Enterprise

DJI Dock at Norton Gold Fields: Post-Blast Grade Control at Paddington

Overhead muckpile with ore-spotting overlay on an excavator loading a haul truck

After a blast, the clock that matters is not the ten-minute flight. It is getting a model of the muckpile before the excavator starts mixing ore and waste.

Norton Gold Fields put a DJI Dock on that job at Paddington Operations, near Kalgoorlie. DJI published the case in Implementing an Automated Mining Workflow Using DJI Dock. D1 Enterprise supplies DJI Dock in Australia, then stands up FlightHub 2, trains the crew, and maintains the kit. For the rest of the stack, including BVLOS approvals, we bring in our partners.

Quick take:

  • Norton Gold Fields (Zijin Mining Group) at Paddington Operations, Kalgoorlie, WA.
  • Job: post-blast muckpile analysis for grade control, in the 2020s.
  • After each blast the Dock flew a high-resolution survey of the muckpile.
  • Then a model: photogrammetry built a 3D surface, and a third-party muckpile tool predicted where ore and waste had moved.
  • The point: tighter digging, less dilution, and less waste rock into the plant.
  • D1 Enterprise supplies the Dock, sets up FlightHub 2, trains and maintains the kit, and connects partners for the rest of the stack, including BVLOS.

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What the Paddington workflow was for

Blast

After each shot, the Dock surveyed the muckpile before digging started.

3D

Photogrammetry turned that flight into a model of the muckpile surface.

Grade

A third-party tool used that model to mark ore and waste after blast movement.

Norton Gold Fields wanted better ore recovery and lower processing costs. DJI’s paper says they put Dock surveys next to blast-movement modelling so grade control had a map, not a guess, when the digger started.

How the Dock fitted the blast cycle

After each blast, the Dock flew a high-resolution survey of the muckpile. That imagery was processed with photogrammetry into a 3D model of the pile. The model went into a third-party, intelligence-driven muck pile modelling tool. The software simulates how the blast moved rock, then predicts where ore and waste sit in the pile.

Overhead muckpile with ore-spotting overlay on an excavator loading a haul truck
Ore spotting using real-time intelligent analysis. Image: RocketDNA.

DJI reported three outcomes from that loop:

  • Improved grade control. Ore and waste boundaries were clearer, so digging plans were better informed.
  • Reduced ore dilution. Less waste went into the ore stream.
  • Lower processing costs. A higher share of ore in the plant cut chemical and energy use.

Same Dock idea as the Rio Tinto Gudai-Darri iron ore trial, different commodity: get the model before the machine starts. Read the Pilbara Dock brief.

If you want this loop on an Australian site

Paddington’s lesson is a Dock after the blast, then a model before the digger starts. D1 Enterprise supplies DJI Dock in Australia. We also set up FlightHub 2, train the crew, and maintain the hardware on official DJI programs. For the rest of the stack, including BVLOS approvals, we connect you to our partners.

If your site already has a blast-movement or muckpile tool, the useful question is whether a Dock can feed it after every shot, and who stands up the software and the approvals around it. That is the conversation we have.

Get a quote · enterprise@d1store.com.au · (03) 9288 7859

Sources

Facts about Paddington are from DJI’s whitepaper Implementing an Automated Mining Workflow Using DJI Dock, section 5.4 (enterprise.dji.com, with thanks in the paper to EE Group Australia and RocketDNA). The ore-spotting figure is credited to RocketDNA in that source.

Related

Programs, CASA rules, and kit change. Talk to D1 Enterprise before you treat this as a specification.

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