Dendra Systems recently hosted the first in a series of networking events exploring the mining industry’s environmental future. Australian Mining was on hand to document the key takeaways.
The concept of mine rehabilitation is taking on new meaning in the digital age, and one technology innovator is assisting miners to gain a greater understanding of their ecosystem, expediting environmental restoration in the process.
Dendra Systems provides a holistic view of ecosystem restoration and management, offering an end-to-end service to drive faster rehabilitation and environmental reporting.
This includes the market-leading myDendra Insights platform, which harnesses machine learning to provide a wide range of accurate, timely and actionable ecosystem insights at scale.
The company’s environmental management suite furthers myDendra Insights, translating data into decisions and enabling operators to monitor rehabilitation progress and conduct transparent reporting.
Panel discussion Dendra places an emphasis on collaboration, so it’s fitting the company is hosting a series of networking events to facilitate discussion specific to the mining sector’s environmental future.
The first such event took place in Perth in September, where Australian Mining facilitated a panel with representatives from the likes of CRC TiME, Tranen Revegetation Systems and Contour Consulting to discuss the importance of technology in mine rehabilitation.
Bryan Maybee is a mineral economist and mine planning engineer with the WA School of Mines who leads the risk, evaluation and planning program at CRC TiME, which is a collaboration of more than 70 leading mining entities, government and community groups addressing the complex challenges underpinning mine closure and relinquishment.
CRC TiME has initiated a portfolio of foundational projects to identify disconnects in knowledge, behaviour and stakeholders that inhibit orderly mine closure and rehabilitation.
Maybee said his work was less concerned with the implementation of technology than what that technology enables.
“When we think about restoration, rehabilitation and mine closure, what really excites me is the role technology can play in linking stakeholders who will be left with the land post-mining to the decision-making processes that happen across the mine life cycle,” he said during the panel discussion.
Maybee said it was important to support a partnership model, in which different stakeholders can work together and leverage technology to achieve their post-mining goals.
Richard Marver, a rangelands botanist, landscape ecologist and director of Contour Consulting, said with demand for rehabilitation increasing as more mines reach the end of their life, the sector must find ways to carry out restoration practices more efficiently.
By expediting information-sharing and decision-making processes – two capabilities Dendra champions itself – the importance of technology cannot be understated.
Maybee said increasing understanding of and interest in closure and rehabilitation outcomes is a key driver for CRC TiME research.
“(Interest) is coming from all stakeholders – some of which are the investment community – leading to additional reporting requirements in the mining industry,” he said.
“(Mine closure and rehabilitation) is one of the things that’s being used to decide how a company does as far as its ESG (environmental, social and governance) performance.
“As part of that, what we’re doing at the CRC is looking at things like environmental economic accounting, where we’re undertaking a study to see how environmental economic accounting frameworks can be applied into the mining sector.”
Maybee said that while environmental economic accounting is not a specific technology application, technology will enable CRC TiME to carry out these studies.
“Creating these natural capital accounts is hugely data-intensive, so being able to use drones to monitor previously inaccessible areas – which are either too high-risk or perhaps too sensitive to go into – we are able to collect that data and populate those accounts,” he said.
While drones can improve the scope of data capture, technology will also assist in its management.
“When we consider the volume of data we will be processing, we need to start looking at database technologies and at different ways to manage, store, collect and disseminate data, and being able to efficiently and effectively run reports needed for different reporting requirements,” Maybee said.
“For CRC TiME, technology is part of everything we do, whether it be an operational or mine-planning solution. It’s built into all the systems we look at.”
CRC TiME’s risk, evaluation and planning program is focused on promoting the importance of integrating closure and rehabilitation activities into mine planning.
“At CRC TiME, we are researching ways to make sure mine closure and rehabilitation is part of the original mine plan and decision process,” Maybee said.
“We make sure it’s part of how we strategically build our mindset.
“As part of that, we look at where we can use technology to change the way we think about rehabilitation.”
Maybee said there were two ways technology can support this process.
“We’ve got technology allowing us to plan the closure and rehabilitation activities as part of that early planning process in order to get our license and ensure we adhere to the relevant regulations,” he said.
“Once that’s in place and we can consider technologies – such as automated components, which allow us to do certain rehabilitation activities progressively in the same location as mining is taking place – we can start to think differently about the way we plan the mine.
“So now, rather than thinking about closing a mine after it’s done, we can start to think about planning the mine for closure and consider that mining is just one use of that land; there will be another use afterwards.
“How do we transition to that post-mining use as part of the initial land use plan we devise right from the start?”
Transparency and regulation According to the panellists, transparency and regulation are two key drivers of technology innovation in the mining industry.
With transparency comes the need to communicate and provide stakeholders relevant information to demonstrate performance and accountability.
This could be with community groups, investors or government entities. Mining companies need to demonstrate they are operating in line with legislation, which Dendra field ecology lead Guy Smith said affects many of his customers.
“We’re often guided by regulations and commercials, and the initial discussions we have with customers consider what they are currently doing to meet the requirements,” he said during the panel discussion.
“Then we step in and suggest how we can help them achieve the same, if not better, results with less effort and less time in the field, and essentially further streamline their current processes.”
Smith said technology innovation is a “moving beast”, with Dendra constantly evolving and changing to respond to industry drivers and through its own internal development.
“We could be flying one drone initially but exploring ways to develop that into a swarm of drones, which will drive greater return on investment for customers,” Smith said.
As remote technologies advance and the capacity to complete off-site analyses improves, ecologists will spend fewer hours on mine sites in the future.
Damian Grose, founder and general manager of Tranen Revegetation Systems, said this would help to address the current skill shortages affecting the mining sector.
“What we do on the ground works – it needs bodies running around – but if there are better ways to do our work more efficiently at scale, then that’s only going to help,” he said during the panel discussion.
“The more we can get done with technology and machinery, the better.”
For Tranen – which revegetates land through practices such as direct seeding – drones are starting to play an increasingly important role.
“If you look at the on-ground work we do, such as direct seeding large areas, these areas can be quite inaccessible … but drones can now direct seed for us. Drones can cover very large areas very quickly, where it’s very slow to do it by hand.
“And then remote sensing enables us to capture data and target where works need to happen very efficiently and monitor progress.”
However, while drones and remote technology are becoming more prevalent, Smith believes on-ground surveying “will never be fully replaced” due to quality control and the need to confirm remote analyses.
He also sees potential for the environmental technology industry to combine different remote surveying techniques into a single package.
“There are a lot of technologies which work independently, such as remote cameras and ultrasonic bat recorders. How can we combine all of that into one central place and get a complete picture of an ecosystem with less field effort?” Smith said.
Gaining that complete picture is not only about optimising surveying processes and technologies, but it also concerns the operational approach and whether rehabilitation is incorporated into mine planning practices.
With environmental experts such as Dendra, CRC TiME, Contour Consulting and Tranen Revegetation Systems at its side, the Australian mining industry has the tools it needs to enhance its rehabilitation strategies now and into the future.
This feature appeared in the November issue of Australian Mining.