Based in Guyana, Barry Kevin O’Rourke guides S.A.B. Mining in the extraction of minerals and precious metals from the country’s jungle region. Barry Kevin O’Rourke maintains a professional interest in various topics related to mining and mineralogy.
Due to the ever-increasing demand for raw materials, exploration to identify large, valuable mineral deposits is essential. Traditional ground-based survey techniques such as soil and rock sampling are slow, expensive, and often dangerous, while large-scale mapping by plane and helicopter yields images with insufficient resolution for small-scale mapping.
At the same time, drone technology has steadily increased in both performance and affordability. Carrying lightweight sensors, drones can measure changes in reflected sunlight in visible and near-infrared regions, as well as changes in the Earth’s magnetic field. Both of these measurements can be used to determine the presence and quantity of key minerals at Earth’s surface. Drones present a non-invasive, cost-effective means of conducting pre-mining evaluations. They can also assess any impacts on the environment, such as soil erosion and vegetation stress, resulting from mining activities.
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