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

近几十年来，采矿和矿产部门的技术发展取得了巨大进步。这些技术进步已被采矿业接受，以便更有效地管理矿产资源。然而，鉴于采矿业面临的新挑战，包括：动荡的市场状况、复杂和较低品位的矿藏、更严格的环境法规等，这些改进不足以确保行业的长期可持续增长和生产率。矿产资源管理中通常采用的不连续、间歇性的采矿过程监测方法，以及基于部分信息和缺失事实的决策，将不再适合于应对复杂的采矿挑战。需要为高分辨率挖掘数据的实时采集开发创新的解决方案，以便做出有效的决策，以最大限度地提高挖掘过程的效率和盈利能力。*本提案的主要目标是开发用于实时、按需、高分辨率挖掘数据采集和决策的无人机解决方案。这将包括监测钻探和爆破做法，以进行实时岩石破碎分析，监测和评估爆破后淤泥桩中的矿石稀释情况，以及检查和监测地面挖掘和土方工程。本研究将无人机和传感技术相结合，将使连续采矿过程控制和优化成为可能。这项研究将在El Gallo 1露天矿进行，该露天矿由加拿大矿业公司麦克尤恩矿业公司运营，在世界各地有几个金银开采业务。*针对实时采矿数据采集和决策的创新解决方案的开发将使多伦多大学(UofT)能够在采矿过程监控和优化领域取得重要的科学进步。它还允许McEwen矿业在其当前的采矿作业中充分整合这些先进技术，以显著提高作业效率。*

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.****