THE USE OF UNMANNED AIRCRAFT IN THE PRODUCTION PROCESS OF DRILLING AND BLASTING AT SURFACE MINES

Surface mines that have solid rocks in their geological structure require considerable dedication to the work processes of drilling and blasting. Drilling and blasting, as one of the first work processes in surface mines - quarries, affects all subsequent work processes (loading, transport and crushing) as a result. By improving the effects of drilling and blasting, KPI results are significantly improved on all subsequent work processes, as well as on the reduced impact of mining on the environment. The paper shows the use of UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) for the purpose of optimizing the results of drilling and blasting in the Anhovo quarry (carbonate mineral - R. Slovenia), whose entire annual production of 1.5×106 t goes to the cement industry (Alpacem cement d.d. Slovenia). The equipment used in the aforementioned quarry is a handheld Leica GNSS RTK device, a DJI Mavic 3E drone with RTK positioning, a Sandvik Ranger DX800i drilling rig with RTK positioning, as well as BlastMetrix software for processing data obtained from drone images and projecting minefields.