Companies collaborate to explore historic Finland mine

Earlier this month, a pioneer in autonomous aerial robot systems for complex, global positioning system- (GPS-) denied industrial environments announced a successful mission in partnership with Canada-based gold exploration and development company Rupert Resources.

By harnessing Philadelphia-based aerial autonomy software developer Exyn Technologies’ autonomous drones, Rupert Resources was able to produce highly detailed three-dimensional models of a historic gold mine in Central Lapland of northern Finland.

The mine was completely inaccessible to traditional content management software tools or even manually piloted drones.

Rupert Resources needed to plan for a potential restart of operations by estimating tons previously removed from the mine, as well as calculating the remaining ore in heavily restricted areas.

Exyn Technologies’ fully autonomous aerial robots mapped 30 stopes in three days with a single drone.

In addition, Exyn Technologies mounted a version of its robot to a car to scan all access drifts which, together with the stope maps, provided a complete mine map in under four days.

“Rupert Resources is actively seeking new technologies where we think big gains can be made in terms of safety, productivity and accuracy.”

Exyn Technologies achieved accurate assessment of the volume of the remaining stopes at Pahtavaara with an unprecedented level of detail.

“The use of remote technologies means that this was achieved with a greatly reduced degree of risk. We have no hesitation in recommending this technology, ” says Rupert Resources Finland MD Jukka Nieminen.

Exyn Technologies autonomous drones are built on the Exyn artificial intelligence (AI) platform, enabling aerial robots to fly intelligently, without a human pilot, using a multitude of high-tech sensors and AI-based software.

The system operates without the need for GPS or external communications, and is deployed as an all-in-one software and hardware package.

“Our mission with Rupert Resources presented some of the most difficult and seemingly impossible challenges to navigating, analysing, and assessing a mine, which, therefore, makes it exemplary in demonstrating the heights of Exyn Technologies capabilities.”

Rupert Resouces’ AI-based software and high-quality sensors were able to get the job done quickly and safely, proving once again that no exploration task is impossible for Exyn Technologies’ drones, concludes Exyn Technologies markets and industries director Raffi Jabrayan.