Use of unmanned aerial vehicles for the purpose of planning surface mines and integration into three-dimensional mining software

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which accelerate the development with the battery, camera and microprocessor technology reached today, have started to give successful results in many areas. It has become a new alternative within the mining sector in terms of costs, ease of use, delivery times and positioning sensitivities. Especially with the adaptation of the photogrammetry software to the development rate of the UAVs, the studies that lasted long time with the traditional methods give the precise and accurate results in a shorter time by providing the data collected using the UAVs to be processed in professional photogrammetry software and integrated to the three dimensional mining software (3DMS). In this study, field studies conducted in İzmir, Aydın, Muğla and Antalya provinces, using UAV, professional photogrammetry software and 3DMS, calculations such as 3D models, surface areas, volumes, vector and index maps, swell factor determination of open pit, dump and rehabilitation sites were performed precise and accurately. In addition, visuals obtained with UAVs were processed with the help of photogrammetric software and integrated to 3DMS smoothly.