EBook
Why use
drones in
mining and
aggregates
wingtra.com
CONTENT
Content
Why use drones in mining? 2
What is a drone mining survey? 3
What are drones used for in mining? 4
What kinds of maps can you expect from mining drones? 9
What are the benefits of drones in mining? 11
Best drones for surveying mines and quarries 13
What are real applications of drones in mining? 16
What is the best drone mining software? 21
E B O O K M I N I N G A N D AG G R E G AT E S
Why use Drone data provides more precise volumetric
drones in
measurements than traditional surveying methods,
such as ground-based GNSS. This allows better
valuation of stockpiles.
mining?
Professionals who adapt drones into their
mining operations quickly realize the
significant added value they bring to their
industry.
Namely, drones in mining improve the
overall efficiency of large mine site and
quarry management by providing accu-
rate and comprehensive data detailing site
conditions in a very short time. They also
support better coordination among teams
onsite and internationally, offering dynamic
oversight of all operations.
Above all, this data can be safely produced
by on-site workers who have minimal
surveying experience at a fraction of the
cost of traditional survey methods.
Images from 3DR Site Scan platform
2
E B O O K M I N I N G A N D AG G R E G AT E S
What is a drone
mining survey?
In an open-pit mine or quarry, vated. Some advanced mining
a drone survey refers to the use software can also generate
of a drone (or UAV – unmanned industry-specific data such as
aerial vehicle) equipped with safety berm heights; crests and
a downward-facing RGB toes; road boundaries; widths;
camera to capture images of crests; slope, length, and eleva-
a site from different vantage tion change.
points. Out of these images,
a photogrammetry software Beyond this, artificial
can recreate geo-referenced intelligence in the software
3D maps, contour lines digital can automatically highlight
terrain models or digital surface those that do not comply with
models of the mining site. standards or constitutes a
Mining operators can also easily potential threat to the workers’
extract the precise volume of safety.
stockpiles or areas to be exca-
3
E B O O K M I N I N G A N D AG G R E G AT E S
What are drones
used for in mining?
Stockpile management
Since stockpiles are by nature irregular in shape and exhibiting craters, it is difficult to estimate their volume with
great precision using traditional methods such as GNSS surveying. These slow and costly methods also prohibit
frequent surveys and can even threaten the surveyor’s safety, as they must climb up and down stockpiles and/or work
in the middle of moving machinery.
Better inventory and financial data
Drone aerial images can be used to generate point
clouds, digital surface models, digital terrain models and
a 3D reconstruction of a mining site, including its stock-
piles. As the point cloud contains several thousand data
points, very accurate volume calculations can now be
performed easily. This enables high-accuracy calculation
of stockpile value for monthly reconciliations or year-end
Another flight is used as a base plane from which a cut / fill and net
audits, which improves the consistency of inventory
volume analysis is made. This shows the difference over time in a
reports in the company’s balance sheet. Because drone
desired area.
results and post-processing software are unbiased,
you can also validate the amount of material moved by
subcontractors .
More and better data for monthly or weekly management
Given the speed at which inventory surveys can now
be conducted with drones, frequent data collection is
proving itself to be cost-effective; be it weekly, monthly The cut, fill, net volume and area are instantly calculated once a
or quarterly. Specifically, it allows better forecasting shape is drawn over a stockpile, a trench or any other voluminous
of the mineral stock available for sale. You can fly your areas.
site as often as you like, without having to wait for a
semi-annual aerial survey audit. Because you have the
ability to run regular data collections, you improve inven-
tory and operational management while eliminating the
risks that surveyors working physically on the site face.
Multiple volumes can be measured at the same time. All measures
can be exported in PDF reports.
Images from 3DR Site Scan platform
4
E B O O K M I N I N G A N D AG G R E G AT E S
Mine or quarry monitoring and
operation planning
With an accurate site model produced from drone aerial
images, mine managers can now more efficiently design
and manage site operations while collaborating across
teams. This is because they can more accurately assess
the volume of material that must be extracted or moved
according to plans or legal standards.
Display of slope, degrees and percentages from point to point.
Haul road Water and sediment flow
Aerial images of the site enable regular visual assess- Drones in mining can also help prevent operations disrup-
ment of the state of haul roads as well. This provides tion due to unwanted or uncontrolled water or sediment
valuable data such as length, slope and turning angles. flow. Flow and tailings pond operations can be modelled
With this information, you can optimize roads for your from the digital elevation maps produced by drone
haul fleet by accounting for the specifications that cut images. Because it is possible to fly frequently with a
fuel costs while ensuring that your mine is within planning drone, you can create a visual record of the site over time
and regulatory requirements. In general, drone data helps and monitor progress on a weekly or monthly basis and
ensure that roads are built to design and that they meet store this for future operations or regulatory audits.
current legal standards.
