en.Wedoany.com Reported - The Mining Environmental Police (Policía Ambiental Minera, PAM) of Mendoza Province, Argentina, has introduced drone technology into its mining inspections, aiming to strengthen oversight and establish baseline records for Category III mines and other ongoing mining projects within the province.
The application of this technology is seen as a significant step in modernizing the control system for mining activities in Mendoza, enabling high-resolution aerial surveys, obtaining georeferenced information, and providing objective technical evidence for project tracking. Jerónimo Shantal, Director of the Mining Directorate (Dirección de Minería), stated that these are fundamental tools for tracking mining activities and planning future control actions.
Drones can generate high-definition photographs, digital elevation models, and three-dimensional reconstructions of inspected areas, helping to establish technical documentation for each enterprise and create historical records to compare the evolution of extraction activities over time. Pablo Bickham, head of the Mining Environmental Police, noted that the use of drones improves working conditions for inspectors, particularly in hard-to-reach areas, allowing faster and safer surveys of large areas while providing georeferenced information that facilitates temporal comparisons of extraction activities and detection of changes in intervened areas.
The collected information can be used to document the status of mineral deposits, generate reference records, and strengthen oversight through georeferenced data. Drones also aid in creating digital elevation models, terrain analysis, extraction volume calculations, identifying potential geological instability zones, and conducting environmental monitoring. This data will serve as the basis for preparing technical reports based on objective evidence and maintaining an information repository for future inspections.
Another primary objective of introducing drones is to improve the traceability mechanism for mineral resources in Mendoza. Shantal explained that information obtained from inspections can be cross-referenced with production declarations (Declaraciones Juradas de Producción) submitted by project operators and mineral transport guides (Guías de Transporte de Minerales) issued by the Mining Directorate, thereby enabling verification of consistency between extracted volumes, declared volumes, and transported volumes.
