Mariana Minerals and Boston Dynamics Announce Deployment of Spot® at U.S. Copper Mine

The second in a series of technology deployments supporting the world's first fully autonomous operation

SAN JUAN COUNTY, Utah, April 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Mariana Minerals, the world's only software-first vertically integrated minerals company, and Boston Dynamics, the world's leading developer of advanced mobile robots, today announced plans to deploy Spot® across safety monitoring and site inspection operations at Copper One, Mariana's fully operating copper mine and refinery in southeastern Utah.

The deployment integrates Spot directly into MarianaOS, the company's proprietary software stack, where data collected in the field is continuously ingested, structured, and acted upon across the broader operation. Rather than functioning as a standalone inspection robot, Spot becomes a mobile sensor platform within a unified system that connects site visibility, analytics, and decision-making in real time. It is the second in a series of technology deployments Mariana has announced as part of a broader initiative to build the most technologically advanced copper mining operation in the United States.

The U.S. currently imports approximately 50% of its refined copper. With domestic demand projected to nearly double by 2035 – driven by AI infrastructure, electrification, energy storage, defense systems, and grid modernization – the ability to restart and scale permitted domestic operations quickly, safely, and reliably has become a national priority. Together, Mariana and Boston Dynamics are working to address that gap.

Mine sites are dynamic, high-consequence environments where conditions change quickly, and the cost of missed information is high. Spot operates as an autonomous data collection node within MarianaOS, navigating the site while continuously capturing thermal, acoustic, and visual data. That data is not only used for immediate monitoring such as detecting overheating equipment, identifying gas or fluid leaks, and reading analog gauges – but is also normalized and fed into MarianaOS to power alerts, predictive models, and operational workflows.

By integrating Spot into MarianaOS, Mariana transforms routine inspections into a continuous, system-wide intelligence layer. Inspection data is automatically contextualized alongside production, maintenance, and environmental data streams, enabling faster anomaly detection, automated escalation, and closed-loop decision making. This ensures that insights generated in the field directly inform planning, maintenance scheduling, and real-time operational adjustments.

"Spot is designed to operate in complex industrial environments and collect consistent, high-quality data. At Copper One, it serves as a mobile sensing platform within MarianaOS, capturing and delivering actionable information in real time. This kind of integration allows operators to move from periodic inspection to continuous monitoring, improving both safety and reliability." — Marco Da Silva, Vice President and General Manager, Spot, Boston Dynamics

The result is not just a safer and more efficient mine, but a system that compounds in value over time. As Spot collects more data, MarianaOS continuously improves its models, increasing accuracy, reducing downtime, and enabling the operation to learn and adapt without requiring additional manual oversight. Human operators remain central but are elevated to autonomous systems supervisors focused on high-leverage decisions rather than routine data collection.

"The primary reason the U.S. keeps falling behind on critical minerals is our technology and software adoption lag. Delivering autonomy in mining and refining isn't about automating one task at a time; it's about building a system where every part of the operation is connected, observable, and continuously improving. When inspection data acquisition is automated, it accelerates response time, improves compliance, and enables humans to execute higher value tasks. That's how you develop a mineral operation that actually gets better over time, and that's what we're doing at Copper One." — Turner Caldwell, CEO, Mariana Minerals

About Mariana Minerals

Mariana engineers, builds, and operates mines and refineries it owns, using proprietary AI/ML tools to accelerate project execution and optimize production across critically needed metals. Copper One is Mariana's second active project, alongside Lithium One — the world's first GWh-scale lithium extraction facility from oil and gas produced water, currently under construction in East Texas. Mariana has raised $100 million in total capital, including a Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Khosla Ventures, and strategic investors. For more information on our active and upcoming projects, please visit www.marianaminerals.com

About Boston Dynamics

Boston Dynamics is the global leader in developing and deploying highly mobile robots capable of tackling the toughest industrial and safety challenges. Our robots are equipped with advanced mobility, dexterity and intelligence, enabling automation in unstructured or hard-to-traverse and unsafe spaces, from manufacturing facilities, power plants, and construction sites, as well as warehouses and distribution centers. We have three robots in our portfolio: Spot®, a quadruped that conducts industrial inspections for enterprise asset management and keeps people out of harm's way through public safety applications; Stretch®, a box-moving robot currently being deployed with logistics and retail customers; and Atlas®, our electric humanoid platform currently in development. For more information on our company and our technologies, please visit www.bostondynamics.com

SOURCE Mariana Minerals