Image from 3DR Site Scan platform
5
E B O O K M I N I N G A N D AG G R E G AT E S
Assessment before and after
drilling or blasting
By using drones in mining, you produce cost-effective
and accessible 3D reconstructions and surface models
for areas to be blasted or drilled.
These models help accurately analyze the area to be
drilled and calculate the volume to be extracted post
blasting. This data allows you to better manage resources
such as the number of trucks needed. A comparison
against surveys taken before and after the blasting will
allow volumes to be calculated more accurately. This
improves planning for future blasts, cutting the cost of
explosives, time on site and drilling.
A cut / fill analysis done using the complete surface of the mine The complete surface is divided into a grid and the average elevation
difference, the elevations and the volume are displayed.
Cut / fill analysis performed using another flight as a base plane. Analysis of the complete site and differences between areas using a
grid tool.
Measuring volumes in a specific area from a custom base plane.
Images from 3DR Site Scan platform
6
E B O O K M I N I N G A N D AG G R E G AT E S
Hazard identification and
mitigation
Due to the busy nature of mine sites and quarries,
workers’ safety is a priority. With the high-resolution
images from drones, you can inspect otherwise diffi-
cult-to-access or high-traffic areas of the site, without
endangering yourself our any workers.
Tailings Dams
Aerial images provided regularly by drones help plan-
ners regularly monitor mine features such as slopes on
tailings dams. They also help ensure that the regular
maintenance of dams are completed in a timely and safe
manner. This can go far to prevent disasters like the one
seen at the Brumadinho site in Brazil. Drone data gives
regulators a record of the state of the tailing dam over
time.
Inspecting a specific point of the mine and all the images associated
with the flight.
2D and 3D views allow the identification of crevices, erosion, wall
damage and any potential hazards. Measuring distance, height, angle and area.
Images from 3DR Site Scan platform
7
E B O O K M I N I N G A N D AG G R E G AT E S
Mining exploration
Drone data can yield high-resolution orthophotos and In this case of a mineral exploration survey for Finnish
DSM maps that support mining exploration projects in mining companies in the Lapland region of northern
areas where it is difficult to navigate on foot. The use of Finland, two areas of 206 km2 (80 mi2) each were
drones costs only a fraction of the price of traditional mapped with drones, providing an accuracy of 5 cm (2
manned aviation surveys. And compared to ground in) / px at a fraction of the cost of airplane surveys and
survey equipment, it would take a team of land surveyors in much less time than it would take with land-based
weeks to collect the same amount of data that a drone surveying methods
can collect in a few hours.
8
E B O O K M I N I N G A N D AG G R E G AT E S
What kinds
of maps can
you expect from
mining drones?
Drone-generated data is a series of over-
lapping images containing geospatial
information, which are stitched together
through a process called photogrammetry.
Each pixel of each image contains its own
georeferenced location in space. The maps
highlighted below are outputs that can be
produced by all major photogrammetry
software.
9
E B O O K M I N I N G A N D AG G R E G AT E S
Orthomosaic maps 3D point cloud
Drone images are used to recreate highly-accurate A densified point cloud can be generated from drone
orthomosaic maps of mining sites and quarries. Each images and data. Each point contains geospatial (X, Y, Z)
pixel contains 2D geo-tagged information (X, Y) and can and color information. It provides a very accurate model
be used for distance and surface measurements. of a site for precise volume measurements and visual
insights that enhance future planning.
File formats
geoTIFF (.tiff), .jpg, .png, Google tiles (.kml, .html) File formats
.las, .laz, .ply, .xyz
Digital terrain model (DTM) 3D textured mesh
After filtering objects such as buildings, machines and 3D textured mesh is a reproduction of the edges, faces,
conveyor belts, drone images can be used to create walls, vertices and textures of the area captured by the
digital terrain models, with each pixel containing 2.5D drone. This visual depiction of a quarry or mining site is
information (X, Y, and Z values of the highest altitude). most useful for inspecting unreachable areas, such as
These models allow you to identify stockpiles and pit pits and slopes.
changes, and to model water flows and wall collapses.
File formats
File formats .ply, .fbx, .dxf, .obj, .pdf
GeoTiff (.tif)
10
E B O O K M I N I N G A N D AG G R E G AT E S
What are the
benefits of
drones in mining?
Highly accurate measurements Survey resolution
By providing thousands of data points for one stockpile,
drone surveys are far more accurate than surveying with
350x
total stations. All surface unevenness and undulation is more data points than with
identified. The surveys make it possible to reduce the traditional GNSS survey
deviation in stockpile volume calculations, to generate
improved base files for stockpiling, and to produce more
accurate financial statements and regulatory checks.
