ATHA Energy Corp (CSE:SASK, OTCQB:SASKF) announced that its Director Geodata Drew Heasman, who leads its Digital Discovery team, has been awarded the top prize at the 2023/2024 Future Explorer’s Competition.
Organized by Humyn AI and funded by Dundee Precious Metals Inc (TSX:DPM), the Future Explorer’s Competition began in November 2023 and brings together more than 200 data scientists and geoscientists from 37 countries.
Heasman and the Digital Discovery Team won the “Best Overall Award” and were awarded US$75,000 for combining mineral systems analysis with machine learning.
The goal of the competition was to identify prospective copper and gold exploration targets in proximity to Dundee’s Chelopech Mine in Bulgaria using an innovative approach.
Heasman’s machine learning process has been applied to the company’s Central Mineral Belt project in Labrador to identify and derisk additional prospective uranium and copper exploration targets.
The company said this has identified numerous high-priority areas for expansion of known occurrences of uranium and copper zones and high-priority targets that remain untested.
The same machine learning process is also currently being deployed at ATHA’s Gemini uranium project in Saskatchewan.
It expects to receive the results ahead of its upcoming diamond drill program which is set to kick off in mid-August 2024.
ATHA CEO Troy Boisjoli said the machine learning process is an innovative approach that “puts good geoscience first.”
“The machine learning process that Drew has developed is particularly relevant for ATHA as we are exploring at scale,” Boisjoli said.
“The process allows us to efficiently, and with the highest probability, derisk and identify high-priority targets across our dominant land packages in the best uranium jurisdictions in Canada, if not globally.”
Cliff Revering, ATHA's vice president exploration added: “It is always great to see industry recognition for innovative thinking and leading-edge techniques being successfully developed by a colleague, which are now bringing substantial value to the evaluation and target generation process on ATHA’s projects.”