Drones used in underground mining can save lives, says company executive

You expect to see drones flying above you in the air. But underground? 

SafeSight Exploration in North Bay has developed drones that are being used in underground mining.

The Newmont Goldcorp Hoyle Pond mine site in the Timmins area has been using SafeSight's drones for the past year.

Mike Campigotto is the president of SafeSight Exploration. In 2015, when some executives asked if he knew of any companies that were experimenting with underground drones, he looked but couldn't find any. 

That's when he assembled a team of engineers from different disciplines and decided to create SafeSight Exploration.

Campigotto describes the underground environment "highly adversarial" for drone flight.

"There is no GPS. Barometric pressure is obviously not what it should be. Compasses are of no use and there is no light. There is water and darkness and dust," he said.

"Traditional drones typically use GPS and compass and barometer indicators that fly on surface to essentially assist the pilot and give the drone orientation to where it is and where it can and can't go," he explained.

"Underground we have none of that," said Campigotto.

Campigotto and his team had to develop tools, technologies and solutions software that would let the drone see to navigate and understand its underground environment.

One of the things the drones are used for is underground surveys.

"Surveyors can actually fly the drones and do a quick survey of the area taking a full three-dimensional scan," said Campigotto. 

Campigotto goes on to explain that the scan can then be uploaded into mine maps that help executives, planners, and engineers determine if they're heading where they expected to head, are they gathering the ore body they wanted to gather, and is the ground behaving the way they expected it to.

Campigotto stresses that safety is the number one concern.

"Our drone pilots operate in a safe area and they can explore and survey in areas that would be high-risk for them to approach and/or be in," he said.

"If there is a rockfall or anything that is unusual, the only thing that gets damaged is the drone unit and people are safe and sound," he added.

Campigotto says safety was one of the big drivers for his company to get into drones.

"We just saw that the technology was developing to a point where -- not to be overdramati c-- it could save lives by removing those lives from environments and activities that would essentially be high-risk otherwise," he said.