Drones for Good: Mitigating Mining Disasters

Drone could be used for good by mitigating environmental disasters at mines says former Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer who serves as Chairman of the Board at Stillwater Mining Company, the only U.S. producer of platinum and palladium.

“I see a real use for drone at mines in monitoring for environmental changes in settling ponds,” said Schweitzer. “By more closely monitoring these ponds we could drastically reduce the odds of an environmental disaster that could contaminate clean water, erode habitats and harm animals or people.”

Settling ponds are used to collect wastewater or tailings at mines and thereby control water pollution. Mines monitor these ponds to enable timely detection and correction of adverse trends in the biological condition and quality or quantity of groundwater and surface water.

Schweitzer says there are still improvements to be made in detection of problems and he believes drone could help. “Having an eye in the sky and viewing the ponds, the land and nearby water sources from that perspective would give mines more information – you can really see where what water is doing or where it might be moving from the air.”

The year before, an EPA crew at the Gold King Mine in Colorado accidentally unleashed more than 3 million gallons of water filled with mercury and arsenic. The toxic spill flowed into the Animas River, eventually running into New Mexico’s San Juan River and into Lake Powell.

Another incident happened in Brazil when a dam built to hold back water and residue from a mining operation burst, killing 19 people and causing major mudslides and polluting more than 400 miles of waterways.

There are a number of techniques used to prevent the release of contaminated water including things that UAV’s could monitor and collect data on.

“For example drone could monitor rain and snowmelt runoff easily seeing from the air where the water was headed giving mines better lead time for water diversion and preventing the potential for water contamination from exposed tailings,” said Schweitzer.

“UAV’s could monitor evaporation rates in the ponds and see changes in water coloration or capture drainage problems that could cause overflows,” he continued.

Schweitzer added, “You could be seeing the potential problems from anywhere and share the data with mine experts around the world if something was off. That means better response times that could stop an environmental disaster before it happens. It’s another way drone could be used for good and that’s pretty cool.”

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