Precise positioning of blasthole drills and mining shovels using GPS

AQUILA Mining Systems Ltd. is a Canadian company that designs and develops monitoring, control and navigation systems for the surface and underground mining industries. In 1992, AQUILA Mining Systems began the development of technology for monitoring, controlling and positioning mobile mining equipment. In 1993, AQUILA completed its first field test with GPS receivers onboard a blasthole drill, and thus demonstrated the viability and strategic relevance of this technology in surface mining. Since then, AQUILA has installed GPS-based technology on drills and shovels in several Canadian mines. This paper reviews the development of these systems and discusses the benefits the mining industry could realise through their production implementation.