GPS in Mining

[geoStrider]

I recently toured a local mine and learned that they use GPS extensively in their operations. I thought this piece of equipment might be handy for some of the more difficult buried caches. Parking might pose a problem with some of the more strict home owners associations though.

 

 

I've never been lost, but I was a might bewildered for three days once. Daniel Boone

[+DavidMac]

Cache log: took nothing, left large gaping hole

 

...Not all who wander are lost... unless the batteries in their GPS die, their maps get ruined by rainwater when their pack leaks, and they find themselves in a laurel thicket. Then, they are probably lost.

[+PDOP's]

I worked at an open pit mine and it's pretty common for shovels, trucks and drills to have GPS. The surveyors love it as it's impossible for the equipment to run down virtual stakes like they used to with the wooden kind.

 

PDOP's GPS Pages

[+RichardMoore]

I used to work for a warehouse that distributes literature and manuals for New Holland.

New Holland has a GPSr for their tractors that will allow the farmer to tie in to a pc and keep track of conditions on various parts of the farm. I'm not sure how it works, I was reading the brochure while standing on a 3'X 4' lift 20' in the air. It was a BIG warehouse.

 

RichardMoore

 

www.geocities.com/richardsrunaway

[+zoltig]

quote:

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Originally posted by PDOP's:

I worked at an open pit mine and it's pretty common for shovels, trucks and drills to have GPS. The surveyors love it as it's impossible for the equipment to run down virtual stakes like they used to with the wooden kind.

 

http://members.shaw.ca/pdops/

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Old joke for PDOP's

If you are ever lost in the desert,just hammer a wooden stake in the ground and just catch a ride on the next truck that comes by to run it over.

[AlphaOp]

That's quite a big excavator, but there are much bigger ones out there!

 

 

 

The biggest is the Wheel Excavator in a German mine, that thing is one of the biggest moveable objects on the planet. (I think the Crawler shuttle transporter is the largest.)

[+GrizzlyJohn]

quote:

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Parking might pose a problem with some of the more strict home owners associations though.

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No it is like the old joke: Where does an elephant sit? Anywhere it wants.

[flat_lander]

 

"For those hard to reach caches"

 

or...

 

"I THOUGH THEY SAID NO BURIED CACHES!!!!"

 

"No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible." -George Burns

[Mrs.Nazz]

quote:

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I Am Not Bob Log wrote:

this isa dum post

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Jedi, is that you?

[Kerry.]

quote:

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Originally posted by PDOP's:

.... The surveyors love it as it's impossible for the equipment to run down virtual stakes like they used to with the wooden kind.

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But surveyors know how to put things in perspective, unfortuneately Managers love it as they think they'll need a few less surveyors, fortuneatley things don't run themselves (some managers think so but) and machine operators still haven't quite cottoned onto this no stake idea.

 

Cheers, Kerry.

 

I never get lost everybody keeps telling me where to go

[+cache chasers]

In the rescue of the 9 miners at Q-Creek . They used a GPS to determine where to drill the rescue shafts.

[Kerry.]

quote:

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Originally posted by cache chasers:

In the rescue of the 9 miners at Q-Creek . They used a GPS to determine where to drill the rescue shafts.

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GPS yes but the result was only ever going to be as good as the underground surveys, which relies on simply "old fashion" survey techniques and conventional instruments.

 

Cheers, Kerry.

 

I never get lost everybody keeps telling me where to go

[+parkrrrr]

quote:

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Originally posted by RichardMoore:

New Holland has a GPSr for their tractors that will allow the farmer to tie in to a pc and keep track of conditions on various parts of the farm. I'm not sure how it works, I was reading the brochure while standing on a 3'X 4' lift 20' in the air. It was a BIG warehouse.

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I know how it works, but if I think about that job I'll have to start drinking again.

 

[+opey one]

quote:

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GPS yes but the result was only ever going to be as good as the underground surveys, which relies on simply "old fashion" survey techniques and conventional instruments.

 

Cheers, Kerry.

 

I never get lost everybody keeps telling me where to go

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Actually, old fashioned and conventional instruments are not used underground anymore. We have engineers who use transits and "spad up" at least once a week. These methods are quite accurate.

 

When spads are placed, they correspond with a tag and a number, which is then mapped. You can then look at the mine map outside, find a specific spad number, and by that you can pinpoint any specific point underground.

 

As these methods have been accurate within inches, results are more within feet.

[Kerry.]

quote:

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Originally posted by opey one:

Actually, old fashioned and conventional instruments are not used underground anymore. We have engineers who use transits and "spad up" at least once a week.

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With relation to GPS systems they certainly are conventional.

 

If a "Transit" is not old fashioned and conventional then what is it?

 

Cheers, Kerry.

 

I never get lost everybody keeps telling me where to go

[+PDOP's]

quote:

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Originally posted by Kerry:

But surveyors know how to put things in perspective, unfortuneately Managers love it as they think they'll need a few less surveyors, fortuneatley things don't run themselves (some managers think so but) and machine operators still haven't quite cottoned onto this no stake idea.

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You're right about that. It's not uncommon to see one person crews these days. Still it has eliminated some really dirty jobs like staking blast hole patterns at 30º below.

 

PDOP's GPS Pages

[+opey one]

quote:

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Originally posted by Kerry:

quote:

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Originally posted by opey one:

Actually, old fashioned and conventional instruments are not used underground anymore. We have engineers who use transits and "spad up" at least once a week.

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With relation to GPS systems they certainly are conventional.

 

If a "Transit" is not old fashioned and conventional then what is it?

 

Cheers, Kerry.

 

I never get lost everybody keeps telling me where to go

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Hee hee, we're never gonna see an end to this one. As for the actual method of mapping with a transit, yes it may be old fashioned.

 

But I'm sure you would rather spend a hundred bucks on a GPSr than $2,500 for a transit. The blasted things, as old fashioned as they are.....Seems the only thing modern about them is the price. []