Key Takeaways Autonomous and semi-autonomous blast-hole drill rigs — Epiroc Pit Viper and Sandvik AutoMine — are the current commercial reality of “advanced drilling.” Autonomous drilling achieves roughly ±5 cm positioning accuracy at planned collar locations, versus roughly ±30 cm for …
Key Takeaways BLASTDOG is IMDEX’s multi-sensor, semi-autonomous downhole probe that logs blast-hole rock properties at high spatial density. It’s deployed via a robotic logging system, combining automated data acquisition with …
Key Takeaways Wireless sensor-network platforms — Worldsensing, RST Instruments, and Beyond Monitoring — are what most mines now use to plan and deploy piezometer/monitoring-well networks with telemetry. These platforms are compatible with a wide range of …
Key Takeaways Orica FRAGTrack uses AI plus stereoscopic 2D/3D imaging for automated post-blast fragmentation analysis — no manual sieving or scaled photos required. It ships in multiple deployment forms: FRAGTrack Conveyor, FRAGTrack Crusher, FRAGTrack GeoSpatial, and a newer excavator-mounted …
Key Takeaways Ground water models still rest on MODFLOW 6 or FEFLOW as the actual flow-simulation engine. PyHydroGeophysX, published in 2026, is a new open-source Python platform that bridges hydrological models (MODFLOW, ParFlow) with geophysical inversion tools like pyGIMLi and SimPEG. That bridge …
Key Takeaways MODFLOW 6 is the USGS-maintained, actively-updated standard groundwater flow engine (v6.7 shipped February 2026) and the default starting point for any new hydrological model. FloPy wraps MODFLOW in Python, which is what actually opens the door to ML integration — scripted, …
Key Takeaways Continuous, wireless geotechnical and hydrological monitoring has replaced periodic manual readings at most modern mines. Platforms like Worldsensing, RST Instruments, and Beyond Monitoring stream piezometer, crackmeter, and inclinometer data in near real time. The AI layer sits on top …
Key Takeaways MineSense ShovelSense mounts high-speed XRF sensors on shovel/excavator buckets to scan material for grade in real time, bucket by bucket. The system’s ML models are trained per ore body, so grade estimates adapt to your specific …
Key Takeaways Model refinement — recalibrating a groundwater model against real monitoring data — runs on PEST++, the open-source parameter-estimation and uncertainty-analysis suite that works with MODFLOW 6 or FEFLOW. PEST++ handles model-independent (non-intrusive) calibration, meaning it …
Key Takeaways Tailings dam monitoring has become its own specialized AI category following several high-profile dam failures. GroundProbe (Orica) combines radar (including its SSR-SARx synthetic-aperture radar built specifically for tailings) with piezometers and drone imagery in one dashboard. …