Since stockpiles are by nature irregular in shape and exhibiting craters, it is difficult to estimate their volume with great precision using traditional methods such as GNSS surveying. These slow and costly methods also prohibit frequent surveys and can even threaten the surveyor’s safety, as they must climb up and down stockpiles and/or work in the middle of moving machinery.

Drone aerial images can be used to generate point clouds, digital surface models, digital terrain models and a 3D reconstruction of a mining site, including its stockpiles. As the point cloud contains several thousand data points, very accurate volume calculations can now be performed easily. This enables high-accuracy calculation of stockpile value for monthly reconciliations or year-end audits, which improves the consistency of inventory reports in the company’s balance sheet. Because drone results and post-processing software are unbiased, you can also validate the amount of material moved by subcontractors .