The Carrapateena mine in South Australia is one of the largest copper reserves in the world.
When a hole appeared at the surface and continued to grow, scanning was critical to ensure the safety of personnel and the stability of operations.
A mandatory 200m exclusion zone, as well as the hole’s increasing size, prevented close proximity for direct observation.
Traditional monitoring methods such as terrestrial LiDAR (light detection and ranging), CMS (cavity monitoring system) and COW systems were impractical.
Standard drones and manned helicopters were inadequate, as they could only capture the cave’s opening, not its full depth and width. Nor was it possible to manually fly most drones from hundreds of meters away into the cave, lacking line of sight, communication, and a GPS signal.
Instead, the Carrapateena team adopted a unique solution to autonomously capture critical data – safely and quickly – in extraordinary detail.
In this case study, see the extraordinary results of the autonomous solution deployed.
