Drone Inspections in Mining: Use Cases from Pit Walls to Tailings Dams

Unmanned aerial vehicles have transformed inspection of high-risk mining assets over the past decade. Pit walls, stockpiles, tailings storage facilities, haul roads, processing plant roofs, and conveyor structures can now be inspected by drone with comparable or better resolution than rope-access or scaffold-based human inspection, at a fraction of the safety risk.

In Australia, commercial drone operations are regulated by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) under Civil Aviation Safety Regulations Part 101. Most commercial applications above 2 kilograms require the operator to hold a Remote Pilot Licence (RePL) and operate under a ReOC (Remote Operator's Certificate). Sub-2kg operations are subject to lighter rules but still need to comply with standard operating conditions.

The two dominant sensor approaches are photogrammetry, generating 3D models and orthophotos from overlapping images, and LiDAR, which captures direct point clouds. Photogrammetry is cheaper and adequate for most surface monitoring. LiDAR penetrates vegetation and produces more accurate ground models, at higher cost.

Common mining use cases include pit wall stability monitoring (with structure-from-motion change detection), stockpile volume calculation, TSF surface monitoring under GISTM, haul road condition assessment, and post-blast inspection. Integration with GIS and asset management platforms has matured significantly.

Drones do not replace boots-on-ground inspection entirely, but they reduce exposure for the highest-risk tasks.