Drone Data

Analytics
for Mining
August 2018
We’ve put together this ebook to show
how Propeller can help you measure
and manage your site yourself. Whether
you’re new to drone surveying or are
looking to scale up the drone work
you’re already doing, you want to know
how it can help you measure progress,
productivity, quality, and cost on your
site. Here you can find a deep dive into
how Propeller delivers on those values for
mining.
Propeller can be used by both site
personnel and the head office to:
Know the status of your mine
Manage your ROM volumes
Avoid environmental fines
Track progress against design
Ensure safety on your mine
Keep your road grades consistent
Collaborate using a single source of truth

Work and plan with confidence

By the end of this ebook, you’ll know how

Propeller can answer how much work is
done, how fast it’s progressing, whether
or not you’re matching the plan, and if
you’re going to make money.

Drone Data Analytics for Mining 2

Drone Data Analytics We’re going to break down how Propeller can streamline
these workflows to save time and, ultimately, money by
for Mining closing the information gap between you and your site.

Information Gap Shared Source of Truth

Drone Data Analytics for Mining 3

Commercial drones
are revolutionizing
mining
It’s a fact: surveying is an irreplaceable
part of mining, but it can be time-
consuming, costly, and sluggish overall.
And, depending on your operations,
infrequent. You need to have right and
recent data to effectively manage ROM
volumes, see progress and productivity,
and, of course, conform to design. For
the last, you want to know as soon as
possible if you’re outside of design.
Advances in technology have made the drone an
affordable tool for worksites. While they may seem like
a fancy piece of equipment, drones have become no
more unusual than a GPS rover, but just as vital. Unlike
traditional professional surveyor equipment, however,
you don’t need tons of special training and education
to use it.
Depending on where you’re located, you might not need
any certification at all—as with Australia, where flying
small drones at low altitudes is okay for anyone. In the
US, you’d just need to get certified with the FAA.
And when it comes to actually flying to capture your
survey images? That can be totally automated. The
bevy of auto-flying apps out there make flying a drone
a simple, quick process. You can usually survey an
entire site in a few hours, depending on size and the
drone you’re using. We recommend using an auto-flight
program because it ensures even and steady flight,
a vital element in capturing high-quality site surveys.
Drone Data Analytics for Mining 4
Know the status After you’ve flown your drone and photographed your
mine, that’s where Propeller comes in. Accessed from
of your mine
the browser on your device, the Propeller Platform uses
photogrammetry methods and our software to stitch the
images together. This involves pinning the images to the
ground control positions, and getting powerful machines
and data experts to digest all the raw photos, find
overlaps and common points in images, and make
a 3D reconstruction of the terrain.
Drone Data Analytics for Mining
Thanks to ground control points (GCPs) and a known
coordinate system (local calibration or otherwise), your
data is accurate. This means you can measure right
off the visual representation on your browser. Know
your site’s progress and productivity in a few clicks by
reviewing the timeline and checking the 3D site survey
against design.
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 AeroPoints are the world’s
first smart ground control
solution, purpose-built for
drone operations.

Featuring a solar panel, battery, GPS,

and WiFi inside each fully sealed,
rugged, lightweight unit, AeroPoints
make capturing accurate data simple
and affordable.

