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Monitoring The Mining Sector

When it comes to planning a new mine or quarry, satellitescan provide images for infrastructural planning, explorationand ground access, environmental impact studies and modelgeneration.

The most obvious application of satellite imagery for newsite planning is the facile characterization of the locallandscape. Roads, railways, vegetation and inhabited areascan all be easily and quickly identified. However, the imagerycan also help experts to assess resources of particular valuein order to determine whether a site is economically viableor not. Before satellite imaging became commonplace for thisapplication, this first site assessment had to be completed in

Searching for gold: the use ofsatellites for mineral resourcemanagement The mining sector is a challenging industry to be in. Mines and quarries are usually located inremote areas of the world where resources have not yet been depleted. This means thatdetermining the viability of a new site, prospecting that site and ultimately establishing operationsthere can be a monumental task. However, the use of satellites can make this task much simpler,faster and safer for all concerned. Here, Satellite Evolution explores the potential applications ofsatellite imagery for resource assessment, development and protection, and considers howsatellite imagery might help develop future mining possibilities.

person, at great expense, slowly, and in potentially hazardousareas. Now, satellites equipped with suitable imagingtechnology can use near infrared, short wave infrared andthermal infrared light to identify structural features beneaththe surface of the Earth, as well as clays, mineral oxides andsoil types. Copper, silver, gold, diamonds, platinum groupmetals and uranium are all commonly mapped on acommercial basis in this way.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has useda mixture of satellite data, surveys and other technologies toassess existing mineral resources and predict where newdeposits might be found since 2002 via the Global Mineral

Diavik Diamond Mine, Canada, August 21, 2014, QuickBird. Photo courtesy of DigitalGlobe

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Monitoring The Mining Sector

Resource Assessment Project. In 2014, the USGS estimatedthat there were 3.5BnT of copper resources remaining onEarth, and 225 areas of undiscovered copper in 11 worldregions, mostly in South America and Asia. Today, copper isused to manufacture everything from cars and mobile phonesto wind turbines, rendering it a vital commodity for modernlife. Copper consumption levels are around 20Mt/yr, thus the3.5BnT of reserves could meet current demand for more than150 years if extracted.

Companies like Airbus Defence and Space, ACE HoweInternational, PhotoSat and Satellite Imaging Corporationprovide a wealth of mineral mapping services to the miningsector, ranging from data acquisition and processing throughto map generation and interpretation. Most use data fromthe Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and ReflectionRadiometer (ASTER) on-board NASA’s Terra, the flagshipsatellite of its Earth Observing System (EOS). However, newhigh resolution satellites capable of mapping iron oxide andclay deposits are now also in orbit. Some mining companies,such as Canada’s Altius, do their own in-house mineralmapping with ASTER data, although this requires expertiseand software that many do not have to hand.

Fighting illegal mining Illegal mining is a big problem in much of the developingworld. In the Philippines, black sand mining, which is illegalwithin 200m of the coastline, is a growing concern, while inColombia, Costa Rica and Peru, illegal gold mining is a bigproblem. Beyond the theft of valuable resources that alsoavoids taxes and fair wages, illegal mining destroys naturalhabitats, threatens homes and costs lives.

Crosstech, a remediation services provider andsubsidiary company of the Swiss Foundation for Mine Action,plans to demonstrate how satellite imagery can be used tomonitor abandoned and illegal mines. Abandoned mines arebecoming a growing concern the world over due to thedestruction of natural environments that result fromaggressive mining techniques. In much of the world, operatorsare required to rehabilitate depleted mines to as close aspossible to their natural form.

The project is part of the European Space Agency’s (ESA)Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems(ARTES) 20 Integrated Applications Promotion (IAP)programme, and aims to ultimately bring a product or serviceto market utilizing data from at least two different space assetslike satellite communication, earth observation, satellitenavigation and spaceflight technologies.

Crosstech’s Director, Hansjörg Eberle, noted that thesystem would be well-suited to South Africa, where thereare significant difficulties with illegal mining and abandonedmines. As satellite imagery becomes increasingly availablefree-of-charge, such as that from the ESA’s Sentinel satellites,updated images are available on a monthly or weekly basis.“This allows for monitoring and change detection in almostreal time,” said Eberle.

In December 2015, the Indian government finalized itsplan to track illegal mining using satellite imagery with supportfrom the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). InIndia, illegal sand mining alone is worth billions of IndianRupees each year. Illegal sand mining gained significantmedia attention in July 2013 when an Indian Administrative

Service officer was suspended ‘allegedly at the behest ofthe sand mafia for acting against them,’ according to localmedia. This resulted in a National Green Tribunal order thatbanned sand mining from river beds without environmentalclearance.

With India’s new plan, starting in 2016, mine images willbe updated every 15-30 days in order to monitor sitesremotely. A new remote sensing cell using services basedon Bhuvan software will monitor activities in a pilot studycalled Sudoor Drishti, which will take place at IBM sites inOdisha and Karnataka before being expanded to other states.

Meanwhile in Peru, Peru SAT-1, the country’s first satellitefor public-use imagery, manufactured by Airbus Defence andSpace, will soon be used to track river pollution, a direct resultof illegal mining and logging activities. “We plan to use satellitecoverage data to locate polluted riverbanks or blockedchannels, or even make an assessment of the damage tobetter identify where priority should be given,” said JorgePacheco, Technical Director for Space Sciences and SatelliteApplications at the National Council of Aerospace Researchand Development (Conida).

