GPS technology is increasingly being used in mining for navigation, surveying, tracking, and safety applications. The key components of a GPS system include space, user, and control segments. Satellites in the space segment transmit signals to receivers in the user segment. The control segment maintains satellite functioning. In mining, GPS guides heavy machinery, drill rigs, haul trucks, and monitors driver behavior. It improves efficiency by optimizing digging, loading, and dumping schedules. However, errors from setup, equipment, and satellite signals require high-precision GPS for accuracy within 200mm. Overall, GPS adoption enhances safety while increasing productivity of mining operations.

1. Application of GPS in
Mining
Submitted by- VANSAJ RAJ
Roll no- 511217017

2. GPS? An Introduction:
• GPS is the abbreviated form of “Global
Positioning System”. It is a satellite-based
radio navigation system, It Permits us to find
velocity, position from anywhere in the world
using satellite communication system.
• In mining industry it helps us in navigation,
surveying,tracking and recreational purposes.

3. Description:
• The system consists of three parts
SPACE segment
USER EQIPMENT
segment
OPERATIONAL
CONTROL segment

4. SPACE SEGMENT
• It consist of several number of satellites to
provide continuous positioning.
• Generally,24 satellites are used out of which at
least 4 are always visible.
• Orbit period of a satellite is 11h 58 min.
• Orbital Radius is nearly 26,600km.
• The slope of each orbit is normally 55 degree

5. Operational Control Segment
• It has the responsibility for maintaining the satellites
and their proper functioning.
• It consist of 3 physical components:
Master control station(MCS)
Monitor station(MS)
Ground antennas
• The MCS operates the system and provides command
and control functions for the satellite constellation.
• The MS is used to track the GPS satellite.

6. EQUIPMENT SEGMENT
• It is commonly known as GPS receiver.
• It receive the signal from the satellites to determine
user position ,velocity and time.
• It is generally an electronic equipment of size varying
from a wristwatch to naval shipboard unit .(weight
31.8 Kg)
• It consist of components like
Antenna
Receiver
Processor
Control display unit
Regulated dc power supply

7. Control
Segment
User
Segment
Master Station Monitor
Stations
Space
Segment
Ground
Antennas

8. Different Applications of GPS in mining
• Control of heavy machinery such as draglines,
• Control of bucket wheels and dozers,
• Drill guidance,
• Roads grading and maintenance,
• Fleet management systems for haul trucks and other
vehicles tracking and dispatch,
• Asset tracking, for instance, of lighting plant and mobile
generators,
• Guidance and control for drill rigs and explosive trucks,
• Access and zone control for visiting vehicles,
• Detecting dangerous driver behaviour &
• Collision avoidance applications.

10. GNSS system:
“global navigation satellite system”
• The conventional coal mining surveying, positioning and
monitoring approaches are both time-consuming and costly.
With the introduction of GNSS based systems aims to
increase the productive availability of ultra-heavy mining
trucks, giant excavators and earthmovers that extract and
transport mineral ore from open-cut mines to processing
facilities in some of the most remote regions of the planet.
• The most of the mining GNSS systems are implemented
using Differential GNSS (DGNSS) or Real Time Kinematics
(RTK). These systems require a reference stations for which
the position is accurately known allowing the deviations
between measured position to the actual position and more
importantly the corrections to the measured pseudo ranges
to each of the individual satellites to be calculated for the
mine site. The corrections calculated are transmitted by a
radio network to the equipments in the field

11. Applications:
The GNSS guidance systems are applied to many
aspects of mining operation including:
• Blasthole Drilling: GNSS based blasthole drill
systems provide drill monitoring, control and
guidance. The prime objective of GNSS
positioning for drilling is to navigate the drill
rig over the designed collar position,
eliminating the need for manual survey.

12. Continued…
• Shovels, Loaders, Dozers and Graders: The
planned design of the mines, ore blocks, pits and
roads, is overlapped with the vehicle's current
positions providing the operator with the
assistance required to mine the pit and ore block
to the intended mine design. The on-board
display provides required assistance by providing
visual cues to where are located the ore blocks
and whether the current floor grade is below or
above the design floor grade.

13. Continued…
• Vehicle Tracking and Dispatch: The dump trucks
positions obtained are sent to the central control
station, where is carried the dumping scheduling
management. This application determines which
material is loaded and sends information and
instructions to be followed by the truck drivers, in
order to guarantee that the assignments are
followed and the materials are correctly collected
from the correct ore block and dumped in the
correct dumping location

15. Continued…
• Monitor Drivers and Vehicles: The sensors in
the vehicle provide monitoring information of
equipment's, like for instance air pressures.
These systems also provide sensors to analyze
the operator's well-being, by measuring key
body parameters such as heart rate and skin
temperature. This information is combined with
GNSS information and is sent to a central
control station. This information will allow for
rapid intervention in case of problems.

16. Continued….
• Truck Fleet Management:-
Many mines are fitting GPS systems to their
trucks for fleet management purposes.
Trucks can be assigned to different loading
machines in real time to improve overall
efficiency. A side safety benefit is that the
central control station knows at all times the
whereabouts of each truck in the fleet.
Stand alone GPS is generally adequate for
this task.

18. CHALLENGES
• One of the biggest challenges with GPS systems is
keeping the amount of introduced errors to a
minimum.
• The errors like survey setup error, in-built survey
equipment inaccuracy, the errors inherent with in
GPS satellite radio signals.
• While the error due to GPS Satellite radio signal
can be reduced using correction factors, all other
errors approaches nearly 200mm.
• So high precision GPS is used to get more
accuracy.

19. Conclusion
GPS survey and machine guidance applications
are finding increasing acceptance in the mining
industry. Widespread adoption of this
technology has important safety benefits as a
by product. In addition there are a number of
applications where GPS systems may be fitted
for primary safety purposes. Lack of satellites is
the major problem to be overcome, but there
are a number of possible solutions and more
will be available in the future.

20. References
1. ESA Portal, Space technology aids mining
2. GPS Guidance System and Reduction of Open Pit
Mining Costs and Revenue Loss, Andrew P. Jarosz
and Raleigh Finlayson
3. Safety Applications for GPS Systems in the Mining
Industry, Queensland Resources Council
4. Monitoring of Offshore Platform Subsidence Using
Permanent GPS Stations, Halim Setan and Rusli
Othman, Journal of Global Positioning Systems,
2006
5. GSA, Europe's Satellite Navigation Programmes
6. GNSS applications on Wikipedia

21. THANK YOU