Austria’s 3GSM says its new 3D fragmentation package BMX Fragmenter works well for drone imagery that shows muckpiles of surface blasts but that it also delivers also good results in underground applications. In ongoing tests LKAB is using it via a detachable camera/lights installation on the crown of drifts to image passing LHDs. The camera system triggers automatically and provides a set of photographs of the drive-through.

Image processing extracts those parts of the photos that show the bucket and provides a detailed 3D model of it. The results are the particle size distribution of the visible part on the surface as well as the volume of rock inside the bucket. This information enables an objective assessment of different designs and work procedures and serves as support for decisions.

3GSM says BMX Fragmenter combines 2D and 3D analysis, is fully automated and scales automatically. In surface mining working with drones, BMZ Fragmenter can be used together with another 3GSM platform, BlastMetriX UAV, which generates 3D images from drone imagery for face profiling, blast design and analysis.