Drone mining surveys
VTOL drone surveys improve operations at established Australian coal mine [case study]
After 30 years of terrestrial and airplane surveys, this coal mine integrated drone technology to get accurate and more frequent site details at only around 10 percent of the time and money they spent before.
Jellinbah Group oversees operations at an 84 km2 (32 mi2) mine, located in one of the largest coal basins in Australia and the world. They produce about 5 million tons of coking coal—a basis for coke, which plays a key role in steel production—a year. Until recently, the company depended solely on terrestrial and airplane surveys to get semi-regular surveys of their sites. Terrestrial surveys required an entire day’s time for large areas, while airplane surveys cost thousands of dollars. So the company decided to try drone surveying to get more details and insights about their mines more accurately, more often and cheaper.
- Mine or quarry monitoring and operation planning
- Australia
“We started off with a quadcopter setup for surveying small areas. It was only then that we realized the quality of data and the opportunities it presented for the business. This prompted us to look into fixed-wing drones to capture larger areas and realize greater benefits.”
Chris Kelly
Technical Services Superintendent, Jellinbah Mining
Striking detail 13x faster*
Mr. Kelly outlined two main limitations with quadcopters: first, the coverage per flight was too small for their site; second, the data captured required ground control points. Adding ground control during processing, he said, reduced benefits even more.
Jellinbah soon took the next step in their drone program, investing in a WingtraOne with an RX1R II payload with PPK. Mr. Kelly said they take it out for site surveys twice a month, flying as high as they legally can—120 m (394 ft)—to get a GSD of 1.5 cm (0.6 cm). Their average survey time is 30 minutes. Their largest flight so far covered 101 ha (250 ac) in 50 minutes.
What used to take eight hours driving around an active worksite with ground-based survey equipment now takes the company less than an hour without interrupting operations. Beyond saved time, WingtraOne has set a new standard for clarity around all of their operations.
It’s possible to capture the entire pit and dumps in one detailed flight with the WingtraOne. This gives our engineers greater understanding of the work area to generate accurate dig and dump designs.
Chris Kelly
Technical Services Superintendent, Jellinbah Mining
