The AIMS Singleton Seminar was held at the Charbonnier function centre on Friday 18th November 2022, with 88 people in attendance.
The event was sponsored by industry suppliers AAM, C.R. Kennedy, Carlson, GeoCue and UPG, with trade tables setup for attendees to discuss the latest offerings.
Peter Sergeant delivered a presentation on behalf of the BOSSI Mine Surveying Assessors, about the industry skills shortage and looked at the current number of Registered Mining Surveyors and Candidate Mining Surveyors in NSW, including their age profile, which highlighted the need to increase the number of Candidates coming through the system each year. The presentation also included an update on the Mining Surveying candidate assessment process and discussed ways in which to help candidates to successfully complete their projects and exams.
Anthony Boyd from AAM presented on Mine site aerial and bathymetric surveys, with a focus on finding the right balance between people and technology. Part of the presentation included a case study involving their automated processing solution called LiDARnetics, which is based on cloud infrastructure and was developed to meet the rapid turnaround times requested by our Resources clients.
Dr Lloyd Pilgrim from the University of Newcastle gave an update of the Surveying Program at the University including some specifics around the subject composition and some statistics around student numbers. Lloyd was enthusiastic about being able to engage with the mining surveying community and looked forward to being able to attend more events. Lloyd also encouraged more involvement from industry in engaging with students at specific events at the University, to help provide some real-world perspectives for the students.
Chris Rudens, Principal Officer Rehabilitation from the NSW Resources Regulator gave a demonstration on the Mine Rehabilitation Portal, showing how the data is being used by the Regulator to better understand and manage, how rehabilitation is completed. The demonstration covered the two components of the portal, being the upload portal – for data validation, submission and user management, and the Map viewer – for viewing, analysing, and reporting on the submitted spatial data.
Also representing the University of Newcastle was PhD student Mansoor Sabzali, who gave a presentation on new methodologies in data acquisitions and post-processing can be applied in mining industry, particularly around the use of combined photogrammetry and LiDAR datasets, to provide improved data datasets. We look forward to seeing more from Mansoor as his research progresses.
(Pictured: Dr Lloyd Pilgrim and Mansoor Sabzali from the University of Newcastle with James Sherritt AIMS Vice President)
Duncan MacDougal provided an update from the University of Southern Queensland about the University's recent discussion with industry representatives about establishing the role of School Engagement Officer in collaboration with industry funding, to help promote Surveying to Schools and highlight the University's surveying program options.
Anthony Boyle from C.R. Kennedy then gave a presentation on why users should consider using drone-based photogrammetry over drone-based Lidar data acquisition for mine sites, highlighting that the right option choice can make a difference in the outcome. Pointing out the importance of carefully assessing site requirements and constraints when choosing drone-based technology, e.g. photogrammetry vs LiDAR and the drone platform multicopter vs powered lift vs conventional lift.
With the increased number of attendees and trade partners, we may have reached the capacity limits of the current venue and will look to a more spacious location for next year's event. A number of members have also raised the need for live streaming of similar events, which is something that the AIMS Board is investigating.
The next NSW seminars being planned by AIMS are Mudgee and Newcastle - keep an eye on the AIMS Calendar for details as they become available.
We encourage members to get in touch with AIMS if they wish to contribute by presenting on any interesting aspect of their site or work (generally around 30 minutes).
Coordinator: Peter Sergeant
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
