A New Breed of Mining Equipment

It seems inevitable that unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), which have already risen to prominence in the military sector, will become standard mining equipment in the mining business.

Research in UAVs has been increasing since the last decade. Initially the applications have been focused on the military.

This, however, is changing and the vast benefits of the technology have attracted the attention of industries such as the mining equipment sector which has already begun to reap the rewards.

The primary use of aircraft within the mining industry is for exploration; to map out tracts of distant terrain and to explore for potential mineral deposits. The nature of such missions makes the use of UAVs a natural fit, but that is not the only area of mining operations in which unmanned aircraft excel.

Missions flown by manned fixed-wing aircraft are inherently dangerous because of the necessity of conducting such flights at low altitudes and low air speeds. UAVs only require control from a pilot stationed safely on the ground.