sandstone / unconformity
Uranium prospectivityacross Australia, the USA, Canada & worldwide.
Sandstone-hosted and unconformity-related uranium, ranked and explained across Australia, the United States and Canada.
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✓ Australia
Ranked targets
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✓ United States
Ranked targets
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✓ Canada
Ranked targets
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Everywhere else
Global model
Ranked targets come with national models in Australia, the United States and Canada. Everywhere else, the global model returns the prospectivity map, the geology behind it and a confidence read. Next, the models are retrained on the full record and new sources, such as hyperspectral imagery, before we use them to rank and select ground.
How we rank uranium ground
From a country to a decision.
- 01 · Atlas
Know the ground
The geology, structure, recorded deposits, tenure and geochemistry over the ground, on one map with the source of every layer.
See Atlas - 02 · Open Ground
Find ground you can peg
Which ground is open, held or excluded, read from each licensing authority's own register.
See Open Ground - 03 · Prospectivity
Rank it for uranium
The ground scored for uranium, with the evidence behind it and ranked targets in Australia, the United States and Canada. Anywhere else, the global model maps uranium.
See Prospectivity - 04 · Spectral
Map the alteration
The alteration minerals and the structures that control them, from satellite: regional to district scale, and camp scale from WorldView-3.
See Spectral - 05 · Due Diligence
Check before committing
Tenure, land access, environment and the real cost to hold and test a uranium position.
See Due Diligence -
Talk to us about uranium
Partners, investors, publishers and researchers.
The deposit system
The uranium system.
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.
Read more: the deposit model, why it matters and where it is used +
More on uranium
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 is a redox interface: the geochemical, structural and alteration signature of oxidising fluid meeting a reductant.
The deposit model
Both 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.
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.
Questions
Uranium: 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 tested, and where can I run uranium? +
Every MineDSS model is tested before it is served: we withhold whole blocks of ground, rebuild the model without them, and check that it still ranks the anomalous samples there above background, with test ground kept spatially separate. A model that does not pass our release gates is not used, for any mineral, in any country. National models for uranium run in Australia, the United States and Canada, with ranked targets. Anywhere else in the world, the global model returns the prospectivity map, the geology behind it and a confidence read. Skill is model-level, 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 classic pathfinders are completed by arsenic, copper and lead, which track the associated sulphide chemistry. These elements are part of the geochemical record our models learn from. In a run on any piece of ground, the map itself is read from geology and rock age, gravity and magnetics, radiometrics, terrain, satellite radar and spectral alteration, so it covers ground that has never been sampled.
Does a high MineDSS score mean a deposit or a resource estimate? +
No. A high score means its evidence closely matches ground where samples assay anomalously high for the target mineral, and it 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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Partners
Exploration and mining companies interested in working with us.
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Investors
The record, the models and the ground they point to.
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Publishers and researchers
Geological surveys, universities and programmes whose work the record is built on.
MineDSS ranks prospectivity to help you decide where to explore next. It is not a discovery, not a JORC or NI 43-101 resource or reserve estimate, and not drilling or investment advice.