Photosat has developed a new technology, using stereo satellite photos, to produce highly accurate topographic base maps for international mining projects. Geophysicists at PhotoSat have applied signal enhancement, noise attenuation and image matching from the field of oil and gas exploration seismic data process to produce highly accurate topographic base maps from stereo satellite photos, producing maps with better than 500 mm horizontal and vertical mapping accuracy.

The stereo satellites can map mining projects anywhere in the world without the requirements for in-country logistics, permits or presence that frequently cause long delays for aircraft based photography and LiDAR surveying.

The establishment of accurate topographic base mapping and survey benchmarks at the early stages of project work accelerates and simplifies all of the subsequent stages of the project and saves time and cost throughout exploration and development. This topographic base mapping and surveying should be completed before expensive drilling and detailed channel sampling pro rams are initiated. “When accurate topographic base maps and survey benchmarks are not established at an early stage, important exploration project data from expensive field programs are frequently unusable in later stages due to the poor quality of the location information,” PhotoSat says. The creation of accurate topographic base mapping and survey benchmarks for the establishment and quality control for project location data indicates that company management has confidence in the potential of the project.