Engineering & Mining Journal

JUL 2013

Engineering and Mining Journal - Whether the market is copper, gold, nickel, iron ore, lead/zinc, PGM, diamonds or other commodities, E&MJ takes the lead in projecting trends, following development and reporting on the most efficient operating pr

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MAPPING AND SURVEYING Eyes Aloft Airborne drones extend remote sensing and interpretation capabilities By Simon Walker, European Editor In 2012, Slovenia-based UAV supplier C-Astral flew an 80-minute-long mapping mission at 4,150 m ASL over one of the world's highest mines, the Los Pelambres complex in the Chillean Andes, using its Bramor aerial system to record and create an accurate digital terrain model of the current mining area. Later, the company flew a linear mission that mapped the mine's complete ore transportation route to the port of Los Vilos in two flights, for a total distance of more than 140 km. (Photo courtesy of C-Astral Ltd.) Unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, have become a fairly regular feature of news broadcasts, albeit in a military context rather than for mining and exploration. Nonetheless, the ability of these mini-aircraft to operate under distant (and sometimes very distant) control in a hostile environment has shown just how useful they can be, a fact not lost on the remote sensing industry for civilian applications as well. UAVs have already done brief flypasts in E&MJ; twice this year, in our January article on digital solutions for mine mapping (pp.40–43) and in the slope-stability monitoring feature in May (pp.32–41). As noted there, the main strengths of the technology lie in using UAVs to monitor changes in profiles and volumes, to gather data that can then be used back in the office to calculate rock tonnages moved, and to update mine plans without the need for surveyors to spend valuable time regularly undertaking repetitive measurements. In cash terms, the benefits can be significant. In a Reuters article published to coincide with this year's PDAC International Convention, economics reporter Allison Martell quoted Mike Hutt, head of the unmanned aerial vehicles project office at the U.S. Geological Survey: "Mapping with drones can be much cheaper than traditional aerial surveys," Hutt said. "It may cost $2,000 an hour to rent a helicopter, while 44 E&MJ; • JULY 2013 our costs for sending a couple of operators out with a system is under $200 an hour." However, not everything is plain sailing when it comes to the actual logistics of using UAVs, since governments remain wary of unsupervised reconnaissance of this type. As Buddy Doyle of the Canadian company, Stratus Aeronautics, told Martell, "The biggest hurdle is regulatory." As Martell pointed out, in the U.S. currently only public agencies can fly drones, while in Canada, operators have to apply for regulatory waivers. However, that is set to change, with U.S. airspace scheduled to be opened to private-sector UAVs in 2015. In many countries, Martell added, regulators insist that drones stay within sight of their operators on the ground. That, of course, is less of an issue if the aim is just to acquire data on last month's bench moves, but constitutes a significant handicap if a company wants to use a UAV for something more extensive, such as an exploration survey across challenging countryside. The focus up to now has mainly been on site monitoring, with the technology having spread from applications such as landfills to open-pit mines and quarries. However, there is an increasing incentive to use a new generation of larger drones, capable of flying further and carrying more sophisticated geophysics packages for regional exploration. One of the mapping companies attending PDAC, Canada's Accuas Inc., creates 3-D maps from UAV-sourced data. Martell quoted company president, Scott McTavish, as being strongly optimistic about the future of the technology. "Starting a year ago, there's been a really big push on UAVs," McTavish said. "I think it's going to continue to grow." UAV Technology With the market for UAV-based remote sensing having expanded significantly over the past five years, more and more suppliers are offering their take on the best combination of drone and data-gathering equipment. UAVs now come in all shapes and sizes, from things that will fit into a briefcase to more complex machines that can carry heavier loads. As an example, German company Microdrones now offers a three-model range of quadrocopter platforms, having added the md4-3000 to its existing -200 and -1000 UAVs. The new machine carries a 3-kg (6.5 lb) payload with a flight time of around 45 minutes, compared to the 200-g/ 35-minute capability for the -200 and 1.2 kg/88 minutes for the -1000. The company demonstrated the md4-1000's roughterrain capabilities earlier this year with a fully automatic, 25-minute flight over the Alps from Switzerland to Italy. www.e-mj.com

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