The intelligence layer for domestic critical minerals recovery.
The United States is 100% import-reliant on 12 critical minerals. China controls processing for the majority of the rest. The domestic supply exists — in 300,000 documented abandoned mine sites across the mining-active United States. It is not missing. It is not identified at scale.
MotherLode CMI is the first platform to cross-reference the complete historical US mining record with current claim status, modern commodity prices, critical minerals bycatch modeling, and era-specific recovery economics — per site, at scale, with a compounding data flywheel that no competitor can replicate by starting from scratch.
Investment Ask
$250,000
for 20% equity in the MotherLode CMI program
We have over 3,000 hours in build time and $300,000 invested into the platform so far. We are currently 85% complete to public launch.
Once funds are acquired we are live in 30 days or less.
Use of funds
- Software hardening and platform infrastructure
- Expanding AABOS AI processing capacity
- Secure server deployment and security software
- Marketplace infrastructure build-out
Projected ARR — base case (no government funding, grants, large-company alignments, or state mandates; marketing and grassroots social only)
- Year 1: $400K – $700K — Year one is typically a wash — firming up systems, software, and AABOS AI processing.
- Year 2: $900K – $1.4M — Distribution channels active, marketplace launching.
- Year 3: $3.0M – $6.0M — Scale. If any government or institutional relationship aligns, ARR compounds materially.
Ownership structure (post-investment)
- 30%
Corey Strange
Founder, AI and Software Engineer
- 30%
John Kennedy
Co-Founder, Key System Manager
- 10%
Douglas B. Chrisey, Ph.D.
Jung Chair of Materials Engineering, Tulane University — MLCMI System Admin
- 10%
Riley McAllister
Gold Mine Operator, Health and Safety Director — MLCMI Systems Director and Inventor
- 20%
Investor
This round
- Total100%
This is a direct equity stake in the MotherLode CMI program. Questions about the structure or terms: contact the team directly.
Four structural advantages that compound over time.
Data no single agency has assembled.
300,000 documented US mine sites cross-referenced with historical assay records, current BLM claim status, modern commodity prices, era-specific recovery efficiency models, and federally designated critical minerals priority lists. A seasoned domain expert working by hand takes 6 to 8 months to research a single site using less than half these sources. MotherLode CMI produces a comparable result in hours across every site simultaneously.
A flywheel that compounds with every transaction.
Every completed transaction on the platform feeds verified real-world outcomes back into the scoring model. Confidence intervals tighten. Future identifications improve. Competitors entering later cannot replicate this without building an entirely separate transactional layer and waiting years for the outcome data we are already collecting.
Patent-protected integration methodology.
The provisional patent covers the integration approach as a system: AABOS AI-driven identification, confidence-scored site ranking, real-world outcome feedback, and model improvement. Not the individual data sources. The system that connects them. This is the defensible claim, and it covers the entire operational architecture.
Federal alignment worth $570 million in active funding.
The DOE has issued over $570 million in active funding opportunities for domestic critical minerals processing and supply chain intelligence as of Q2 2026. MotherLode CMI is the upstream intelligence layer for that build-out — and the only platform that produces per-site analysis at scale with a defensible audit trail.
The window is open. The federal funding is active.
The DOE has issued over $570 million in active funding opportunities for domestic critical minerals processing and supply chain intelligence as of Q2 2026. The DOI has issued executive directives accelerating domestic supply development. NSF has completed its Critical Minerals Challenge award cycle. The funded cohort needs intelligence infrastructure. MotherLode CMI is already built.
Seven revenue streams. Not a one-trick SaaS.
The consumer subscription is the acquisition engine. The institutional and federal tiers are the revenue. The marketplace and sovereign buyer network are the moat in motion.
Year 1
$400K – $700K
Foundation. Published research credibility, government relationships opening institutional doors, warm network, marketplace soft launch.
Year 2
$900K – $1.4M
Distribution. Mountain Man partnership live, DOE cohort operators on platform, GrowthPilot content engine, first sovereign buyer.
Year 3
$3.5M – $6.2M
Scale. Federal contract conversions, international data ingestion, royalty tokenization live, institutional base established.
| Revenue stream | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
Consumer SaaS Prospectors, small operators, investors. Free through $99/mo. Blended ARPU target $38/mo. | $84K | $547K | $2.0M |
Institutional Subscriptions State geological surveys, federal program managers, DOE cohort members. ACV $15K-$75K. | $50K | $280K | $1.1M |
Marketplace Commissions 4% on verified claim transactions. Average claim $8K-$25K. | $18K | $105K | $400K |
Tailings Intelligence Per-site reports ($500-$2,500) and operator subscriptions ($5K-$25K/yr). | $20K | $150K | $500K |
Sovereign Buyer Network Invitation-only access for refiners, defense primes, sovereign buyers. $25K-$100K/yr + deal-flow percentage. | n/a | $50K | $375K |
Data Licensing API and database access for national labs, state agencies, research institutions. ACV $25K-$150K. | n/a | $50K | $300K |
Royalty Tokenization Structuring fees and valuation subscriptions on tokenized mine rework royalties. | n/a | n/a | $200K |
Total ARR (range) | $400K–$700K | $900K–$1.4M | $3.5M–$6.2M |
Any one of these changes the trajectory entirely.