Traditional GNSS survey Drone survey
Only a few data points can be collected, craters and Hundreds of data points are collected, including steep
steep slopes are often overlooked. slopes or craters sometimes invisible from the ground.
11
E B O O K M I N I N G A N D AG G R E G AT E S
Faster and easily-repeatable Up to
mining surveys at low cost
30x
Capturing data with a drone is up to 30 times faster faster data collection
than with traditional land-based methods and does not
require the presence of a surveyor on site. You can easily
collect the data yourself and at a frequency best suited
to your site for rapid data turn-around. Changes between
two surveys can be tracked and highlighted automat-
ically. Over the long term, the costs of surveying and
monitoring are substantially reduced.
Improving worker and
100 % site-safety management
safe surveying operations on site
Drones allow you to survey parts of the mine or quarry
that are normally difficult to access with traditional
surveying equipment. This eliminates the hazards
employees typically face while walking through
dangerous zones, navigating active sites or climbing onto
stockpiles. All this without disrupting the flow of opera-
tions and movement of machinery.
12
E B O O K M I N I N G A N D AG G R E G AT E S
Best drones for
surveying mines
and quarries
WingtraOne VTOL mapping drone
Diverging topography, altitude, gravel, steep terrain, and harsh weather conditions, as well as the absence of smooth
surfaces required for take-off and landing: the WingtraOne mapping drone overcomes all of these surveying chal-
lenges in some of the harshest mining environments.accurate financial statements and regulatory checks.
Take off and land vertically (VTOL)
Unlike other fixed-wing drones, which
require wide areas and soft terrain
to land, the WingtraOne can take
off from confined areas and land
smoothly on gravel and in open-
mine pits.
In addition, unlike other fixed-wing
aircraft with cameras facing damage
from impact with the rocky ground
during belly landings, the Wingtr-
aOne lands vertically. This means the
cameras are protected from shock,
abrasion, dust and dirt when oper-
ating in mining sites.
13
E B O O K M I N I N G A N D AG G R E G AT E S
42 Megapixels / 0.7 cm (0.3 in) GSD
With its 42 MP Sony RX1R II full-frame camera, Wingtr-
aOne can fly at a high altitude over a deep mine pit and
still deliver low GSD images. This allows large mining sites
and quarries to be surveyed faster and with high accu-
racy.
This level of accuracy is crucial for the estimation of
stockpiles volumes. Indeed, volume estimations will
always be inaccurate due to the nature and shape of the
minerals. Improving the accuracy of volume estimation
by only a few centimetres/inches can mean reducing the
calculated stocks by several tonnes, which can prevent a
In these mines, WingtraOne took a total of 5,500 photos with an average
potential loss of estimated profits at the end of the year.
resolution of 4 cm/px (1.6 in/px). Photos of sites with lower differences had a This is just one of the ways drone photogrammetry can
resolution of 3.5 cm/px (1.4 in/px). deliver a substantial return on investment (ROI).
14
E B O O K M I N I N G A N D AG G R E G AT E S
Robust and siteproof Down to 1 cm (0.4 in) absolute accuracy
Engineered and assembled in Switzerland, WingtraOne WingtraOne offers best-in-class absolute accuracy
operates and delivers results according to the highest down to 1 cm (0.4 in). This allows you to determine the
quality standards. It is extensively used in diverse mining absolute position of mining site features in space with
environments: from deep mine pits in Serbia, to the large high precision. This is particularly valuable for blasting
surface mines and greenfield operations of the Namibian operations. The 3D models of a pre-blast site created
desert and the challenging weather conditions of the with drone images can be uploaded into blasting soft-
gold mines in the DRC. ware on the borehole machine. The boreholes can then
be drilled with centimeter accuracy according to plan,
enhancing the precision of the blasting. Also, the level
of accuracy you obtain from drone surveys enables you
to plan and maintain haul roads and water flows more
effectively.
Other mining drones for surveying applications
Other popular drones include the DJI Phantom 4 RTK and Another popular choice is the fixed-wing eBee, which
the Sensefly eBee. They both come with their advantages provides a wider coverage than the DJI, but is only
and disadvantages. The DJI Phantom 4 RTK can be an suitable for mining sites that feature a large, smooth and
attractive alternative for mine or quarry managers who soft landing surface, ideally a grass field. Indeed, this
are unsure about the ROI from drones in their oper- fixed-wing aircraft lands on its belly, where the payload
ations and want to start their drone program with a is mounted. This makes both the drone and its cameras
low-cost option. However, this choice will result in some very vulnerable to abrasion, dust and dirt. Multiple
limitations in terms of coverage, endurance and image landings on rough terrain can permanently affect the
resolution. Compared to a VTOL or fixed-wing aircraft, operation of the camera and of the drone.
the DJI drone will likely require more flights and human
resources to survey a site of the same size with the same
image quality. You will also want to consider the level of
support you will need, as mining operations are generally
in isolated locations and require support on site or in the
same time zone.
