CALIFORNIA – A top USA mining company has has taken on board Kespry’s drone-based aerial intelligence platform for their inventory management and mine planning.

The Shelly Company, an Ohio-based limestone, concrete and asphalt paving firm has confirmed that it uses the Kespry drone platform to measure contours to ensure it creates accurate mine plans. The solution is also used to determine accurate stripping calculations and ensure its vendor network plans and delivers precise volumes and quotes. In addition, the company uses Kespry to perform before-and-after stripping surveys to validate the amounts of material that have been moved. Inventory management involving updating unit weights and product volume is another activity the organisation performs with Kespry.

“Using Kespry helps us make informed decisions and work closely with contractors to compare stripping quantities,” explains Chris Pike Performance Manager at the Shelly Company. “This ensures that we are charged the correct amount. Kespry also gives us more control and increases efficiency. Once our drone lands from a 20 to 30-minute flight, the flight data is immediately uploaded to the Kespry Cloud for processing. This takes just a few hours, depending on the size of the mission data collected. We’re then able to view the images and client deliverables via the Kespry Cloud. This allows our engineers and planners to provide quick turnaround of the data to all our key stakeholders. They usually want this information immediately and it’s great to be able to provide that information to them quickly. With Kespry, we’re able to sit in front of our stakeholders, run through the data, show them how the calculations were done, and identify any possible issues.

Another key reason The Shelly Company chose to use drones was because they keep employees out of harm’s way.

“Kespry drones have definitely improved safety,” said Pike. “They have reduced the need to go near highwalls and crests, especially for mine planning purposes. Kespry will eventually assist with our ongoing efforts to improve drilling and blasting safety by providing the ability to use drones to perform 3D face profiling. The same thing holds true for checking on the progression of a particular mine site. If we used our earlier ground survey techniques with GPS rovers, people would have to get near the toe and crest of a highwall, walk over unstable material or work in close proximity to mobile equipment, which is potentially unsafe. Kespry has really helped in that regard, too.”

Kespry has provided integrated drone-based solutions such as drone data capture and industry-specific analytics to organisations across North America, Europe and Australia.