As global demand grows for resources with minimal environmental impact, mining companies face the challenge of extracting more in less time, with lower costs, while ensuring safety and meeting environmental accountability.
Our client needed to collect water samples from an inaccessible, non-operational mining pit in Western Australia’s Pilbara region. The samples, essential for testing pH, density, salinity, and metal/contaminant levels, had to be gathered at precise depths and locations due to the site’s complex hydrology and water stratification.
This called for a solution that could safely recover samples and gather telemetry data without human entry into the pit.
Difficult and Dangerous Access:
Traditional water sampling methods in remote, decommissioned sites are slow, costly, and risky. The pit’s location and depth meant watercraft or direct human access was not an option.
Extreme Range and Depth:
The UAV needed to collect samples from locations up to 500 metres away and as deep as 200 metres below the pilot’s position.
Operational Risks:
Potential hazards included tether snagging, loss of radio control, aircraft overweight situations, and the need for accurate depth measurements.
RemSense engineered a specialised UAV sampling system for the DJI M300 drone, including:
Load-Sensing Aircraft Tether Hard Point
Alerts the pilot when the sampling payload reaches the water’s bottom, reducing the risk of tether snags on debris.
Active Payload Safety Release
Allows emergency release of samples in cases of snagging, overweight conditions, or drone malfunction – significantly reducing project risk.
Precision Tethering System
Designed for accurate at-depth sampling, rapid ground crew disconnection, and visual cues for the pilot during recovery.
Specialised Flying Procedures
RemSense pilots developed and tested suspended-load flying techniques, safe recovery protocols, and emergency procedures through extensive mock sampling before deployment.
By combining custom-engineered equipment with advanced UAV capabilities and rigorous pilot training, RemSense delivered a water sampling solution that was both innovative and practical. The approach eliminated the need for risky, time-consuming traditional methods, while delivering highly accurate environmental data. This project demonstrated how drone technology can be adapted to meet specialised environmental monitoring needs in challenging mining environments.
The team at RemSense designed a simple but effective UAV water sampling setup which allowed us to safely collect water samples from pit lakes at one of our Pilbarra sites.
They took the time to develop and test the sampling approach so we had confidence that we had everything we needed in place prior to mobilising to this remote site.
Adrian, Simon and the team were great to work with and we are busy planning the next round of sampling with them.
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