DoorDash, Grubhub, Uber Eats: restaurant-to-home food delivery has exploded in popularity in the past year. But did you know that delivery of preprocessed food has been going on for hundreds of years? I was browsing Phys.org after my fourth video meeting in a row the other day and came across an article discussing the results of an archaeological dig at a Bronze Age mining site. The headline read, “Bronze Age mining sites received deliveries of pre-processed foods.” As the old adage goes, what is old is new again.

Today and during the Bronze Age, mining often occurs in remote locations. That fact yields a set of logistical challenges unique to mining. The people working at this mine were skilled laborers. Their efforts were most productive if focused on what they were trained to do at the mine. The article cited above surmises that to maintain high production rates, it made sense to produce the community’s food elsewhere and deliver it to the mine.

We often speak about commonality among our customers who produce high-value products. They often must manage geographically dispersed assets in sensitive environments. In a geographical sense, mining operations today are no different than the Bronze Age example above. Satelytics offers a variety of measurements that can be deployed anywhere in the world to enhance any operation.

Satelytics’ first foray into the mining space involved mapping concentration and spread of a specific species of copper dust to assess potential liability for the customer. With algorithms that work in the infrared spectrum of commercially available satellite data, we can detect, quantify, and speciate various metals and minerals throughout an operation and its surrounding landscape. We have even expanded this capability into measuring the spread of copper dust coming off the braking action of cars in Beverly Hills, as shown in the example below.

A newer capability developed by Satelytics’ science team intends to assist companies in managing acid drainage. Satelytics can map soil and water areas down to the square foot where low pH concentrations exist. Coupled with our mineral identification tools, Satelytics can pinpoint where degradation reactions are active in waste rock dumps and tailings pits. As commercially available sensor options expand, we also expect to soon be able to detect and quantify carbon dioxide emissions associated with these reactions.

Yet another mining use case for Satelytics derives from the work we have done in the midstream space looking at land movements, vegetation, and erosion in pipeline right-of-ways. Where mine closure has occurred, our Constant Vigilance™ algorithms can look for a decline in health or loss of vegetative cover, which results in increased fragility in dams or embankments. Using high-resolution imagery, we can spot lateral land movements and erosion down to the square foot, in anticipation of larger events. Change detections can monitor activity at operational sites and alert to human activity at closed ones.

Satelytics' mining customers come to us because we provide timely alerts to threats facing their infrastructure. With passive monitoring, we can monitor a site without intrusion. All measurements can come from one set of data, which allows costs to be shared by multiple business groups. Results are ready in a matter of hours after imagery is captured. In remote locations lacking cell coverage, we offer Satelytics for the non-connected world so employees can access the information they need via phone or tablet.

Simplify your work life with Satelytics’ monitoring and alerts delivered to your desk from any location on earth. It’s as easy as calling for food delivery…and more pertinent to your bottom line.