The final of the GEOMIN AI Labs 2026 hackathon, on applying data science and artificial intelligence to problems in mining and geology, was held in Tashkent on 13 September 2026, the Mineral Resources Institute reported on 14 September.
It took place within the GEOMIN 2026 international conference, organised with the support of the Ministry of Mining Industry and Geology and the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG), with SLB as technology partner. More than 60 students and young specialists studying in Uzbekistan took part, and 10 finalists presented their projects to a jury of experts.
Participants worked on four practical tasks: finding prospective zinc deposits, predicting gold grades, estimating underground temperature for geothermal energy, and using machine learning to reduce the environmental risks of mining. First place went to Ziyoda Minavarova of the Mineral Resources Institute, second to Diyora Karimova of the Almalyk branch of MISiS, and third to Temirali Sadikov of the Almalyk State Technical Institute. The reports do not say which task each winner worked on.
