A safer way to sample: Using drone technology to improve water testing at mines
Seeing an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV or drone) used on a mining site is nothing new. Since the early use of the technology, drones have been utilized on mining projects for activities such as site inspections, mapping, and surveying.
But as drone technology has improved and evolved, so has our appreciation for how best to use it. Beyond its inherent value for providing us with site data, we are recognizing that drones can be utilized elsewhere on the mining site, performing valuable tasks while reducing health and safety hazards and providing efficiencies both on active and inactive properties. The benefits of using the technology are many, providing operations with a positive alternative to traditional sampling methods.
Using drones to collect water samples
This new evolution has come in the form of using drones to collect samples, especially from water resources found on site. A practice that we are already seeing gain wide acceptance in other global jurisdictions. Drones have the capability of taking safe and secure samples from waterbodies on site that are either natural or constructed (e.g., tailings pond or pit lake).
Contingent on the regulations in place for a given mine site, drones are able to work within the necessary parameters to collect in situ physio-chemical measurements and water samples at the frequency and depth required. The drone’s GPS mapping system is used to define the locations on the waterbody for sampling, which is typically determined pre-flight. Initially, in situ measurements are collected through the water column at the designated location in the waterbody using multi-parameter sondes carried below the drone. Once the sonde has collected the water column profile information, the sonde is flown back to the launch area and the data downloaded and reviewed. This data can be used to identify the focus depths in the waterbody to collect samples.
Water samples are then collected from a subsequent flight using specialized collection equipment carried below the drone, which are lowered into the water column to the required water depth. The drone’s GPS system makes sure that the drone returns to collect the water sample at the same location the water column profile data were collected. The sample collection system secures the sample once it has been collected at the target depth so that its integrity is not in jeopardy at any time between when it is collected and returned to the launch area. Once returned, the sample is transferred to laboratory sample containers where it undergoes any requisite sample handling processes, after which it can be submitted to the analytical laboratory for testing. If required, supplemental drone flights collect water samples from other depths or locations.
There is great potential for the growth of drone technology’s use with the mining sector, especially in Canada where remote sites in sensitive ecosystems are facing strengthened regulations around emissions and tailings.
One of the primary reasons for the development of the sampling approach is safety. Access to constructed waterbodies (e.g., pit lakes) in mine sites can be difficult or impossible, which may also be exacerbated by the seasonal conditions when the sample needs to be taken. Even if the pit lake can be accessed for boat-based sampling, sampling directly on water can carry elevated risk due to the often-unstable nature of the surrounding pit environment the lake exists in.
The use of drones to collect water quality data and samples eliminates the need for human involvement with the site in any way. This includes interaction with the surrounding landscape and habitat. While not necessarily a factor in the Canadian market, this can be a real factor in other global jurisdictions where reptiles exist near and within natural waterbodies who can pose a danger to humans. With the drone, there is no need for anyone to go directly to the site and disturb any of the surrounding ecosystem.
There is also the matter of the efficiency provided by using this technology. Rather than having a team haul sampling equipment to the waterbody and then onto the water to collect in situ data and water samples, a drone pilot and spotter can be situated at a safe location some distance away from the waterbody where they have untethered sight of the drone without any human interaction with the water. The time it takes for the drone sampling process to occur, versus a human-collected sampling period, offers significant time savings. Further, as boats primarily run on fossil fuels, use of the drone eliminates the additional carbon footprint of running boat engines versus the use of battery power for the drones.
Of course, no new solution is simple to provide. There are federal and provincial regulations to follow when using a drone commercially, meaning drone pilots need to be accredited, and on-site regulations exist for the use of drones on the mine sites, some of which are more stringent than others with respect to a pilot’s level of experience. Building a team that has appropriately experienced pilots to be able to conduct the sampling operations is required to successfully provide this sampling option to mine sites; this can take time.
However, as the use of drones continues to grow in other areas of business, we are likely to see an increase in the number of people becoming qualified drone pilots. And while drone sampling does provide efficiencies around the actual sampling process, with mining sites often located in remote locations, bringing a pilot (and spotter) in to do the sampling work, along with their equipment, can be costly. Including in this service, the flexibility to provide training to mine environment staff to utilize this technology becomes a secondary service that can be provided.
The drone technology used for water sampling is in its relative infancy, especially here in Canada. The technology has been at work for several years in the United States, and is being used in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, but it has only just started to be utilized in the Canadian market. However, like any new technology that an industry appreciates the value of, the cost, and availability could potentially decrease with wider use across the country.
Should that occur, there are other ways that drone technology can evolve to provide benefit for the mining industry. We are already seeing the use of drones for air quality sampling in other sectors, and as environmental regulations are tightened in the mining sector, drones could be used to best gauge emissions on active sites. Sediment sampling in natural and constructed waterbodies as an extension to the water sampling approach could also become a reality.
There is great potential for the growth of drone technology’s use with the mining sector, especially in Canada where remote sites in sensitive ecosystems are facing strengthened regulations around emissions and tailings. Having a safe system for sampling that meets government and mine regulations, one that does so without jeopardizing the safety of people and reduces the human impact on the site, is a smart investment for any operation.
John Faithful is a fellow, senior water quality scientist, at WSP Golder.
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