Blair Athol Mine in Central Queensland’s Bowen Basin has chosen Maptek I-Site 4400LR laser scanning technology for survey applications. According to the operation’s Web site, the mine supplies customers in Asia and Europe with up to 12 million tons of coal per year. Maptek reports the mine as being the fifth Rio Tinto site on Australia’s east coast to adopt the system, which will conduct end-of-month surveys and be used for in-pit, top of coal and stockpile surveys. Blair Athol is also using a new vehicle mount prototyped only last month by Maptek for mobile scanning. The mount can be detached or maintained permanently on a field vehicle.
“The Maptek I-Site system has the range we need, but it’s the ease of use and very useful data deliverables that will pay off for us,” said Jon Day, mine surveyor, Blair Athol, in the press release. Peter Johnson, general manager, Maptek Australia, added, “What Maptek promises with I-Site is a total product that really delivers on improving operational efficiency.”
The I-Site 4400LR’s integrated hardware and on-board software specifically designed for mine surveying aid in mine planning, contractor reconciliations and payments. Extracted output data through Maptek’s I-Site Studio software are used to produce accurate surfaces and useful models quickly in the form of site coordinates and appropriate formats for all downstream work processes.
A week after the Blair Athol news, Maptek announced that AMEC increased its use of Maptek Vulcan software for mine planning and mine design applications, including assessing deposits. AMEC has implemented Vulcan software at multiple sites, including Denver, Phoenix, Reno, Saskatoon, Vancouver and Santiago.
