The most obvious use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, (UAV’s)  in the mining industry is to map and inspect a mine site and report on such things as stockpiles and security breaches.  The current means of performing such activities – using trained human surveyors operating on foot — is time-consuming and costly, and may yield imprecise results.  On-the-ground surveys take hours to complete and only capture the state of a mine site during a single inspection; they’re a snapshot at best.  Drones can do the same job faster and more cheaply and with return overflights can report on changing mine conditions, allowing mine owners to anticipate and respond to potential problems.

But next-generation drones can provide more than just a keen bird-eye’s view of mines from above.  Remotely piloted, they can also go deep inside a mine shaft – or a recently excavated area, known as a stope – to identify structural weaknesses and looming safety hazards, averting a major human disaster.

Until recently, this was not an easy task, as many operators know.  Quite a few tried and they usually lost their drones in the process.  Standard GPS and even advanced sensor systems failed to adapt drone navigation to the confined and often cluttered fly spaces they encountered.  And the images they produced when operational weren’t much use, either.

A new indoor drone system known as Flyability’s Elios 2, with its unique cage design and its ability to fly without GPS, seems to have overcome these challenges.  With its specially-designed navigation system, it can fly inside a mine without incident and its infrared cameras produce sharp and accurate 3D images that are of immense value to mine owners.

The 3-D images produced by the Elios 2 does more than identify loose material that might pose a threat to mine personnel or to remotely operated equipment.  They can also assist mine companies to identify additional ore and geotechnical areas of interest, increasing revenue.

Flyability’s Elios 2 system is not yet in widespread use but at least two companies that have tested and deployed the system swear by it.  One is the Shelly Company, an Ohio-based limestone, concrete, and asphalt paving firm.  Shelly has 1,600 employees at 90 sites in 81 of Ohio’s 88 counties.  Safety and liability issues loom large, and the company is anxious to keep on top of mine conditions, which vary from site to site.  And with such an enormous volume of work, the costs of small mistakes and oversights quickly add up, officials say.

Another satisfied Elios 2 customer is the Barrick Gold Corporation, which first tested the system at its Golden Sunlight Mine in Whitehall, Montana.  Integrating the data collected by Elios 2 with newly-acquired visual Pix4D software, the company was able to create a 3D photogrammetric model of the large volume of ore remaining in the mine stope after excavation.  Shelly and Barrick Gold also employ drones to get a better view of mine conditions on their surface.  But with Elios 2, they are staying ahead of the competition by generating higher returns and keeping their workers safer than ever.