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Tech & INNOVATION

Six Smart Ways Mining and Aggregates Businesses are Using Drones

�e mining and aggregates industries are highly exposed to uctuations in price and demand . As a result , these businesses are always on the lookout for new ways to increase productivity while maintaining safety standards and reducing operational costs .
In 2017 , drones have emerged as a must-have worksite tool . Regular drone surveys provide up-to-date information to site managers , project stakeholders and contractors , helping open-cut mines and quarries all over the world better manage their production , assets and land . Here are some of the smartest ways these industries are putting drone technology to work :
1 ) Stockpile management and reporting Stockpile management is perhaps the most widely used worksite application for drones ,
and for good reason : drones have completely transformed this common work ow . �e days of ' walking a stockpile ' ( the traditional appro a c h w h e r e by a s u r v e y o r t a k e s measurements of numerous points on the each pile in order to calculate stock volumes within a spreadsheet ) are surely numbered . Using a drone , any trained site worker can now capture the entire sales yard in less than 30 minutes and see the processed dataset available on Propeller ' s cloud platform within 24 hours . Within the platform , accurate volume calculations and comparisons can be generated in seconds , with all measurements easily exported to CSV les .
�e ease of surveying stockpiles with a drone means site teams can capture data much more f r e q u e n t l y , i m p r o v i n g r u n o f m i n e management and ensuring more consistent grades through the mill . At the same time , drones remove the risks that come with having survey personnel physically moving around the worksite . In short , stockpile management alone can amount to an effective business case for introducing drones to any mining or aggregates worksite .
2 ) Planning and building Drone data provides an accurate and up-to-date visualization of worksites allowing for better pit and dump design and management . With regular ights , sites can build up a visual record of changes over time , allowing site managers to check weekly / monthly pit volumes and compare the current surface against previous datasets .
By overlaying KLM design les on a 3D model
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