# Automation can make remote mining sites viable

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/automation-can-make-remote-mining-sites-viable/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

- Speaker: [Travis Kalanick](https://realalpha.app/builders/travis-kalanick/) · CEO, Atoms · Built Uber and now leads Atoms, applying industrial AI and specialized robotics to automate food, mining and transport.
- Host: [Chamath Palihapitiya](https://realalpha.app/people/chamath-palihapitiya/) · Founder & CEO, Social Capital · Led Facebook's growth team; his firm backed Slack and AI chipmaker Groq.
- Host: [Jason Calacanis](https://realalpha.app/people/jason-calacanis/) · Founder & CEO, LAUNCH · Early Uber angel; sold Weblogs Inc. to AOL; hosts This Week in Startups.
- Host: [David Sacks](https://realalpha.app/people/david-sacks/) · Co-founder & partner, Craft Ventures · PayPal's first COO, founded Yammer; White House AI & crypto czar 2025–26.
- Host: [David Friedberg](https://realalpha.app/people/david-friedberg/) · CEO, Ohalo · Founded The Climate Corporation, sold to Monsanto for about $1.1B in 2013.
- Show: All-In
- Episode: [Two Legendary Founders: Travis Kalanick & Michael Dell Live from Austin, Texas](https://realalpha.app/v/9y7TTU1jIvk/), Mar 17, 2026
- Moment: 7:30 to 10:01 of the episode (3 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/automation-can-make-remote-mining-sites-viable/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/9y7TTU1jIvk/?t=450

## Quote

> “When you automate, you can **go to a lot of places**. Well, first is all the mines that exist are way more productive.”
> — [Travis Kalanick](https://realalpha.app/builders/travis-kalanick/) at [9:07](https://realalpha.app/v/9y7TTU1jIvk/?t=547) · All-In

## Takeaways

1. Automation can make existing mines more productive.
2. Remote operation reduces labor and safety constraints.
3. Robots can make previously impractical sites viable.

## About this segment

Travis Kalanick argues automation can raise output at existing mines and make remote sites workable by reducing labor and safety constraints. That expands the set of places worth mining.

From “Two Legendary Founders: Travis Kalanick & Michael Dell Live from Austin, Texas”, Mar 17, 2026. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/9y7TTU1jIvk/)

## Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

[7:38](https://realalpha.app/v/9y7TTU1jIvk/?t=458) backstage but there's some folks i talked to in the mining industry who mentioned you know like the the big issue with mining number one is just surveying like finding the the locations right is there an advantage to be created there because i know there's a couple startups that are trying to be really smart about selecting locations to get the targets out of the ground yeah and then the other one is like, well, can you go deep? Because pretty much anywhere on earth, You can get whatever you want if you're willing to go deep enough, but the cost is distance squared, right?

[8:06](https://realalpha.app/v/9y7TTU1jIvk/?t=486) So the energy cost is like, how deep are you going to the second power? So it becomes, you know, geometrically more expensive to go deeper. But the deeper you go, the more you're able to kind of not worry about getting the right location. So does automation unlock that capacity? I mean, automation definitely does. I mean, also, it's like, man, does boring company have some good stuff going? Like, I hope we were like, we're doing the mining thing, like, and boring goes, makes, you know, some good tunnels for, for cars to do the thing.

[8:38](https://realalpha.app/v/9y7TTU1jIvk/?t=518) But like, there's some kind of boring mechanism, automated tunneling to do some of this. But to be honest, there's, there's, you know, they have this, this thing is like rare earths. I don't know why they put plural rare earths, isn't it? Rares earth. I don't know. But the, but sorry, rare, rare, rare earth. Yeah. Yeah, but it's not rare. It's not uncommon minerals. Guys, it's not rare. It's what you have to do to the land is aggressive.

[9:06](https://realalpha.app/v/9y7TTU1jIvk/?t=546) And what's rare is where are the places they'll let you do it that you can also sort of get people to. When you automate, you can go to a lot of places. Well, first is all the mines that exist are way more productive. And the second is you can then sort of justify going to places you wouldn't have been able to go before, because you don't have as much of a labor footprint or a safety issue or a whole bunch of other things that then become better.

[9:35](https://realalpha.app/v/9y7TTU1jIvk/?t=575) So if it's inhospitable, if it's regulated, if it's like, I don't want to live there, it's the end of the earth. Yeah. You can send robots and have people monitoring them remotely. Yeah. And this is like a future that feels like a little bit like science fiction. Look, we're here in Austin.