MIR — Mapping Inspection Resources
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Industry — Mining & Aggregates

Mining & Aggregates

MIR delivers high-accuracy volumetrics and terrain models for mines, quarries, and aggregate operations — stockpile inventory, pit progression, and highwall documentation captured without putting personnel in hazardous zones.

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Freefly Astro surveying an active aggregate yard

How MIR Helps

Purpose-Built Data for Mining & Aggregates

Accurate volumes and current site conditions drive inventory, reconciliation, and planning decisions. MIR flies RTK-referenced photogrammetry and LiDAR missions that produce measurable orthomosaics, digital surface and terrain models, and stockpile volumes on a repeatable schedule — with accuracy and validation method established during scoping. LiDAR adds a vegetation-penetrating point cloud for bare-earth terrain models on brushy or partially reclaimed sites, while an RTK base station and ground control tie every dataset to a known coordinate system. Operations, survey, and finance teams get reliable numbers for month-end reconciliation and a clear visual record of extraction and site development over time, all delivered in CAD- and GIS-ready formats.

Top-down aerial of an active aggregate processing yard showing radial stacker and conveyor lines, graded sand and material stockpiles, a wheel loader, and plant equipment
The Workflow

From Flight Plan to Reconciled Volumes

Every mining & aggregates project runs the same repeatable pipeline: missions are planned in UgCS, flown autonomously by AMC (Auterion Mission Control) on American-made Freefly Astro aircraft, then offloaded to the right software — Pix4Dmatic for mapping and photogrammetry, Scopito for inspection findings, and Freefly Flow for in-field LiDAR point clouds.

  1. Step 01UgCS

    Mission Planning

    Sites are programmed in UgCS with terrain-aware photogrammetry-area grids at a fixed Ground Sampling Distance and overlap, maintaining consistent accuracy across pits, faces, and stockpiles.

    UgCS area-scan mission planner showing a serpentine survey grid over an active aggregate quarry, with flight height, speed, and side-distance settings and the Freefly Astro telemetry panel
  2. Step 02Auterion Mission ControlFreefly

    Field Capture

    The UgCS mission is transferred by USB to the Herelink controller and uploaded to AMC (Auterion Mission Control), which flies the RTK-referenced photogrammetry mission autonomously on American-made Freefly Astro aircraft, capturing the active operation — pits, benches, highwalls, haul roads, and stockpiles — with no personnel required inside hazardous zones.

    Top-down aerial of a Freefly Astro drone flying over a crushed-stone stockpile on a rutted haul yard during an RTK photogrammetry mission
    Aerial view of an active quarry pit with stepped benches, high vertical highwalls, and exposed rock strata captured for pit-progression documentation
  3. Step 03PIX4Dmatic

    Processing & Delivery

    Imagery is processed in Pix4Dmatic into orthomosaics, DSM/DTM surfaces, and stockpile volumes, then exported as LAS point clouds, GeoTIFFs, and CAD-ready DXF/SHP for survey and planning teams.

    Textured 3D photogrammetry reconstruction of an entire aggregate processing facility showing stockpile rows, conveyors, plant equipment, and haul roads, produced in Pix4Dmatic
    Colorized LiDAR point cloud of an open-pit quarry with a blue-to-orange elevation ramp showing stepped benches and highwalls, exported as a LAS deliverable
Services

Services MIR Provides

Photogrammetry software measuring the volume of an aggregate stockpile, with the pile outlined by a green boundary polygon and shaded to represent the computed volume

Stockpile Volumetrics

RTK-referenced volumetric measurement of stockpiles — with accuracy and validation method established during scoping — for inventory and month-end reconciliation.

Colorized LiDAR point cloud of an open-pit quarry with a blue-to-orange elevation ramp showing stepped benches and highwalls

LiDAR Mapping & Point Clouds

Vegetation-penetrating LiDAR for bare-earth terrain models, classified point clouds, and volumes on brushy, reclaimed, or partially vegetated sites where photogrammetry alone falls short.

Top-down aerial of a Freefly Astro drone flying an RTK photogrammetry mission over a crushed-stone stockpile on a rutted haul yard

RTK & Ground Control Accuracy

RTK base-station and ground-control workflows tie every orthomosaic, surface, and point cloud to a known coordinate system for high-accuracy, reconcilable results.

Top-down georeferenced orthomosaic of an aggregate processing yard showing stockpiles, conveyors, and plant equipment

Site Mapping & Orthomosaics

Georeferenced orthomosaics of active pits, faces, and the full operation.

Drone-derived digital surface model with a blue-to-red elevation color ramp and hillshade relief used for topographic modeling

Topographic & Surface Models

Digital surface and terrain models (DSM/DTM) with contours for planning and earthwork.

Wide aerial of an active aggregate quarry showing the full pit, benches, processing plant, and haul roads for tracking site change over time

Pit Progression & Change Tracking

Periodic collection to compare extraction, material movement, and site development over time.

Aerial view of an active quarry pit with stepped benches, high vertical highwalls, and exposed rock strata

Highwall, Bench & Haul-Road Documentation

Condition documentation of highwalls, benches, slopes, and haul roads to support safety and maintenance.

Sensors We Fly

The Equipment We Bring To Your Site

Each project is scoped to the required collection method. RGB, radiometric thermal, and LiDAR are deployed in purpose-built acquisition passes based on the required deliverables — RTK-referenced so your data comes back well-documented and ready to use.

  • Freefly Astro

    Freefly Astro

    Blue UAS aircraft

  • Sony 61MP RGB

    Sony 61MP RGB

    High-resolution imagery

  • Radiometric Thermal

    Radiometric Thermal

    Calibrated heat mapping

  • Laser Rangefinder

    Laser Rangefinder

    Direct distance & clearance

  • Freefly Flux O1

    Freefly Flux O1

    LiDAR acquisition

  • Indiana Continuously Operating Reference Stations (InCORS) network

    RTK Positioning

    InCORS NTRIP · WGS 84

More Industries

Explore Other Industries MIR Serves

Wind Energy

Blade, tower, and nacelle inspection data that pinpoints leading-edge erosion and serial defects without prolonged downtime.

Telecom

Cell-site audits, structural documentation, and measurable digital twins that support colocation and close-out.

Solar & Renewables

Aerial thermography that locates hot spots, diode failures, and string outages down to the module.

Utilities & ROW

T&D structure inspection, LiDAR corridor mapping, and vegetation-encroachment documentation for reliability and compliance.

Rail & Transportation

RGB corridor mapping and LiDAR data along rail corridors — reducing time spent on or near live track.

Civil Engineering & Survey Support

RTK-enabled aerial LiDAR and 61MP RGB collection — orthomosaics, point clouds, terrain surfaces, and construction documentation for survey teams, civil engineers, developers, and contractors.

Start With the Project Objective

Have a Mining & Aggregates Project?

Tell us what needs to be inspected, mapped, measured, or documented. We'll help determine the right collection method, payload, mission structure, and deliverables.

Request Mining & Aggregates Review