– Darryn Dow , Chief Mine Surveyor for Territory Iron our UAV system safely . Following a trip to Canberra to complete the field testing component of the submission , we were awarded our Operators Certificate in December 2013 .
The Mining Sector Puts Drones to Work
controllers to cover our FIFO rosters . “ We then set about applying for the operators certificate for Territory Iron . Not having completed operating manuals of this kind before , we did struggle to come to grips with the content and structure required . Luckily for us , John Frost – CASA ’ s airworthiness inspector for unmanned aircraft systems – helped us simplify this process by supplying us with a preferred generic operating manual that had been developed to guide new applicants , and we tailored it to reflect our intended use .
“ Risk assessment and drug / alcohol policies already existed within the company so we submitted these to show we were capable of managing
“ We recently began to develop geological mapping missions which will eliminate the need for personnel to access areas of the open pit that are hazardous ”
– Darryn Dow , Chief Mine Surveyor for Territory Iron our UAV system safely . Following a trip to Canberra to complete the field testing component of the submission , we were awarded our Operators Certificate in December 2013 .
“ To date we have flown more than 100 missions and collected data for a wide range of tasks . Monthly reporting of stockpile inventories , pre and postmining imagery of land disturbance , data capture for exploration and mine planning purposes , photo evidence of environmental and heritage compliance , as well as general presentation imagery used for site communications , account for the majority of routine use of our UAV .
“ We recently began to develop geological mapping missions which will eliminate the need for personnel to access areas of the open pit that are hazardous ( rock fall potential ) or congested ( interaction with mobile mining equipment ).
“ From a surveyor ’ s perspective , I was initially skeptical that we could produce results that would adhere to the spatial accuracies we achieve with conventional surveying instruments like GPS and laser scanners .
“ This has been enhanced by placing numerous ground control
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