GIS Digest: A Methodology for Volumetric Calculations of Mining Materials using LAS Point Files

This was my lightning talk for UT's first annual GIS day. I present a workflow that takes several aerial images of a mine site and calculates the amount in metric tons of materials mined from the change in elevation data.

FAQ:
What kind of imagery was used for the project?
The imagery was proprietary images gathered by my organization and UT's Bureau of Economic Geology of the mine sites. The imagery includes LiDAR and aerial photography. Elevation changes are calculated from the LiDAR images and features on the ground are determined from the aerial photography.

Can the classification process be automated?
Yes however because the project required a great deal of precision to produce accurate figures automation would actually be disadvantageous. The algorithms we tested would incorrectly classify piles of harvested materials which has an effect on the accuracy of the metric ton measurements.

What programs were used?
We classify features in LP360. We calculate volumes in ArcMap using the cut fill geoprocessing tool.

How do you convert the spatial data to metric tons?
We use a density raster grid in the raster calculator tool which classifies the ground data based on the type of material. This raster is multiplied with the product of the cut fill tool to produce a usable figure.

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