A Russian venture fund called Gagarin Capital and Y Combinator, the famous U.S.-based accelerator, have jointly invested $2.5m in Ukrainian technology that brings artificial intelligence into the business of minerals exploration and extraction, Forbes reported.

Set up in 2016 by Ukrainian nationals, the start-up Earth AI makes it possible to prognosticate new mineral deposits “much faster, more accurately, and at less costs” than with the current conventional techniques, claimed Roman Teslyuk, one of the cofounders of the start-up. The new funding round is expected to help the Ukrainian company fine-tune the already working technology and step up the effectiveness of search for minerals.

Earth AI’s approach is based on the analysis of big data that comes from remote sounding, radiometry, and a range of geophysical and geochemical indicators. The neural network enhanced system analyzes this information and applies probabilistic methods to predicting possible industrial-scale deposits of various metals, from gold, copper and lead to rare earths and transitions. All that is said to enable Earth AI to find spots and do test drilling on new mining fields with what appears to be an unrivaled saving of time and costs.