Gudai-Darri is one of the most advanced mines in the world for automation. From the outset, Rio Tinto designed the site around autonomous haulage and remote operating centres, with the aim to reduce on-site tasks, remove people from the danger of the pit environment and run more of the operation from Perth.

Bringing drone operations into that model was the next step for Rio’s Group Technical team. Manual flights provided valuable data, but they still required surveyors to drive into the pit and spend time on repetitive capture work. They wanted a system that could deliver the same information automatically for consistent coverage, faster data processing, and better faster access for multiple departments.

For Rio, automating drone capture aligned the site with its broader operating philosophy: integrate remote operations and support their broader shift toward autonomy.

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The Challenge

Demand for drone data at Gudai-Darri was growing. Mine planning, drill and blast, environmental, and geotechnical teams all needed regular surveys and imagery to support their work.

Each job required a surveyor to drive into the pit, set up, and fly the drone under visual line of sight. A single trip from the office to the pit could take 30 minutes before any flying even started. With an autonomous haulage fleet running continuously, every manual vehicle entering added another 20–30 minutes of delays to the operating cycle.

Surveyors spent lots of time doing repetitive capture tasks that took them away from higher value data analysis work. The Group Technical team needed a way to increase data availability across teams and use automation to free up surveyors to work on more complex projects and support other teams with their growing survey demands.
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Rio’s Objectives

Gudai-Darri was already designed around autonomous haulage and remote operations centres, and they wanted drone capture to work the same way: consistent, scheduled, and managed off site.
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Their objectives were clear:

• Reduce the number of manual vehicle movements into the pit.
• Give multiple departments faster access to survey imagery and data.
• Free surveyors from routine flying so they could focus on analysis and complex projects.
• Build a foundation to scale drone use as demand for data grew.

Overall, the goal was to make survey data capture as automated and reliable as the other autonomous systems already embedded at the mine.

Our Recommendations

Understanding this, RocketDNA recommended an approach that would get them the outcomes they wanted.

1.   It had to free up surveyor time, so skilled staff were not tied up with routine flights and logistics but could focus on analysis and support other teams.

2.   It had to improve access to data, make imagery and surveys available quickly across the site and easily distributed among departments.

3.   And it had to be suitable for the scale of the operation. With more than 190 square kilometres of mine to cover, the system needed to capture large areas efficiently without adding more manual vehicle movements into autonomous haulage zones.

That’s why we recommended that they automate routine missions with a docked drone system, but retain manual flights for specialised jobs. This gave Rio a way to capture consistent data on schedule, reduce pit entries, and expand availability of survey information, all while keeping surveyors focused on higher-value technical work.

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Straightforward Implementation

When Rio’s Group Technical team first explored drone-in-a-box systems five years earlier, the technology was still out of reach. Units were expensive and required heavy infrastructure just to get online. At the time, a single fibre connection could cost more than $200,000, making it difficult to justify the investment.

But with significant advancements in technology, hardware costs had dropped significantly, and satellite connections with Starlink meant the system could be brought online with a simple antenna instead of major fibre works. That shift made it easy for Rio’s team to build a strong business case.

On that basis, Rio went ahead with our recommendation to automate routine missions. We supplied a skid-mounted unit that could be deployed quickly, connected it to power, and brought it online using Starlink with a 4G backup. The system was operational within two days of installation, with flights run remotely from our operations centres in Perth and Adelaide. 

Captured data is now delivered through the SiteTube platform, giving staff across the site, and at head office, immediate access to data and imagery. This means mine planning, geology, environmental, and geotechnical teams can all view the same up-to-date information without waiting on surveyors to distribute files.

The Impact at Gudai-Darri

Since automating routine drone operations at Gudai-Darri, their Group Services team has delivered more than efficiency gains. It has given their drone survey systems the same automation and remote operations scope that already defines the site. Today, the system runs 60 hours of remotely operated flights each month.

The biggest impact has been cultural. Teams on site quickly saw that they no longer needed to drive into the pit to get the data they relied on. Surveyors are freed from routine capture work and now spend more of their time on analysis and technical projects. Departments across the mine, from mine planning and geology to environmental, geotechnical, and even electrical, now access daily imagery through SiteTube as part of their normal workflow.

The result is both practical and strategic. Manual vehicle entries into autonomous haulage zones have been reduced, data is delivered faster and more consistently, and the mine has a model that can scale as demand for drone data continues to grow.