Across Australia’s mining sector, the drive for stronger ESG (environment, social and governance) performance and tighter regulatory compliance is accelerating a digital transformation.
Australian-based geospatial technology company, Pointerra, partnered with a Tier 1 mining company headquartered in Brisbane to develop a suite of mining analytics tools aimed at addressing these growing challenges.
Through this collaboration, it became clear that traditional manual compliance workflows – characterised by fragmented data, repeated site visits, and labour-intensive reporting – are no longer sustainable at scale.
Instead, mining companies are looking to scalable digital solutions that improve visibility and streamline workflows to achieve greater operational efficiency and safety outcomes.
The tools developed through this partnership are giving mining companies constant access to accurate, real-time data and insights that automate compliance processes with greater speed and accuracy.
The rise of digital twins in mining
The Pointerra3D scalable cloud-based platform, enables mining companies to automate critical compliance and conformance workflows. By embedding digital workflows early in their operations, Tier 1 miners are achieving:
- faster compliance reporting — reducing timelines from weeks to hours
- improved safety outcomes — fewer manual inspections, lower site risk
- greater operational efficiency — freeing skilled teams for high-value work
- stronger auditability — with visual, shareable compliance records.
Automated compliance: areas of impact across the mining lifecycle
Road feature extraction
Rapid extraction and analysis of surface features from scanned roadway data, enabling instant validation against design models or maintenance standards.
Mesh clash detection
Early identification of design deviations across surface and underground infrastructure, reducing rework and improving safety margins.
Underground mine conformance
Automated tunnel dimensioning and volume analysis, enabling teams to catch overbreaks and underbreaks before they escalate into costly issues.
Heat and intensity analytics
Mining teams can quickly identify surface inconsistencies, detect material changes, and prioritise maintenance before issues escalate.
Rock bolt extraction
Faster, automated identification of ground support installations to support stronger safety audits and hazard prevention programs.
By connecting 3D datasets directly to actionable compliance workflows, Pointerra3D allows mining operations to operate smarter, safer, and more sustainably, without the burden of legacy systems or fragmented manual processes.
In a future where regulatory demands will only intensify, digital compliance automation and reporting is expected to go from a nice-to-have to a business-critical function of mining operations.
Read the full story here.