Mining
Automated technology has the ability to significantly diminish the cost associated with mining operations and the use of unmanned systems is a key aspect of such automation. Moreover, automated technology such as unmanned systems play a large role in the digital transformation of the mining industry, focusing on:
Safety
Environmental impact
Process improvement
Remote operations
Exploration and production techniques
Asset management
Efficiency
Surface
Current mining UAV solutions focusing on surface applications provide significant benefits to the mining lifecycle, including exploration, planning, permitting, operations, and reclamation.
Land usage reporting
Haul route surface optimizations
Pit and dump management
Benefits of UAV Data
Surveying and Reporting
- Cadaster surveys
- Construction feasibility studies
- Construction progress monitoring & reporting
- Erosion detection
- Geophysical & watershed/catchment
- Area modelling
- Land usage reporting
- Leach pad, dam wall, and platform construction quality control
- Pre- and post-blast data
- Security, corridor, and boundary surveillance
- Thermal detection of groundwater inflows
- Vegetation change tracking
- Watershed, drainage basin, and water flow mapping
Management
- Drainage and water management
- Heritage and environmental management
- Pit and dump management
- Stockpile management
- Tailing dams management
Planning and Efficiency
- Communication of daily/weekly plans
- Grade control & exploration planning
- Haul route surface optimizations
- Haul road, dump and pit design
- Property rights definition
- Up-to-date surfaces for optimized blast designs
Contact Robotics Centre to find the right unmanned system for your above-ground challenge
Underground UAV applications are turning the mining sector into an emerging frontier for new technology dealing with GPS-denied automated flight in dark, dusty, enclosed, and unforgiving environments. By utilizing cutting edge advancements in Lidar based technologies and Simultaneous Localization And Mapping (SLAM) algorithms, edge analytics, and sensory technology, Robotics Centre leads the new frontier in underground 3D mapping/imaging of drifts, ore passes, stopes, and collapsed/inaccessible areas.
Benefits of Unmanned System Data Collection
- Improving the quality of mapping data captured when compared to traditional surveying techniques
- Improving safety by reducing the amount of time spent underground by human operators
- Increasing operational efficiency by having more accurate and up-to-date information for mine planning
- Exploring abandoned mines
- Exploring flooded mines
Pointcloud mining stope
3D mine drift visualization
Contact Robotics Centre to find the right unmanned system for your below ground challenge
Mining Case Study
Nevada, USA, contains some of the world’s largest gold mining operations in the world, relying on the Sublevel Stoping Mining Method for ore body extraction. Traditional Cavity Monitoring Systems (CMS) in standard mining operations leave a lot to be desired in terms of complete 3D imaging in dangerous and inaccessible cavities. Traditional CMS technologies are boom-mounted and simply extended into cavities, often missing crucial information. The effects of data gaps are not only financial, but can lead to loss of life. As a solution, Robotics Centre introduces surveyors to robotic fuelled data collection in the form of GPS-denied autonomous (no pilot) UAVs designed for data collection in dark, dangerous, and inaccessible cavities.