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Laser Scanning Cavanacaw, Gold Mine

Laser Scanning Cavanacaw Gold Mine, Omagh, Co Tyrone


A Case Study
by Christopher Byrne BSc aMCinstCeS, Geospatial engineer
This paper describes Terrestrial Laser Scanning surveys carried out at the Cavanacaw Gold Mine, Omagh, Co Tyrone, Northern Ireland, owned by Omagh Minerals Ltd (OML), a wholly owned subsidiary of Galantas Gold Corporation to provide the following: High accuracy geo-referenced 3D CAD Models. High accuracy volumetric calculations. Cross sections Rock Face Profiling. Visualisations such as flythroughs and walkthroughs of the site for planning applications.
This site itself consists of a large pit 400m x 200m x 40m, surrounding stockpiles, access roads and tailings ponds. The aim of the task was to complete a survey of the entire site for comparison against a base survey carried out prior to excavation to determine volumes of cut and fill from the site. Deliverables were to include volumes for the pit and stockpiles along with a plan drawing showing the overall site layout and cross sections at specified intervals across the site. A combination of survey equipment was used including Terrestrial Laser Scanner, GPS and Total Station, to complete the survey in 2 days with just 2 surveyors.

SHorT HiSTorY on TerreSTriaL LaSer SCanninG


Terrestrial Laser Scanning is a remote sensing technology first developed in the 1990s as a means of surveying hugely complex structures such as oil refineries. Traditional survey techniques were not capable or were far too time consuming to capture enough information to draft adequate plans for such complex pipe networks. By having millions of measured points on the pipe networks full 3D models could be generated with automatic pipe fitting vastly reducing the time required in the field and greatly

Cavanacaw Gold Mine

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Laser Scanning Cavanacaw, Gold Mine

improving the accuracy of the final deliverables. The industry has rapidly developed since then and applications for these instruments are virtually limitless. From mining to dam monitoring to reverse engineering, anywhere where rich 3D data is required to measure or define complex structures, remote or dangerous locations Terrestrial Laser Scanning is without comparison. There are 3 types of system generally available: Time Of Flight (TOF), Phase Comparison and Triangulation Time Of Flight (TOF) instruments emit a laser beam at the object and calculate the time it takes for the laser to reach the object and return to the sensor to calculate the range from the instrument to the object. Onboard angle encoders similar to those found in Total Stations calculate the horizontal and vertical angles and thus a 3D coordinate for that point on the object is calculated. This is done in real time at up to 125000 points per second. These types of scanner typically have ranges from 1-2500m with some instruments capable of up to 6000m. Accuracies for these instruments vary but are typically 10-50mm depending on range This is the most common type of instrument for large scale excavation survey work. Phase Comparison instruments emit a stream of light with a known frequency and phase and by comparing the emitted phases to the returned phases the distance to the object can be determined. These instruments tend to have a much shorter range of 1-100m but far greater measuring speed at up to 1,000,000 pints per second. Because of this they lend themselves better to shorter range applications such as indoor architectural work, complicated industrial plant applications or situations where access time is very limited. Accuracies are similar to those for TOF instruments over shorter ranges Triangulation instruments utilise two sensors which simultaneously record the reflected laser pulse and determine the position. These types of instruments typically have a very short range (> 1m) but can achieve sub millimetre accuracy. They are mostly used in archaeology for recording artefacts and

GPS data for the stockpiles, tailings ponds and access roads. The laser scanner used was a Leica Scanstation 2, a Time Of Flight instrument which has a scan speed of up to 50,000 pts/ sec and a range of up to 300m. The scanner was set up at ten positions along the top of the pit or rock head. The operator controls the scanner via a laptop and using the inbuilt digital camera is able to see the instruments field of view from that setup position. The operator then chooses the area to scan by fencing off the area of interest on the laptop and setting the point resolution or point spacing. For Cavanacaw mine the point resolution was set at 100x100mm over 300m. That equates to a point every 100mm at 300m from the scanner. As much of the pit as possible was scanned from each position to insure good overlap of the data for registration or joining of the separate scans and also to get into all the nooks and crannies not visible from certain viewpoints. The instrument relies on line of site measurement and multiple setups are usually required to fully capture the object.

The same laser scan data with intensity values above, and full RGB below

reverse engineering or aerospace applications where tolerances are very tight. The output from all of these instruments is the same, a point cloud, essentially millions or even billions of individual 3D points which together form what looks like a 3D picture of the survey area. The data can be viewed in a number of different ways depending on the users preference. It can be coloured by intensity values where the data is coloured depending on the intensity of the return signal, where the surface reflectivity of the scanned object dictates its colour. This can be useful for identifying certain materials from others such as one type of stone from another in a stockpile. The data can be viewed in greyscale for other applications or by elevation where the colour is dictated by elevation to better display the scale of an object. Finally the data can have full colour RGB where high resolution colour photographs are draped over the scan data which gives a real photo realistic quality to the point cloud data. This is especially useful for visualisations such as flythrough or walkthrough animations. Some manufactures have christened the technology High Definition Surveying due to the fact that you now have millions of points where traditionally you had hundreds recorded with a Total Station or GPS. It is from this point cloud that accurate mesh models, volumes and cross sections can be produced.

