Uranium prospectivity
across the USA & Canada.
Sandstone-hosted and unconformity-related uranium, ranked and explained — validated across the USA and Canada.
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What the model reads for uranium.
Every uranium target is scored on the same seven lines of evidence — with a pathfinder-geochemistry signature tuned to this system.
Host rock
rock type and age
Gravity & magnetics
buried structures and intrusions
Radiometrics
potassium, thorium, uranium
Terrain shape
elevation, slope, aspect
Surface texture
radar (Sentinel-1)
Alteration
mineral signatures from satellite
Pathfinder chemistry
the elements that point to your commodity
Pathfinder geochemistry the model weighs
Lead signal: The redox suite — vanadium, selenium and molybdenum. These are the elements this national model actually reads to rank uranium ground.
What is uranium?
Uranium is a heavy, naturally radioactive metal whose economic concentrations form where uranium, highly soluble in oxidised groundwater, is stripped from solution at a redox front and fixed as reduced minerals such as uraninite and coffinite. MineDSS models two of the most productive families. Sandstone-hosted (roll-front) systems form in permeable, reduced sedimentary basins where oxidising, uranium-bearing groundwater migrates until it meets organic matter, sulphides or hydrocarbons and precipitates along a crescent-shaped front. Unconformity-related systems form at the contact between deformed basement and an overlying sedimentary basin, along reactivated faults. The mappable footprint a prospectivity model reads is a redox interface: the geochemical, structural and alteration signature of oxidising fluid meeting a reductant.
The deposit model
Both seeded systems are governed by fluid chemistry rather than magmatic heat. Sandstone-hosted deposits sit in permeable fluvial or lacustrine sandstones interbedded with reduced, organic-rich or pyritic units; the ore body tracks the boundary between altered (oxidised) and unaltered (reduced) ground, with uraninite and coffinite draped along the roll-front. Unconformity-related deposits concentrate at basement-cover contacts where graphitic, faulted basement supplies the reductant and structural conduits channel basinal brines, producing intense clay and silica alteration around high-grade lenses. MineDSS reads these settings by combining mapped geology and basin architecture, geophysics that resolves faults and basement contacts, satellite-mapped alteration, and the pathfinder geochemistry that traces redox chemistry, ranking ground by its similarity to known mineralised systems.
Why it matters
Uranium is the primary fuel for nuclear power, and it is classified as a critical or strategic mineral across several major economies because that role touches both low-carbon electricity and energy security. Demand is shaped qualitatively by the operating and planned reactor fleet, by policy commitments to firm low-emissions generation, and by the desire of governments to hold secure, diversified supply of fuel-cycle materials. Because production is geographically concentrated and lead times from discovery to mine are long, transparent, defensible targeting of prospective ground carries real strategic weight for both explorers and the governments that permit them.
Where it's used
The dominant end use is fuel for nuclear power reactors, where enriched uranium sustains the controlled fission that generates a substantial share of the world's low-carbon baseload electricity. Beyond civil power, uranium and its isotopes serve naval propulsion, research reactors, and the production of medical and industrial radioisotopes. Depleted uranium, a by-product of enrichment, is used where very high density is valuable, including radiation shielding and ballast. These applications make secure, well-characterised supply a matter of both industrial and national interest.
How MineDSS reads it
Uranium is a redox-controlled system: it precipitates where oxidised, uranium-bearing groundwater meets a reductant, so the diagnostic evidence traces that chemistry. MineDSS names a redox-focused pathfinder suite qualitatively, led by the redox trio of vanadium, selenium and molybdenum, which co-precipitate or concentrate at the same reducing front, alongside arsenic, copper and lead that accompany the associated sulphide chemistry. These geochemical signals are read together with mapped host stratigraphy and basin architecture, structural and basement geophysics, and satellite-mapped alteration. No single line is treated as decisive; the model weighs converging evidence for an oxidation-reduction interface rather than any one element in isolation.
Uranium prospectivity — common questions
Which uranium deposit types does MineDSS model?
Two of the most productive uranium families are modelled: sandstone-hosted (roll-front) systems and unconformity-related systems. Sandstone-hosted deposits form in permeable sedimentary basins where oxidising, uranium-bearing groundwater precipitates uranium at a crescent-shaped redox front against organic matter, sulphides or hydrocarbons. Unconformity-related deposits form at the faulted contact between deformed, often graphitic basement and an overlying sedimentary basin, where basinal fluids and a basement reductant meet. Both are governed by fluid chemistry and a redox interface, which is the footprint the model is built to read.
How is the model's accuracy measured, and where is uranium available?
We validate every model the hard way — held-out spatial cross-validation. We hide known deposits, rebuild the model without them, then test whether it still finds them, with test blocks kept spatially separated so it cannot memorise nearby points. We are currently refreshing our published national skill figures so they reflect deployment-time performance, and will republish them per model. Coverage today spans the United States and Canada; the figures are model-level skill, never a specific site's measured accuracy, and never a discovery or JORC / NI 43-101 resource claim.
Why are vanadium, selenium and molybdenum the key pathfinders?
Uranium precipitates where oxidised groundwater carrying dissolved uranium meets a reductant. Vanadium, selenium and molybdenum share that redox behaviour: they are soluble in oxidising conditions and drop out at the same reducing front, so they co-concentrate with uranium and mark the chemical interface where mineralisation forms. The suite is completed by arsenic, copper and lead, which track the associated sulphide chemistry. MineDSS names these pathfinders qualitatively and weighs them alongside geological, geophysical and satellite evidence rather than relying on any one element.
Does a high MineDSS score mean a deposit or a resource estimate?
No. A high score means ground is geologically similar to known mineralised systems and merits closer exploration attention. It is not a discovery, not a JORC or NI 43-101 resource estimate, and not drilling or investment advice. MineDSS ranks prospectivity to help prioritise where to look; confirming whether uranium is present, and in what quantity and grade, still requires field programmes, drilling and independent assessment by qualified professionals.
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