Mineral-X Brings AI and Decision Intelligence Research to PDAC 2026
Stanford Mineral-X team participated in the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) Convention 2026 in Toronto, the world’s leading gathering of more than 32,000 attendees from more than 100 countries in the mineral exploration and mining industry. During the convention, Mineral-X hosted a dedicated session bringing together researchers, industry partners, exploration leaders and related government officials to discuss advances in decision-making under uncertainty in the new mining era, as it relates to exploration, mining, processing, investment portfolio management.
The session opened with a yearly review of Mineral-X by Prof. Jef Caers, highlighting recent research progress and collaborations with industry, and followed by a lively discussion of the state of data-driven exploration and processing by representatives of Mineral-X affiliate members, including the new industrial partner Northisle Copper & Gold Inc. The discussions were followed with the announcement of an exciting new partnership between Mineral-X and Toyota Research Institute with the aim of developing an Agentic AI for quantitative investment decision-making under geological, economic, regulatory and geopolitical uncertainty. The discussions were followed by a networking happy hour.
In addition, Mineral-X co-chaired a technical session showcasing the frontier of AI-driven geophysical methods for mineral exploration. Chaired by Mineral-X director Jef Caers alongside industry veteran Robert Hearst, the session brought together leading practitioners from Ideon Technologies, Fleet Space Technologies, KoBold Metals, and Xcalibur Smart Mapping to present breakthroughs in geophysical surveying and stochastic inversion of geophysical data. A unifying theme across all presentations was the integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning to accelerate field-to-insight workflows, quantify subsurface uncertainty, and unlock deeper, harder-to-find deposits. The session concluded with a panel discussion on how these converging technologies are reshaping exploration strategy at industry scale.