LaSer SCanninG CavanaCaw GoLd Mine


The Cavanacaw mine has a large pit which does not lend itself to survey by traditional techniques. It is quite deep so acheiving accurate GPS signals at the bottom of the rock faces can be problematic. It is also a dangerous place to work with a lot of heavy machinery moving around during the day transporting raw material up and down the access roads from the vein to the crushing plant. The method chosen was to laser scan the pit and supplement the scan data with

Metal target with vertex placed in centre and surrounding pointcloud data

A number of metal reflective targets on tripods were used to join or register the ten different scans together Theses targets were positioned around both sides of the pit and precisely scanned from each of the 10 scan positions providing accurate common points between the scans. The scanner processing software then performed an initial registration of the 10 scans using these targets to position the scans together to create a fully combined point cloud of the entire pit. The software

Leica Scanstation 2 Terrestrial Laser Scanner

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Laser Scanning Cavanacaw, Gold Mine

then analysed the overlapping scan data and tightened up the registration using common areas of overlap between the separate scans. All 10 scans were successfully registered to an accuracy of 7 millimetres using both targets and cloud constraints. This was completed on site to insure full coverage was achieved. The centre of the metal targets were also recorded by reflectoress Total Station set up over site control, in this case Irish Grid Northern Ireland. Recording the position of the targets in this way allowed for the Geo-referencing of all the scan data to site grid during the registration process. In total over 20 million points were measured providing a complete and highly accurate 3D dataset of the pit. The Leica Scanstation 2 Instrument also has the ability to overlay high quality photographs onto the data providing a real photo like quality to the dataset making it easier to visualise what had been captured. The second day on site was used to carry out a GPS survey of the stockpiles, access roads and tailings ponds using a Leica GPS900 base and two rovers to compliment the scan data and complete the site survey.

ProCeSSinG & deLiveraBLeS


Back in the office the point cloud data was cleaned of noise such as machinery, measured as the scanner swept its way across the pit and a solid 3D mesh of the pit created in the Leica Cyclone laser scan software. From here the mesh was brought into AutoCAD Civil 3D 2009 and combined with the line work produced from the GPS data to provide a complete picture of the site. Once combined the various deliverables including volumes, cross sections and plan drawings were produced and comparisons made to the base survey.

Highly detailed 3D mesh model coloured by intensity values

reSULTS
This modern approach has proven itself to have a number of key benefits over traditional survey techniques. These include:

SPeed
The entire site including the large pit was recorded in high detail in a matter of two days using just two surveyors. To achieve this level of detail using traditional techniques alone would take up to a week

Cross sections comparing the base survey with pit excavation and stockpiles

aCCUraCY & deTaiL


By using multiple setups with the laser scanner every last detail of the pit is recorded. This objective approach leaves nothing to chance unlike traditional subjective techniques which simply cannot be as accurate or complete. Far greater accuracy can be achieved for volumes due to the sheer number of points covering the object as no interpolation is required between points for the calculations.

SaFeTY
The entre pit was recorded remotely in high detail without the need to venture down into the danger areas. Attempting to survey an active excavation with live plant machinery constantly on the move poses obvious dangers which can be completely avoided using this approach.

Two separate scans showing target positions and the final registered dataset of the entire pit below

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placed on top of each other showing how the pit is moving as the excavation follows the vein toward the north. This approach to surveying large excavations or mines is relatively new to Ireland but has been proven for over a decade in Australia and Canada where it is routinely used on most of the large mining operations for monitoring, volume calculations and visualisation purposes.

Christopher Byrne, a Geospatial Engineer for Coastway carried out this survey on behalf of Cavanacaw Gold Mine Coastway were one of the first companies in Ireland to adopt this technology and have used it on countless projects, including infrastructure projects, archaeology sites, cultural heritage sites, as-built surveys and anywhere where it can be used to supplement traditional techniques to provide much improved deliverables. For more information visit www.coastway.net or contact: Mark Hudson FCInstCES MRICS ASCS ACIArb MIS MIMQS Director, Coastway, Survey House, Tougher Business Park, New Hall, Naas, Co. Kildare, Ireland tel: +353 (0)45 435880 mob: +353 (0)86 8525108

Overlay of two separate surveys showing movement of pit from the south to the north (left to right) Plan drawing in CAD showing contours and cross section positions

ConCLUSionS
To date the Cavanacaw gold mine was successfully surveyed on two separate occasions. The laser scan data allows for excellent visualisation of changes to the pit over time. The image below is of the two laser scan point clouds

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