How Survey Drones Are Improving Mine Operations & Helping Power Greece’s Homes

Public Power Corporation S.A. (PPC) is the largest electric power company in Greece. PPC operates several mining operations across the country.

PPC’s mining operation spans 170 square kilometers. At the Kardia mine alone, the company excavates around 40 million cubic meters of materials, of which 10 to 20 percent is lignite. Lignite is extremely important to the country’s energy needs and is the material that—once processed—powers many of Greece’s homes. In fact, PPC produces roughly 40 percent of Greece’s power using lignite (Greece also depends on a mix of hydroelectric and gas plants for its energy). Lignite is abundant in the subsoil of Greece, and the country is the second-largest producer of lignite in the European Union, sixth in the world.

PPC’s previous method of calculating its lignite volumes and excavator deposits was to use terrestrial surveying instruments such as LiDAR scanners. However, these ground-based methods took a long time and were dangerous.

Download our case study and discover how PPC used senseFly fixed-wing drones to:

• Improve mine operations
• Dramatically increase the accuracy of the mines’ volume calculations
• Reduce its survey time from one week to seven hours
• Improve site and team safety
• Save approximately 50,000 Euro per mine as a result of using fixed-wing drones