DigitalGlobe launches best-in-class satellite imagery Last year saw DigitalGlobe release the industry’s first 30cmsatellite imagery, with anticipated applications in the mining,energy, defence and intelligence sectors, among others. 30cmimagery was previously only available via aerial platforms,which can be expensive and difficult to access in much ofthe world. DigitalGlobe’s new 30cm images can be gainedin a matter of days or weeks rather than months, and animage archive will also be available. The National ImageryInterpretability Rating Scale (NIIRS), which defines andmeasures image quality and imaging system performance,has confirmed, with a NIIRS rating of 5.7,that DigitalGlobe’s 30cm imagery is suitable for aerial imageryapplications.

NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Space Systems,and US/JapanASTER Science Team

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Monitoring The Mining Sector

“DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-3 satellite data is the highestquality satellite photo data that PhotoSat has ever processed,”said Gerry Mitchell, President of PhotoSat, a satelliteelevation mapping provider for mining, energy andengineering companies. “In one test, an elevation mappinggrid extracted from stereo WorldView-3 satellite photosmatched a highly accurate LiDAR elevation grid to better than15cm in elevation. This result takes satellite elevation mappinginto the engineering design and construction markets anddirectly competes with LiDAR and high resolution air photomapping for applications like flood plain monitoring.”

DigitalGlobe’s satellite also has unique short wave infraredcapabilities that enable the identification of minerals and man-made materials, the assessment of crop and vegetationhealth, and the ability to view through smoke and haze. Inmining, potential applications include resource assessmentprior to extraction, site management and mine rehabilitation.

“Companies should be exploiting the competitiveadvantages of the WorldView-3 data to look for potential ore-related alteration that will have been missed by the previoussatellites used for alteration mapping,” said Dan Taranik,Managing Director of Exploration Mapping Group.

Looking to space The notion of asteroid mining has long been postulated inscience fiction books, but today, it is edging closer toactualization. The attractions of asteroid mining are clear;precious metal resources like platinum, palladium and goldare becoming depleted on Earth, yet are plentiful in somenear-Earth asteroids. The challenges to mining asteroids arethreefold:

• Technology: The technology to identify asteroids withvaluable minerals and then to extract those minerals isstill under development;

• Economics: Although it may be physically possible to mineasteroids, it must also be financially viable to either usethose resources in space, or transport them back toEarth; and

• Legal: The 1967 Outer Space Treaty designated spaceas public property, thus no country or organization canlay claim to resources extracted there.

In November 2015, US President Barack Obama signedthe US Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act,which allows private companies in the USA to mine asteroidsand claim ownership of the resulting materials. Severalinternational lawyers have observed that the new law violatesthe 1967 outer Space Treaty and the legal ramifications, ona global scale, remain unclear.

The new law was applauded by US companies hoping tokick-start the asteroid sector. “Many years from now, we willview this pivotal moment in time as a major step towardhumanity becoming a multi-planetary species,” said EricAnderson, Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of PlanetaryResources, Inc. “This legislation establishes the samesupportive framework that created the great economies ofhistory, and it will foster the sustained development of space.”

Although asteroid mining remains an unrealized projectfor now, several companies have begun to develop asteroidmining programmes.

Deep Space Industries plans to send small satellitescalled Fireflies, based on 6U Cubesats, into space from 2017to prospect for minerals and ice. The Fireflies are currentlyunder construction. Larger spacecraft would later be used toextract valuable minerals and ice in 2-4 year missions. Theice would be converted into fuel for the return flight to Earth.

Taking a different approach, Planetary Resources plansto use telescopes to prospect asteroids before sendingspacecraft for mining operations. It hopes to start operationsby 2025. In July 2015, Planetary Resources launchedthe Arkyd 3 Reflight (A3R) spacecraft to test/ avionics, controlsystems and software for incorporation in future asteroidprospecting spacecraft. Meanwhile, the Arkyd-6 (A6), whichwill test attitude/ control, power, communication and avionicssystems and also add sensors for detection andcharacterisation of resources, is due for launch in the Springof 2016.

February 2016 saw Luxembourg announce plans to enterthe asteroid mining business and to update the regulatoryframework in order to do so without defying the 1967 OuterSpace Treaty.

“Our aim is to open access to a wealth of previouslyunexplored mineral resources, on lifeless rocks hurtlingthrough space, without damaging natural habitats,” saidLuxembourg’s Deputy Prime Minister, Étienne Schneider. “Wewill support the long-term economic development of new,innovative activities in the space and satellite industries as akey high-tech sector for Luxembourg. At first, our aim is tocarry out research in this area, which at a later stage canlead to more concrete activities in space.”

Satellite imaging: a vital component of the mining sectorThe use of satellite imagery in just this one small area of themining industry has opened up a world of opportunities. Withoutit, the location of valuable mineral resources would be extremelycostly in terms of both time and finances, not to mentiondangerous in remote areas. Satellite surveillance has also beenshown time and time again to have great value in fighting illegalmining operations, maintaining our natural resources andenvironment alike. As such, the continued advancement ofsatellite imaging technology in terms of both enhanced spectralcapabilities and improved resolution is of the utmost importance.Radical new concepts like asteroid mining, in which satelliteshave a key part to play, may yet be the answer to Earth’s rapidlydiminishing natural resources.

Arkyd-6 (A6). Photo courtesy of Planetary Resources

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