Tata Steel`s Noamundi Iron Mine conducts pilot launch of Drone Application in Mine Monitoring

With this, NIM has become the first mine in the country to introduce drone in mine monitoring.

The programme was launched by  Balvinder Kumar, IAS, Secretary, Ministry of Mines, Government of India in the presence of R K Sinha, Controller General, Indian Bureau of Mines,  A. B Panigrahi, Controller of Mines (CZ), Indian Bureau of Mines,  Rajeev Singhal, Vice President (Raw Materials), Tata Steel and  Pankaj Satija, General Manager (OMQ), Tata Steel.

Speaking on the occasion,  Kumar said: “We have initiated mining surveillance system using space technology along with a mobile app. This will help in stopping illegal mining, monitoring mining plan, production, dispatch and royalty payment. We requested Tata Steel to demonstrate it in Noamundi iron mine.”

Speaking about the pilot launch of DAMM, Singhal said: “It is a proud moment for all of us. Tata Steel has embarked on the digital journey to leverage benefits of the latest changes in this field. We are trying to keep pace with the global trends of digitalisation in mining industry and this is a step towards that. This technology of mine monitoring through drone will help us to address adequately any bottleneck on the ground with responsive mine administration.”

Talking about the digital initiative, Satija said: “This is one of the initiatives towards being digital. It will be useful for mine monitoring, environment monitoring, lease boundary inspection, reclamation and rehabilitation also.”

The objective of this application at Noamundi is surveillance of mining area, lease boundary inspection, inspection of safety zone, counting vegetation in reclaimed area and quarry and dump profiling for volume calculations. This trial of DAMM at NIM is being conducted by Skylark Drones, a Bengaluru-based firm. Skylark Drones specialises in drone application in various industries.