15
E B O O K M I N I N G A N D AG G R E G AT E S
What are real
applications of
drones in mining?
How have drones actually been
successfully used by mining companies?
Do professionals really experience higher
data quality and accuracy while cutting
time and costs compared to traditional
surveying? See how mining operators
and surveyors are successfully using the
WingtraOne VTOL mapping drone in real-
life cases:
16
E B O O K M I N I N G A N D AG G R E G AT E S
Mapping one of Europe’s largest mines
RTB is the biggest copper mining and smelting complex
in Serbia, consisting of four pits with depths up to 600
metres (1970 feet), some of which can hardly be reached
with ground-based surveying equipment. After a transfer
of ownership, they were required to update the mine’s
ground data and used a WingtraOne VTOL mapping
drone to survey the pits.
“We must also take into account that the data captured
with WingtraOne is generally more complete and
detailed than that collected with conventional methods.”
According to Mišević, they also get the job done 10 to 15
times faster than if they relied on a multirotor drone.
Compared to traditional methods, GPS
and total stations, we were probably
30 times faster in terms of raw data
capture and field work and about five
times faster in delivering the final
product.
Nemanja Mišević
Vekom Geo Technical Associate
17
E B O O K M I N I N G A N D AG G R E G AT E S
Coal mining operation This DSM covers 135 ha (334 ac) and was captured in a single
flight. Kelly said ground survey on this area would take more than
turns to drones for regular a week, and contracted aerial survey would charge 10,000 AUD
views of their worksite
The Jellinbah group has conducted ground-
based and airplane surveys of its coal mine in
Australia for 30 years. Ground-based surveys
took a full day, while airplane surveys cost
thousands of dollars. Thanks to drone tech-
nology, they now obtain more accurate and
frequent details at mine sites for only 10% of
the time and money they previously spent:
It is possible to capture the entire
pit and dumps in a single detailed
flight with the WingtraOne. This
allows our engineers to have a
better understanding of the work
area in order to generate accurate
excavation and dumps designs.
Chris Kelly
Superintendent of Technical Services at Jellinbah Mining
18
E B O O K M I N I N G A N D AG G R E G AT E S
Africa’s largest uranium mine surveying
The main advantage At a Namibian mine, surveyors used
a WingtraOne drone to survey the
of the WingtraOne entire mining site and produce exact
volumetric measurements for a
was the high quality
high-pressure year-end audit. Due
to tight deadlines, land surveyors
of the camera
have ruled out the use of terrestrial
surveying methods. They also ruled
out the use of manned aircraft
images. The Sony because the accuracy and resolution
requirements could not be met. “The
RX1RII 35mm lens ease of flight planning means that
small last-minute changes to flight
camera effectively plans designed at the office could
easily be made to meet the condi-
covers the area at tions encountered on site” according
to Hermann Strydom from Strydom
an altitude of 390m & Associates.
(1280 ft).
Hermann Strydom
Strydom & Associates
19
E B O O K M I N I N G A N D AG G R E G AT E S
Drone surveys replaced helicopter surveys in quarries
Quarry manager Andy Gerber replaced costly helicopter surveys with a more cost-effective solution:
Drone surveys help us monitor our
business operations, plan financing and
comply with legal requirements. First,
we compare the drone data with the
data collected with machine guidance
(excavators) and the current state of
the quarry. It is useful to know what can
be done with both quarries, how much
gravel can be removed and how much
can be deposited in the future.
Andy Gerber
Manager at Kies AG
20
E B O O K M I N I N G A N D AG G R E G AT E S
What is the
best drone mining
software?
The best drone mining (or photogrammetry) software
depends on the applications and the scale of the
project(s) deployed. We recommend DroneDeploy or
Delair.ai. All of these platforms can produce 2D and 3D
maps. And each solution has advanced features specific
to the mining industry. Delair.ai, for example, can auto-
matically identify and measure stockpiles and quarry
features. Mine managers can also quickly share data und
updates with stakeholders in real time through features
like notifications.
21
For a quote, a live demonstration or more information
on the Wingtra products please contact us via
wingtra.com or [email protected]
8045 Zürich, Switzerland wingtra.com
