Pandemic as Accelerator: Mines and Construction Sites Turn to Drone Surveying

The mining and construction industries are reporting a surge in drone use for site surveying and stockpile measurement, led by DJI's Phantom 4 RTK platform alongside cloud analytics services from Propeller Aero and Kespry. Movement and crew restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic are pushing site operators to replace manual survey teams with remote aerial data collection.

A Surge in Drone Adoption, of All Years, During the Pandemic?

2020 was supposed to be a rough year for anything involving expensive equipment and infrastructure projects, but in mining and construction surveying, the opposite is happening. Mine, quarry, and construction site operators worldwide are reporting an accelerated shift from human survey crews to autonomous drones, with industry sources pointing to a combination of technological maturity and operational pressure created by the pandemic.

At the center of this shift is DJI's Phantom 4 RTK, a drone equipped with a built-in RTK module that allows operators to nearly eliminate the need for Ground Control Points, which previously required a survey team to be physically present on site.

• Absolute horizontal accuracy: approximately 5 centimeters in photogrammetric models
• Positioning accuracy: 1 cm + 1ppm
• Ground control points required: zero, in an optimal scenario

Propeller Aero Replaces the Surveyor with an Automated Daily Report

Australian company Propeller Aero has built an entire business model around the idea that drone flight data can become a ready-to-use management report within hours rather than days. Its platform lets mine and quarry operators calculate stockpile volumes and generate production, safety, and reconciliation reports directly from flight data, with no need for additional manual processing.

For a site operator, the promise is simple: a survey task that once required a human team physically walking an active mining site, sometimes for hours or even days, is now reduced to a short drone flight and automatic cloud processing. What remains an open question is how well this accuracy holds up in the field over years of equipment wear and extreme weather conditions, a challenge the industry has yet to fully assess.

Kespry and the Drone-in-a-Box Model That Skips the On-Site Pilot

Another American company gaining momentum is Kespry, which offers a drone-in-a-box system: a single drone that performs pre-programmed missions without requiring a dedicated pilot physically present on site. Its main customers are aggregate and mining companies that need repeated measurements of raw material stockpiles.

• Accuracy improvement over manual measurement: up to 80%, according to company data
• Operational setup: a single autonomous drone with no permanent on-site pilot
• Primary target market: aggregate and mining companies

COVID-19 as Catalyst: Remote Measurement Instead of On-Site Crews

Travel restrictions and reduced crew sizes imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic are adding real momentum to the trend. Site operators facing movement restrictions and social distancing requirements need to cut down the number of people physically present on active mining and construction sites, and aerial data collection that can be reviewed remotely, without sending a full survey crew into the field, is shifting from a convenient option to a genuine operational necessity.

It remains unclear whether this represents a permanent structural shift in the industry or a temporary fix born of urgent necessity. The entry cost of platforms like Propeller Aero and Kespry, along with the need to train crews in flight operations and data analysis, remains an open question for small and mid-sized mining companies that may not be able to afford the initial investment as easily as industry giants can.