As a columnist, it would be remiss of me not to write about AI, such is the impact it has or could have on almost every aspect of our lives. So here goes…
On the operational side of the gold sector, there are plenty of obvious ways it will impact the industry – largely around its interpretation of the huge amounts of data currently being underutilised by companies.
I want to focus on other aspects which are not immediately apparent. Even in the board room and investor relations strategy meetings AI is a disrupter.
The impact can be seen in reporting resources statements and economic studies.
Yes, these are supposed to be compliance documents, but it is broadly accepted they are also key marketing tools for companies. If a company can’t make a splash with a maiden resource or feasibility study, when can they hope to?
The problem is the surprise factor around these reports is being taken away from companies. Investors are using AI agents to build their own resource models and economic studies based on previously released information ahead of the company announcement.
As we read in Michael Cameron’s interview with OreNova Engineering director Brad Skajko on page 44 of the October-December 2026 issue of GMJ, AI agents are becoming powerful enough to produce feasibility studies almost independently.
“What we have found is the level of detail OreNova is getting to is far more in-depth and to a better level of engineering than what a typical PFS would be able to produce,” Skajko says. “In 10 years’ time, I think the concept of these early level studies will almost become redundant unless there is a lack of data.”
While OreNova is a professional engineering group, the tools are increasingly available to anyone. We are not just talking about the largest institutional and sophisticated investors here, individual retail investors are using AI to come up with their own versions of a project resource or study.
An optimist could see this as a democratisation of the market. Small retail investors who have forever been at a disadvantage to major institutions because of their relative access to analysis are now able to assess reports on an equal footing.
Optimists could also claim greater transparency. Companies can no longer massage the numbers in a feasibility study without investors being able to trace discrepancies.
As ever with AI, however, there are concerns as well. As I wrote above, resource estimates and feasibility studies are as much about compliance as they are marketing.
Misleading the market can have grave consequences for management and directors, hence the competent persons and the independent experts who inform these documents are necessarily conservative. Individuals building AI-driven resource models are unlikely to apply the same rigour. So, when their AI model produces a resource of 10mt @ 3.2 g/t, they expect to see a company resource statement with 1 moz. When the company necessarily discounts that number for entirely plausible compliance or technical reasons, the investor is going to think management are either incompetent or duplicitous, or both.
The spread goes much further. I’ve spoken to two separate corporate advisors who confirmed they used AI agents to check clients’ pending market announcements for any language which may be red flagged by the ASX.
Even more dystopian than AI fact-checking is the use of AI by passive funds and indices.
The rise of passive investing has upended much about the traditional investor marketing model. When I sat down with this edition’s cover star, Westgold Resources Ltd’s Wayne Bramwell, it was the starting point of our conversation.
“The investment world is becoming more autonomous,” he said. “There is so much passive money out there now, there are few actual fund managers you can pick up the phone and have a discussion with.
“With a lot of these passive funds, you can’t even talk to a human. All they are using are announcements, presentations, interviews like this one, scraping data from the internet.
“The algorithms are looking for key words, even in webinars, assessing the tone of the speaker – is the CEO agitated, are they confident, was there a hesitation there? This presents a whole different level of complexity for companies to address.”
It is a complexity everyone will have to navigate but in the industry’s ever-resourceful way, it will find solutions. Who knows, maybe reading an archaic medium like print, which AI can’t get its hands on, could have benefits.