Agenda

Day 1 (June 16):

7:45 - 8:30am	Registration, Coffee & Pastries ☕
8:30 - 9:10am	Welcome Remarks and Conversation with the Dean of the Doerr School of Sustainability
	Jef Caers, Mineral-X Director, Stanford University Arun Majumdar, Dean, Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability
9:10 - 9:50am	US Policy on Critical Minerals
	Ted Lieu, U.S. Representative, California’s 36th District Josh Goldman (Moderator), Co-Founder & President, KoBold Metals
9:50 - 10:30am	Mineral Geopolitics & Supply Chain Security
	Jonathan Weigel, Professor of Business and Public Policy, UC Berkeley Zainab Usman, Center on Global Energy Policy, Columbia University Ashley Zumwalt-Forbes, Nonresident fellow, Rice University Tony Carroll (Moderator), Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
10:30 - 10:55am	Break ☕
10:55 - 11:45am	ROCKY Mineral-X Agentic AI: Quantitative Investment Decision Making under Geological, Economic & Geopolitical Uncertainty
	Jef Caers, Mineral-X Director, Stanford University Greg Forbes, PhD Candidate, Stanford Mineral-X Dale Nesbitt, CEO, Arrowhead Economics
11:45 - 12:15pm	Mineral-X Lightning Talks
12:15 - 1:15pm	Lunch 🍽️
1:15 - 2:00pm	Quantifying Epistemic Uncertainty for Resource Estimation and Drill Testing A rigorous framework for measuring what we don't know — and how that shapes drill decisions.
	Kurt House, Co-Founder & CEO, KoBold Metals
2:00 - 2:40pm	AI for Subsurface Uncertainty: Critical Principles for Practical Success
	Mykel Kochenderfer, Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford Mineral-X John Mern, Co-Founder and CEO, Terra AI
2:40 - 3:20pm	Reducing Geological Uncertainty with Decision-Grade Subsurface Intelligence Ground-truth sensing, physical AI, and the measure–predict–optimize–automate loop for critical mineral recovery
	Gary Agnew, Co-Founder & CEO, Ideon Technologies
3:20 - 3:40pm	Break ☕
3:40 - 4:10pm	Xcalibur: drone platform for integrated data acquisition
	Teo Hage, VP Technology Xcalibur
4:10 - 4:40pm	Designing the Future of Furnas: Partnership, Exploration, and Data-Driven Project Optimization
	Michael Hocking, Ero David Strang, Ero
4:40 - 5:10pm	Why AI Hasn’t Discovered a Tier 1 Mineral Deposit, but World Models Might
	Gerrit Olivier, Chief Scientific Officer, Fleet Space Technologies
5:10pm	Reception 🥂
End of Day 1

Day 2 (June 17):

8:00 - 8:30am	Coffee & Pastries ☕
8:30 - 9:30am	AI & Digitization Across the African Landscape
	Chibamba Kanyama, Ambassador of the Republic of Zambia to the United States Rob Strayer, President, Critical Minerals Forum Sandrine Tshiamala, Kolesha Mining Alan Carroll, Deputy Director of Government Affairs, KoBold Metals Aubrey Hruby (Moderator), Senior Fellow at the Africa Center, Atlantic Council
9:30 - 10:30am	AI: The New Frontier in Mine Planning
	Doug Schouten, Co-Founder and CTO, Ideon Technologies Iris Hwang, KoBold Metals Mahdi Al-Husseini, PhD Candidate, Stanford Mineral-X Jef Caers, Mineral-X Director, Stanford University
10:30 -10:50 11:20am	Break ☕
10:50 – 11:20am	Don't just prompt better. Think better. A geologist's perspective. As AI handles more of the analysis, the premium shifts to the geologist who knows what question to ask.
	George Gilchrist, VP of Geoscience, KoBold Metals
11:20 - 12:10pm	From Exploration to Processing: Vertical Integration, Digital Twins & AI
	Ramón Barua Costa, CEO and Director, Aclara Resources Steve de Jong, Co-Founder and CEO, VRIFY
12:10 - 1:10pm	Lunch 🍽️
1:10 - 1:40 pm	New Member Spotlight: NorthIsle Combining excellence in exploration with community engagement
	Sam Lee, CEO, NorthIsle Chief James Nelson, Chief Counselor, Quatsino Nation
1:40 - 2:10pm	Venture Capital Meets Critical Minerals A conversation on how different forms of capital can accelerate innovation across the critical minerals value chain, from early-stage startups and emerging technologies to industrial deployment, supply-chain resilience, and responsible resource development.
	Mar Hershenson, Founding Managing Partner, Pear VC Jason Holt, Managing Partner, Orion Industrial Ventures Mike Biddle, Managing Director, Evok Innovations
2:10 - 2:40pm	The Challenge of Mining in Different Jurisdictions
	Bob Quartermain, CEO, Dakota Gold Corp. David Strang, Executive Chairman, Ero Doris Hiam-Galvez (moderator)
2:40 - 3:00pm	Break ☕
3:00 - 3:20pm	Direct Lithium Processing
	Dave Snydacker, Lilac Solutions Madhulika Chambers (moderator), KoBold Metals
3:20 - 4:00pm	Photons In, Geology Out: KoBold's AI powered airborne Hyperpod, KoreCam360 & Koresight
	Tom Hunt, CTO, KoBold Metals
4:00pm	Mineral-X: New Partnerships for 2026-2027
End of Day 2

Agenda

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