FUEL & FUEL CYCLE | INVISIBLE URANIUM At the most basic level, AI is used to aggregate and
Right: Union Pacific had developed a 6-pit mine plan centred on the Canning Deposit. Source: Myriad Uranium
interrogate disparate datasets. Historical drill logs, geochemical assays, maps, cross-sections and reports are digitised and stored in cloud systems. Modern AI tools can ingest these datasets alongside publicly available geological and regulatory information. “You upload geochemistry, coordinates, maps,” Lamb explains, “and the AI can go and find relevant government data, old technical reports, anything that’s publicly available. It puts it together and delivers insights that are genuinely useful.” One area where this capability is particularly powerful is multivariate geochemistry. Large datasets containing analyses of 70–80 elements are common in modern exploration, but extracting meaningful patterns from them is time-consuming. “The ratios of obscure elements can tell you how far you are from the core of a system,” Lamb says. “Doing those calculations by hand could take months. AI can do it in minutes.” However, Lamb stresses that AI is an assistive technology
rather than a replacement for geological judgement. “AI daydreams,” he cautions. “It’s designed to be positive and encouraging. You need experienced geologists to check it, interpret it, and sometimes ignore it.” According to Lamb this reflects broader industry
notes. “At $150 [$330/Kg], everything opens up. You start looking at large-scale surface mining across the whole project area.” Any recovery scenario would require access to
licensed milling capacity. For Copper Mountain, the refurbished Sweetwater mill in Wyoming, now owned by Uranium Energy Corp, represents a plausible destination. “That mill is licensed for both ISR liquor and conventional feed,” Lamb says. “That flexibility is almost ideal for a project like ours.”
Right: Samples at the Copper Mountain core shed in Riverton. Source: Myriad Uranium
New tools and a new look at old data Alongside these traditional technical considerations, Myriad has increasingly turned to data-driven tools, including artificial intelligence, to manage the sheer volume and complexity of information associated with a multi-decade brownfield project.
experience: “There’s a lot of money gone into inhaling massive datasets and letting AI narrow targets,” Lamb says, adding: “As far as I understand, it hasn’t really worked. The big deposits haven’t been found that way.” Where AI appears to offer the most immediate value
is in brownfield redevelopment, where extensive but fragmented datasets already exist. In this context, AI accelerates synthesis rather than discovery, allowing human experts to focus on decision-making rather than data preparation. “It’s a force multiplier,” Lamb says. “Not a substitute.”
A future for Copper Mountain Looking ahead, Myriad anticipates several more years of drilling, resource conversion and mine planning before any production decision. This timeline will inevitably intersect with uranium market dynamics. “You need higher uranium prices to make a project like this work,” Lamb says plainly. “Without that, there’s no point. Higher prices will unlock not just tens, but potentially hundreds of millions of pounds at Copper Mountain. That’s why Myriad Uranium is considered ‘the call option on uranium in the United States’.” The broader context, however, is increasingly favourable. In the United States, uranium has re-emerged as a strategic commodity, driven by concerns over fuel security, geopolitical risk and domestic supply resilience. “Whatever people think about the reasons,” Lamb observes, “money is pouring into the US fuel cycle – conversion, enrichment, fuel manufacturing, and exploration.” This shift has implications beyond Copper Mountain.
Numerous marginal or politically constrained uranium projects across the US may become viable under a policy environment that prioritises domestic production. “There are plenty of old projects that were marginal,” Lamb says. “If the political will is there, they’ll move.” As Lamb concludes, the careful re-engineering of
existing knowledge supported by modern analytical tools and aligned with contemporary strategic priorities may yet make invisible uranium become visible again. ■
38 | February 2026 |
www.neimagazine.com
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