– Nigel Court , mining program and project manager for Accenture
“ The possibilities for the application of drones in mining are seemingly endless with new uses coming to light every week ”
– Nigel Court , mining program and project manager for Accenture
site to see if fractures have appeared in the rock faces over time for early detection so that it removes much of the risk and increases safety on site .”
Rules and regulations The first step in implementing more drones in mining operations is figuring out the regulations for each country . In the United States , only public agencies can fly drones and in Canada operators must apply for regulatory waivers . In other countries , controllers must keep drones within eye sight of operations . Earlier this year , Territory Iron was awarded an operating certificate from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority ( CASA ) to use drones at its Frances Creek operation in Australia .
“ We started to look at the potential for UAVs at our mine in late 2012 . Given that our team had no previous aviation or rc knowledge , we searched for a turn-key application which included hardware , software and training ,” says Darryn Dow , Chief Mine Surveyor for Territory Iron .
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