20× faster stockpile surveys across six active quarries

The challenge

Nelson Aggregate operates six active quarry sites across Ontario, producing crushed stone, sand, and gravel. Accurate stockpile volumetrics are essential for inventory management, regulatory reporting, and production planning. Traditional surveying with total stations and GPS rovers required a two-person crew spending 3+ days per site — and by the time results were processed, material had already moved.

The sites

The solution

Each site received weekly drone flights using DroneDeploy’s automated flight planning and photogrammetry pipeline. A single operator could capture an entire quarry in under 45 minutes, with 3D point clouds, orthomosaics, and volumetric calculations delivered same-day. Ground control points were established once and reused across subsequent flights for consistent accuracy benchmarking.

The results

Drone surveys were 20× faster than traditional methods — a full site survey that previously took 3+ days was completed in under 45 minutes of flight time plus automated processing. Annual cost savings reached $28,500 across all six sites by eliminating contract surveyor fees and reducing crew time.

Volumetric accuracy was validated at ±1.2% against independent LiDAR scans, exceeding the ±3% tolerance required for regulatory reporting. The weekly cadence also gave operations managers near-real-time visibility into material movement — a capability that was impossible with quarterly manual surveys.