Drone Data Analytics for Mining 6

See how much has been
extracted and what’s left to do
Using the easy-to-navigate interface
takes minutes to master. We didn’t build
this for scientists, we built it for regular
people. You can check ROM pad volumes
in seconds—and then track changes
over time with our reports and timeline
features.
Similarly, pit volumes are quick and simple to complete.
With additional calculators, you can take the guesswork
out of tonnage measurements.
While we’ll be talking more in-depth about safety later,
it’s important to note that drone surveying enables you
to monitor haul roads more closely and access potentially
hazardous areas without endangering personnel. With
frequent surveys and easy grade checks, you can keep
track of performance and change roads for optimal fuel
burn and measure heights of safety windrows.
Drone Data Analytics for Mining 7
Monitor mine productivity and mill quality
A good way to think of drone data analytics is
how it improves run of mine (ROM) volumes.
The ease of surveying with an unmanned
autonomous vehicle (UAV) allows for more
frequent surveys. Quickly calculating accurate
volumes with the Propeller platform increases
ROM management with more consistent
grades throughout the mill and overall
increased accuracy and safety.
Ensuring you have the correct grade blends going
through your mill is essential to success. Too often,
insufficient input grades are only discovered after the
fact, when the final resource doesn’t add up with what
went in to your mill. Instead of backtracking to see what
went wrong where, you can use your data in Propeller to
monitor your ROM volumes quickly and accurately.
We know waste dump surveys can be difficult. It’s nearly
impossible to send someone out to walk those piles, but
with drone surveying you can capture the data you need
in hours not days.
Drone Data Analytics for Mining
Once you’ve got the imagery you need, you send it
to Propeller for processing. Twenty-four hours later,
your survey is rendered and you can begin measuring
stockpile volumes in a few clicks and measuring road
grades with an easy-to-understand colorized slope map.
To get a better idea of overall progress, just upload your
design surface and compare with the 3D survey, right in
your browser.
You can also use drone-captured data for elevation
surveys of blast areas. Whether you’re flying your
whole site regularly or are specifically targeting areas
for preblast planning or ROM management, you can use
the 3D survey to accurately calculate levels in just a few
clicks. And, if you have any design or linework, overlay
that into the model to help with accuracy and quality.
Should your mine be using any autonomous machines,
updating plans of the entire working area with each new
drone survey can increase their safety and efficiency.
Mine plans for autonomous machines refreshed with new
data more frequently grant greater accuracy on as-mined
surfaces and other jobs.
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Manage your
ROM volumes
accurately
and efficiently
When it comes to the material itself, you have layers
and layers of oversight to make sure the mine is running
smoothly. For ROM volumes, the ease of surveying
with a drone and calculating volumes with the Propeller
Platform allows for more frequent flights, which means
better ROM management and more consistent grades
throughout the mill. Fly weekly or daily instead of the
traditional monthly surveys.
On top of all the workflows mentioned above, you also
have to worry about internal management. Thankfully,
regular drone surveys mean you have frequent data on
your mine. This means that you can keep an eye on the
work being done on your ROM pad as often as you fly.
Ensure that everyone is pulling from the right piles to
make the right grades for your mill with your processing
platform.
Drone Data Analytics for Mining
Propeller renders your drone data in 3D, as close to the
physical world we live in as possible. In a few clicks you
can see the volume and tonnage for a specific pile or
multiple piles.
Similarly, because you’ve been collecting multiple site
surveys over time, you can create a visual timeline of
changes in a platform like Propeller. This provides direct
and readable proof of changes to your mine.
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 Overall, coupling the data and reporting with
the ease of sharing said data can reduce
contract disputes. Transparency increases
and everyone is working from the same
information. The have a single source of truth
they can trust.

As for in-pit mapping, drone surveys capture

the pit floor (along with the rest of your site)
every flight. You can use the inspection tool
to view each high-res drone-captured image
individually—all from the comfort and safety
of your office. Face inspections, too, are made
easy with the inspection tool.

Drone Data Analytics for Mining 10

Avoid
environmental fines
Environmental regulations are a regular
part of mining. Whether it’s checking
runoff after a large rainfall or waste
dump conformance, keeping everything
to code is a regular part of the
workweek.

While your mine is still operational, you need to keep
tabs on your site boundaries and no-go zones to avoid
any fines associated with failed inspections or violations.
In addition to the benefits delivered with more frequent
surveys and a visual 3D interface, you can mark off
protected areas on your site and share those with your
team. This gets everyone on the same page and highlights
exactly where they need to be cautious.
Propeller’s timeline slider packages many site surveys into
one package. You can view before and after images of big
events, like seeing the runoff channels after a big rainfall.
You can keep watch on those environmental no-go zones,
too, and make sure they’re not disturbed over time.
But the big environmental jobs—and the big cost—comes
during rehabilitation. Once your mine begins rehabilitation,
you need to be sure that it conforms to design or risk
losing money to EPA regulations.

Drone Data Analytics for Mining 11

On top of the survey frequency we’ve
discussed above, you can quickly and visually
measure progress and adherence to end-of-
life design in the Propeller Platform. Since
everything in the Platform is rendered in 3D,
you can upload the final design surface and see
it as an overlay on your 3D site survey.

This removes the communication barriers that arise

when you use drawings or visual inspections to gauge
where you’re at against design. A trained engineer might
have no problem visualizing a end-of-life plan in their
mind, but if you want to brief one of your internal team
members—or your boss—it’s easier to take abstraction
out of the conversation. This view—along with all your
flight history—can be used to demonstration that mine
rehabilitation is going to plan and schedule.

And don’t forget, since a 3D survey is comprised of

many individual images, you can use those high-res
shots in your workflows too. You can click on any part
of the 3D survey and see the individual photos covering
that area. And since these can be viewed remotely,
inspections don’t necessarily have to be done in person.
Grant your inspector view-only permission in the
Propeller Portal and you can save on commuting
time and cut safety risks.

Drone Data Analytics for Mining 12

 Track progress
against design
Regularly tracking your mine’s overall progress against
design goes a long way towards efficiency, but it’s
difficult to generate those comparisons quickly with
traditional methods. Spotting a problem before it
becomes expensive is ideal, but is not typically a part of
the status quo. Propeller is changing that.

With Propeller, you can have an unlimited number of

view-only users and a designated number of admins—all
working off the same, up-to-date information. Uploaded
design surfaces can be viewed at any time against any
survey captured for that site. You can then export 3D
DXF and point cloud files to use for updating pit and
waste dump designs whenever you want.

And the return on investment continues to pay it forward

because you’re working with trusted data and easy-to-
use tools you can count on more accurate planning and
budgeting. This means less time starting over, fewer
unseen delays, and tighter planning.

Drone Data Analytics for Mining 13

Ensure safety
on your mine
The first priority on any mine is safety. From everyday
safety plans to inspections to traffic management, safety
is in everything you do. However, these things take time
and resources to get right, and they are mandatory. The
Propeller Platform allows you to trim time off these tasks,
thanks to that easy-to-navigate and shareable 3D survey
we’ve been going over here.

