Development of unmanned aerial vehicle systems for real-time mining data acquisition and decision making

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In recent decades, there has been tremendous progress in the development of technology for the mining and minerals sectors. These technology advances have been embraced by the mining industry for more efficient mineral resource management. However, given the new challenges facing the mining industry including: volatile market conditions, complex and lower grade ore deposits, tighter environmental regulations, etc., these improvements are insufficient to ensure long-term sustainable growth and productivity of the industry. Discontinuous and intermittent mining process monitoring approaches as well as decision making based on partial information and missing facts that are usually employed in mineral resource management, will be no longer suitable to address the complex mining challenges. Innovative solutions need to be developed for real-time acquisition of high-resolution mining data in order to make effective decisions to maximize the efficiency and profitability of mining process.The main goal of this proposal is to develop Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) solutions for real-time, on-demand, high-resolution mining data acquisition and decision making. This will involve monitoring drilling and blasting practices for real-time rock fragmentation analysis, monitoring and assessing ore dilution in post-blast muck piles and inspection and monitoring of surface excavations and earth works. Combining the UAV and sensing technologies in this study will enable continuous mining process control and optimization. The study will be conducted at the El Gallo 1 open pit mine, which is being operated by McEwen Mining, a Canadian mining company, with several gold and silver mining operations around the world. The development of innovative solutions for real-time mining data acquisition and decision making will allow the University of Toronto (UofT) to make essential scientific advances in the area of mining process monitoring and optimization. It also allows McEwen Mining to fully integrate these advanced technologies in its current mining operations to significantly enhance the efficiency of the operations.