en.Wedoany.com Reported - Noble Plains Uranium (TSX-V: NOBL) announced the completion of the digital reconstruction of historical drilling data for its Shirley Central Project in Wyoming, USA.
The company used AI-powered computer vision technology to process 1,211 historical drill holes acquired from Ur-Energy (TSX: URE), identifying 341 uranium intercepts to support upcoming confirmatory drilling. This digital effort transformed decades-old files and scanned gamma logs into a modern geological model.
Based on this digital dataset, the company has selected seven confirmatory drill hole locations aimed at advancing the Shirley Central Project toward a potential mineral resource target. Drew Zimmerman stated that the company demonstrated at Duck Creek that historical drilling data can be converted into compliant and scalable resources more quickly and cost-effectively than starting from scratch; at Shirley Central, the goal is to replicate this, leveraging over 1,200 historical drill holes—generating such data solely through new drilling would cost over $6 million [CAD $8.6 million].
The Shirley Central property consists of 30 mining claims covering 665 acres, adjacent to Ur-Energy's producing Shirley mine. Noble Plains obtained the original historical drilling data from Ur-Energy, but the dataset existed only as old scanned gamma logs, unusable directly in modern resource assessment workflows. To address this, NOBL commissioned Geomorphic AI to systematically extract, standardize, and analyze the entire dataset of 1,211 drill holes. This process accurately extracted gamma ray traces from various historical log formats and converted CPS readings into estimated uranium oxide grades.
Of the 1,211 historical drill holes reviewed, 341 intercepts met the cutoff grade of 0.02% equivalent uranium oxide (eU₃O₈) with a minimum thickness of two feet. These intercepts have an average grade of 0.055% eU₃O₈ and an average thickness of 13.7 feet (4.17 meters), with over 57% grading above 0.05% eU₃O₈. Notable results include: a 4-foot (1.2-meter) intercept grading 0.58% eU₃O₈ at 185–189 feet (56.4–57.6 meters) in drill hole TX-2763, and a 6.3-foot (1.9-meter) intercept grading 0.53% eU₃O₈ at 448.6–454.9 feet (136.7–138.7 meters) in drill hole SX-683.
The company has selected seven drill hole locations for the verification program, which focuses on two promising clusters of intercepts characterized by "higher-grade" uranium enrichment in nose-like structural features. This targeted approach mirrors the strategy that achieved a 90% hit rate in Noble Plains' 148-hole verification program at Duck Creek. The Shirley Central project is situated between Ur-Energy's Shirley Basin in-situ recovery project (with proven and indicated resources of 8.816 million pounds eU₃O₈ at a grade of 0.23%) and Uranium Energy's operations. Ur-Energy has commenced full-scale uranium production operations in Shirley Basin.
