced lithium extraction platform for mining companies | $120K | 44 mo ago | 5 | Oscar Neyra-Nazarrett Co-Founder & CEO | — | — |
Top 12 Mining companies in California
#1
Series D · Berkeley, California · founded 2018 · 62 employees$892.3Mraised▾
Developer of mineral exploration technology and operator of mining projects. This entity utilizes artificial intelligence and geological data systems to identify and extract critical minerals. The business model integrates hardware and software tools to analyze crustal information for the purpose of locating and developing natural resource deposits.
- Oct 2025Series D$280M
- Sep 2024Series D$537M
- Mar 2023Series C$200M
- Jan 2022Series B$200.8M
#2
Acquired · Ontario, California · founded 1996 · 1578 employees$963.3Mraised▾
Gold mining company
- Mar 2025Conventional Debt$11.1M
- Jan 2025Post IPO$375.7K
- Dec 2023Post IPO—
- Mar 2020Post IPO$300M
#3
Series B · San Francisco, California · founded 2025$27.5Mraised▾
Developer of resource intelligence technology for critical mineral exploration and development. It focuses on accelerating the discovery and development of "flowing critical minerals" and industrial gases essential for clean energy, electrification, advanced computing, and manufacturing.
- Feb 2026Series B$27.5M
#4
Public · Mariposa, California · founded 2007$98.4Mraised▾
Blue Moon Zinc is a mineral exploration and development company. Its projects include Blue Moon project and Yava project. The Blue Moon deposit is located in east-central California within Mariposa County in the Foothills. The Yava property consists of one mining lease of 1,304 hectares and 16 unpatented mineral claims that in the aggregate cover 4,449 hectares and is located in the Mackenzie mining district.
- May 2025Post IPO$811.8K
- Mar 2025Post IPO$12.4M
- Feb 2025Post IPO$62.4M
- Dec 2024Post IPO$20.8M
#5
Series A · San Francisco, California · founded 2025$73.5Mraised▾
Developer of vertically integrated minerals projects focused on modern energy technologies. The company supplies minerals critical to modern energy, artificial intelligence, and defense applications. It focuses on the extraction and processing of various metals. These metals include lithium, copper, nickel, aluminium, graphite, uranium, and rare earth metals. Cobalt is also on the roadmap for future development.
- Jun 2025Series A$73.5M
#6
Seed · Berkeley, California · founded 2023$2Mraised▾
Provider of modular technology for rare earth elements refining and separation. The company delivers a separation platform that adapts to any source. Rare earth elements are essential components of modern technologies. These elements are used in small electronics, semiconductors, defense technology, wind turbines, electric vehicles, and robotics. The company offers a modular alternative ready to unlock refining capacity.
- Mar 2026Seed$2M
#7
Public · Vacaville, California · founded 2003 · 1 employees$5Mraised▾
Provider of gold exploration and development services
- Nov 2025Post IPO$3M
- Apr 2025Post IPO$551.9K
- Oct 2024Post IPO$508K
- Jan 2024Post IPO$148.1K
#8
Series C · San Francisco, California · founded 2016 · 120 employees$317.5Mraised▾
LiLac is a provider of lithium extraction solutions and services. The solution offered is an ion exchange technology that is used by lithium extractors to extract lithium. The ion exchange beads and brine processing system together extract pure lithium solutions for various industrial needs.
- Feb 2024Series C$145M
- Sep 2021Series B$150M
- Feb 2020Series A$20M
- Jan 2019Seed$2.5M
#9
Series B · San Mateo, California · founded 2016 · 14 employees$17.5Mraised▾
Online platform for metals and minerals exploration solutions. It uses machine learning techniques and big data for remote sensing, radiometry, and geophysical and geochemical data to explore minerals. It uses AI systems for exploration targeting, fieldwork in remote greenfield areas for exploration, UAV-based aeromagnetic surveys, and autonomous drilling. It focuses on minerals and metals such as lithium, copper, gold, nickel, manganese, and more.
- Dec 2024Series B$25.9M
- Feb 2023Series A$9.5M
- Aug 2021Seed$5.5M
- Aug 2019Seed$2.5M
#10
Seed · San Jose, California · founded 2021 · 4 employees$1.6Mraised▾
Mining startup developing teach based solutions for nickel and cobalt extraction processes. It is a technology company that has developed process to extract nickel from laterite ore and metal scrap waste for developing batteries for EV sector.
- Oct 2025Seed—
- May 2024Seed$1.6M
#11
Series A · Palo Alto, California · founded 2019 · 17 employees$12.1Mraised▾
Teleo is a provider of AI-powered remote-controlled solutions for construction dozers. The company retrofits existing equipment with a tech-enabled box to make dozer into the connected device. Workers can operate the equipment remotely in offices.
- Oct 2024Series A$7M
- Apr 2024Series A$9.2M
- Dec 2021Series A$12M
- Mar 2020Seed$125K
#12
Seed · El Segundo, California · founded 2024$3.4Mraised▾
Developer of automated drill rigs to accelerate mineral discovery. It builds and operates remotely operated, semi-autonomous rigs to drill faster, reduce human error, and improve safety. The rigs send data directly to geologists, enabling faster decision-making. After development, the rigs drill on active exploration projects, creating a feedback loop for design improvements and funding further research and development. Once proven, rig production is ramped up to meet worldwide demand. The platform integrates geological modeling, lab testing, and drillhole planning, providing mineralogical and structural data quickly.
- Apr 2025Seed$3.4M
Funding & investor landscape
Notable founders
Market landscape — 10 sub-themes by coverage
Share of Mining coverage by sub-theme.
Regulatory-risk over time rising
Funding & growth over time
funding rising · growth rising
How research on Mining Technology is moving in the United States
A read on the academic research around Mining Technology — which themes are gaining ground, the institutions and researchers driving them, and how the tone is shifting. Based on 278 United States-affiliated papers.
- Northeastern University42
- Colorado School of Mines18
- United States Geological Survey10
- Missouri University of Science and Technology8
- Weatherford College7
- Mineral processing2→10
- Beneficiation4→14
- Mineral processing24→31
- Grinding3→8
- Mineral7→12
- Tailings4→8
- Leaching (pedology)1→5
- Mineral3→5
Where mining tech is researched across United States
Location clusters by institution affiliation — each city's volume, stance tone, and a quick read on its hot topic, what's advancing, the opening opportunity, and the main concern.
Who's filing mining tech patents in the United States
United States mining tech patent filing is accelerating — 53 filings from 63 assignees (2016–2025), led by Millennium Inorganic CHEM, Cidra Corporate Services, Superior Mineral Resources; annual filings 7→8.
- Millennium Inorganic CHEM15
- Cidra Corporate Services15
- Superior Mineral Resources14
- DU PONT10
- Ecolab USA10
- ASH Grove Cement9
- Qualcomm8
- Cadence Environmental Energy8
Common questions
Riya reads income statements for fun. She covers the real money in a sector — revenue, growth, who actually earns — and never met a vague claim she didn't want a number for.