Surveying & Mine Monitoring
Long-endurance VTOL drones that map pits, measure stockpiles and inspect tailings dams without stopping production or sending crews onto unstable ground.
A site survey that used to take days now takes a few hours. Sky Whale series VTOL drones take off vertically in tight, uneven terrain, then fly like a fixed-wing aircraft across the whole concession. No runway, no catapult, no ground crew, and no interruption to the operation below.
Traditional survey methods cost more than they look like they do
What manual surveying costs you
- Days of field time for a single stockpile report
- Crews walking active pits, bench edges and unstable slopes
- Measurement error that compounds into inventory disputes
- Equipment and areas shut down while surveyors work
- Decisions made on data that is already weeks old
What aerial survey changes
- Full-site coverage in a single flight
- Nobody on the ground in the hazard zone
- Survey-grade accuracy from LiDAR and RTK positioning
- Operations continue while the aircraft is airborne
- Georeferenced data you can re-fly and compare over time
Five ways drones work in mining operations
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Open-pit and strip mine surveying
Surface mapping across expansive, constantly shifting sites without closing areas or halting equipment. LiDAR-equipped payloads streamline elevation mapping and deliver current terrain data on every deployment.
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Stockpile volume and 3D modelling
High-resolution photogrammetry and LiDAR calculate volumes in a fraction of the time a total station or GPS rover needs, with better spatial resolution and no manual traverse.
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Haul road inspection
Capture entire haul routes in one flight. Detect erosion, debris and rutting before they damage transport equipment or push fuel consumption up, and document wear patterns for compliance.
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Blast planning and fragmentation
Pre- and post-blast terrain imagery confirms safety perimeters and measures fragmentation quality using combined visual and thermal data.
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Tailings dam monitoring
Scheduled inspections detect seepage, cracking, bulging and structural deformation early. Georeferenced records support regulatory reporting and long-term change tracking.
Built for the terrain, not the hangar
- Vertical take-off in rugged terrain. Launch and recover on a pit floor or a remote access point. No launch rail, runway or catapult system to transport and set up.
- Endurance for site-wide coverage. Up to 10 hours on a single charge or hybrid cycle depending on model, which removes battery swaps from the mission plan.
- Payload flexibility. Swap LiDAR, survey cameras and thermal sensors between missions as the survey type changes.
- Field durability. Water-resistant airframes rated for winds of 12–15 m/s across a wide range of altitudes and temperatures.
- Fast deployment. LAUNCH ground control software, navigation lighting for night flights, and DGPS positioning that removes the pre-flight compass calibration step.