The base case gets to $5M ARR by Year 3. These are not included in that model. Each is a realistic near-term event given existing relationships and the federal landscape.
DOE national lab data licensing contract
$500K-$2M one-time + annual renewal
Scottsdale Mint deal-flow agreement
0.5% on $50M+ annual sourced metal = $250K/yr baseline, growing
State mandate for MotherLode CMI reports on CM grant applications
+50-100 institutional accounts overnight
International expansion (Australia, Canada, South Africa)
Doubles TAM, same scoring engine
Well-funded players in adjacent spaces. No direct competitor.
Every well-funded AABOS AI mining platform is doing greenfield exploration for new deposits. Nobody is doing abandoned mine rework intelligence with a transactional marketplace and a compounding data flywheel. The gap is real.
| Platform | What they do | Why we are different |
|---|---|---|
Terra AI $20M (Khosla + BHP) | AI for new greenfield mineral discovery | Greenfield only. No rework economics, no abandoned mine scoring, no marketplace, no flywheel. |
VerAI Multiple rounds (Insight Partners) | AI-driven mineral exploration | Exploration for new deposits. Different market, different data, no transactional layer. |
Mountain Man Mining Bootstrapped | Static gold claim listings | No AI, no scoring, no bycatch intelligence, no chain-of-custody. Acquisition partner, not a competitor. |
S&P Global Critical Minerals Public company | Commodity pricing and market intelligence | Macro-level. No per-site analysis, no rework economics, no US abandoned mine coverage. |
DOE national labs Federal funding | Building AI mineral discovery from scratch | They are building what we already built. Licensing target, not a competitor. |
Six distribution channels. Most already warm.
Industry network
Direct relationships in the mining operator and refiner community. Five warm introductions produce two to three institutional accounts. That alone is $50K-$100K ARR from conversations that can start this month.
Mountain Man Mining partnership
Mountain Man Mining operates the leading US gold claim marketplace with 6,000-9,000 targeted monthly visitors. A revenue-share referral arrangement gives their buyers access to MotherLode Scores on any claim under evaluation. Both platforms benefit. No cold outreach required.
GPAA and prospecting community
The Gold Prospectors Association of America has chapters in every state and a national membership base of active prospectors. Educational content distributed through chapter communications and their publications reaches exactly the right consumer SaaS audience.
Content engine via GrowthPilot
Daily content about specific abandoned mine sites — scores, bycatch estimates, rework economics — builds SEO, community trust, and inbound demand over time. This is the low-cost acquisition engine that runs indefinitely once started.
Reddit and prospecting forums
r/Prospecting, r/geology, and related communities represent 200,000+ active prospectors. The strategy is value-first: post specific mine scores and data, not marketing. One data-driven post on a well-known abandoned mine drives hundreds of signups without a dollar spent.
DOE NOFO application
Full applications for the $569M in active DOE NOFOs are staggered. The platform is positioned as the intelligence infrastructure layer for funded operators, not a grant recipient. Being in the DOE conversation creates direct pipeline to every funded cohort member.
Domain authority and platform experience in the same room.
Douglas Chrisey, Ph.D.
Chief Science Officer
Professor of Physics and Engineering Physics, Tulane University. Former Head of the Laser Processing Section, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory — seventeen years. Former Deputy Director, North Dakota State University Center for Nanoscale Science and Engineering. Full Professor of Materials Science and Biomedical Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Published researcher in materials science, thin-film technology, and advanced manufacturing.
Corey Strange
Founder, Lucid Tech LLC
20-year enterprise technology veteran. Founder of multiple B2B SaaS platforms with successful exits and active deployments. Architect of the MotherLode CMI integration methodology, data architecture, and platform infrastructure. Lucid Tech LLC holds the provisional patent on the MotherLode CMI system. Active relationships across the US mining operator and refiner community.
If the numbers make sense to you, reach out directly.
We are not running a broad investor process. The right capital partner understands data moats, niche markets with institutional buyers, and the federal funding environment for domestic supply chain development.
Contact the team