Because the surveys are accurate and up-to-date,

the need for in-person inspections are decreased, or
sometimes eliminated.

You can quickly measure haul roads to ensure they meet
safety standards for both grades and windrow heights.
Inspections no longer have to be done in person.
For example, you could provide the inspector with
view-only access, and they could visually inspect your
site from miles away on any browser-enabled device.
These images are high-resolution and shareable.
Fixed plant and pit face inspections can be done in a few
clicks of your mouse. Slip management takes a fraction
of the time. Short- and long-term traffic management
can be streamlined with accurate, bird’s eye visuals
of assets, past vehicle movement, and existing roads.
And, of course, we can’t underestimate the value of
accurate and up-to-date site maps. Both the orthophoto
and individual shots are accessible and downloadable
from the Platform. Use them however you like: tack up
the site photo in the office, use it to map out that day’s
route with your team or visitors, etc.

Drone Data Analytics for Mining 14

Keep your
road grades
consistent
Even small alterations from haul road design can
mean an increase in cycle times and fuel burn.
Not to mention falling outside of proper safety
guidelines and wearing out your trucks sooner.
The time, legwork, and safety risk associated with
monitoring and fixing those issues add up.
With drone surveying and Propeller, you no longer need
to leave the office to troubleshoot any of it. Because the
3D survey is accurately mapped and rendered, you can
measure grades and cross-slopes directly in your web
browser. Check road widths and windrow heights in one
click. With those measurements in hand, you can ensure
they meet efficiency and safety requirements.
Drone Data Analytics for Mining
It’s hard not to overstate the value of being able to survey
more often. With frequent data you can take the pulse
of your site and do remote inspections via the Propeller
Platform. Monitor and stop problems before they become
expensive or require starting work over. Check road grades
as often as you like with just a couple clicks. See changes in
roads over time with the timeline tool that easily connects
past surveys into one visual timelapse.
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Collaborate using
a single source of truth
Everyone reports to somebody. Collaboration Because the Propeller Platform is a browser-based tool,
and reporting should be painless, though anyone with an internet browser can use it without
installing complicated programs. Internal and external
it’s often anything but. And collaboration
collaboration is made easy.
challenges—internal and external—span the
entire life of any mine. At each stage, ensuring It’s simple to let personnel back at the main office see the
the right parties have the information to same information and share measurements and notes
understand a project’s needs and complete with the whole team. Everyone can upload drone survey
their work on time, on budget, and to data from wherever they are. But this is not limited to
specification is critical to success. You and your a single mine. The Platform itself can give you an overall
view of multiple sites, allowing for greater insight into
team need to be able to check if estimates are
each, while significantly reducing the need for site visits.
correct, see overall progress, and ensure the
right grades are going into your mill throughout
the life of the mine.

Drone Data Analytics for Mining 16

Further, it houses everything in the same place: your
present and past surveys; your designs and any
iterations; your notes; your reports; and, of course, all
your files, in the formats you require. This makes access
and collaboration, whether with the head office or your
internal team, a piece of cake.

However, not every person on your mine needs, or

should, know what’s happening everywhere. Propeller
has no limits on the number of view-only users you
can share your data with, making it simple and cost
effective to give everyone the best collaboration solution
available. You can set permissions for different teams or
individuals, as you see fit.

Additionally, Propeller has readable, ready-to-go reports

in both CSV and PDF that you can pull to send to your
boss or your direct reports. These, and the Platform
overall, can help mitigate delays due to inclement
weather, accidents, bad estimates, and more. With
Propeller, you can close the information gap between
you and your mine.

Drone Data Analytics for Mining 17

Work and plan
with confidence
Measuring and managing your mine with drone
data analytics saves on time and money, and
prevents mistakes and rework. As we’ve seen,
the Propeller Platform gives you the power to
see the status of your mine in minutes, measure
ROM pad volumes with a few clicks, ensure the
best haul road grades for your machines, and,
with rock solid data and a timeline for the life of
your site, resolve disputes should they arise.
Here are a few examples of how real people “I can go out and fly a site in two to three hours and
Further, you can streamline workflows related then just upload everything to Propeller and come in
are solving real problems with Propeller: the next day, and it’s done. If I have a question, I can
to safety and inspections, collaboration and just email someone and usually within a few hours—
planning, and day-to-day operations all from or within 24 hours—I have a solution back. It simplified
your browser. Cut down on commute time and “Up-to-date technology in the quarrying sector, everything that we do. Before, we weren’t doing a lot
which has helped Hanson with real-life stockpile of monitoring on every site, so now we try to fly every
cost by having a recent visual of your mine with reconciliations. I’d definitely recommend Propeller.” site at least once a month.”
you wherever you are.
—Scott Lean, Hanson —Jim Croan, JRC Construction

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Like what you’ve heard so far? See the Propeller
Platform in action with a video demo

Watch a demo

Drone Data Analytics for Mining 19