Mapping the distribution of minerals, pipes, ponded lixiviant, and other surficial features on heap leach pads is a continuing challenge for hydrometallurgy operations, maintenance, and design. Recently, commercial drone technology has enabled remote sensing techniques to be deployed for some leach pad mapping and surveying applications, but applications to hydrometallurgical operations are still emerging. This project tested one potential mapping technology, drone-based hyperspectral remote sensing, for mapping leach pads, using the Safford mine as a test site.

The results show that hyperspectral remote sensing can acquire information about mineral distribution, piping system, and lixiviant ponding. The main minerals detected on the leach pads are kaolinite, muscovite, and gypsum, although the detection of gypsum is probably due to the widespread sulfate precipitating from agglomerating acid and lixiviant. The path of the stacker loading rocks, lixiviant ponding, and drip lines can also be seen in the spectral images. Chlorite and biotite, long-term acid consumers, were not detected in the results, but are on the leach pads. Best practices for hyperspectral remote sensing in mapping leach pads include: building a reference library from ground-truth samples, using high spatial resolution for mapping piping systems and low spatial resolution for mapping minerals, scanning leach pads in sunshine, and scanning before leaching starts.

在堆浸垫上绘制矿物、管道、蓄水浸出剂和其他表面特征的分布图是湿法冶金操作、维护和设计的持续挑战。最近，商业无人机技术已使遥感技术能够用于一些浸出垫测绘和测量应用，但湿法冶金操作的应用仍在不断涌现。该项目使用 Safford 矿作为测试地点，测试了一种潜在的测绘技术，即基于无人机的高光谱遥感，用于测绘浸出垫。

结果表明，高光谱遥感可以获取有关矿物分布、管道系统和浸出液池的信息。在浸出垫上检测到的主要矿物是高岭石、白云母和石膏，尽管检测到石膏可能是由于凝聚酸和浸出剂中广泛沉淀的硫酸盐所致。在光谱图像中还可以看到堆垛机装载岩石、浸出液积水和滴水线的路径。结果中未检测到长期消耗酸的亚氯酸盐和黑云母，但在浸出垫上。高光谱遥感在浸出垫测绘中的最佳实践包括：根据真实样本建立参考库，使用高空间分辨率绘制管道系统图，使用低空间分辨率绘制矿物图，在阳光下扫描浸出垫，