Taylor Haid

Taylor’s first taste of the mining industry was a salty one — cutting potash core for Rio Tinto in 2012 while completing his undergraduate degree in geology at the University of Regina. Summer student positions with Kinross Gold and Areva (now Orano) further cemented his passion for the industry. After graduating in 2014 amid difficult market conditions, he decided to pursue a graduate degree at Western University. There, Taylor joined the Centre for Planetary Science and Exploration where he was a NSERC CREATE M.Sc., Fellow for Technologies and Techniques for Earth and Space Exploration. His research focused on applying LiDAR and machine learning for geological mapping of planetary surfaces. Following his studies, Taylor spent nearly a decade working in the field on exploration projects spanning from greenfield to resource delineation. In 2024, he joined VRIFY's growing AI Geoscience team. In his current role, Taylor helps exploration and mining companies turn under-utilized datasets into confident targets with VRIFY’s Exploration Intelligence software for mineral exploration. He works closely with geologists to interrogate familiar datasets through a data-driven lens, complementing their expertise. By translating field observations into AI-ready inputs and converting interpretable model outputs back into actionable targets, Taylor ensures that algorithms amplify geological insight rather than override it. Taylor participated in PDAC’s S-IMEW in 2013 and is a P.Geo in British Columbia.