A drone dock on your mine site, run by our team

The dock stores, launches and charges the drone. Flights run on a schedule or on request, imagery uploads on its own, and your team gets orthomosaics, 3D models and stockpile volumes.

Discuss your site How it works

Five docks deployed for three mining clients, as at 5 September 2026.

A drone dock inside a temporary safety fence on red earth at an operating gold mine
One of our docks at an operating gold mine.
A drone dock and its equipment cabinet behind a fence with a no-entry sign
The dock sits in a fenced area. No one needs to be near it when it flies.

How a flight works

The drone is the aircraft. The dock is its base on the mine site: a weatherproof box with power, a charger and an internet link.

  1. A flight is scheduled, or the site asks for one.
  2. The dock opens and the drone takes off.
  3. It follows a saved route and captures imagery.
  4. It lands, the dock closes, and the imagery uploads for processing.

Every flight is automated and supervised by a licensed remote pilot, who does not need to be on site.

Fifty years of measuring the mine

Each earlier tool still needed someone to go out to the pit. The dock removes that trip.

  1. 1971

    Total station

    A survey crew goes to site to take measurements.

  2. 1993

    Satellite positioning

    A GPS rover, carried on foot across the bench and the stockpile.

  3. 2012

    Piloted survey drone

    A pilot drives out, flies for minutes, drives back and downloads.

  4. 2022

    Drone dock

    No trip. The drone flies the same routes on a set schedule, then recharges and uploads in the dock.

Planned once, like a substation

A dock is site infrastructure. You choose its location once, so that its flights cover the areas that matter.

At one gold mining operation, three docks sit 10 to 31 km apart, and most of the key site locations fall within 10 km of a dock.

10 km is the manufacturer’s rated radius. Each dock’s approved flight area is agreed with the regulator and the mine.

Drone dock
10 km rated radius
Scheduled flight areas, to scale
Key site location (hollow: planned)
Illustrative layout of three drone docks 10 to 31 kilometres apart, each with a 10 kilometre rated-radius ring covering most key site locations
Illustrative layout drawn from a real deployment. Names and basemap removed, orientation changed; distances to scale.

What one dock produces

Fixed routes, flown again and again, give several teams a record they can compare. These are screenshots from our own sites.

Stockpile model coloured blue and red where material was removed or added between two flights

Stockpile volumes

Volume change between two processed models, measured in FlightHub Analyzer.

For survey, production and finance teams

3D model of an open pit with width, depth and slope measurements drawn on it

Pit walls and benches

Measured from the 3D model, before and after a blast, from the desk.

For geotechnical, drill and blast, and safety teams

Elevation model of a tailings cell shaded from blue (low) to red (high)

Tailings and ground surfaces

Dated imagery of the tailings surface for comparison between flights.

For environment and compliance teams

Thermal and colour views of a site road

Thermal imagery after dark

Night imagery of camp, plant and access roads, when the site asks for it.

For site services teams

The same flights also give a picture of yesterday’s site for the pre-start meeting: pits, roads and progress against plan.

Relied on every day

From our three-dock gold mining deployment, 20 May to 5 September 2026. A dock-day is one dock scheduled to operate for one day. Weather and faults are counted against us.

84%
of scheduled dock-days, the full daily flight plan was completed the same day.
94%
of scheduled dock-days produced imagery, including partial captures.
31 of 31
days in August, each established dock launched a scheduled flight.

Who does what

DJI makes the drone, the dock and the FlightHub 2 flight-management platform. Our team handles installation, flight scheduling, remote supervision and maintenance, so your people receive the outputs without running a drone program.

  • Before go-live. Choosing dock locations, installation, commissioning and flight routes.
  • Every day. Scheduling, remote supervision of each flight, and on-request launches.
  • Ongoing. Maintenance, approvals, and flight records kept in Celestial Ops, our own platform, with records stored in Australia.

Questions

What does the site need to provide?

A suitable fenced pad for the dock, power and an internet connection. We agree the requirements with you during scoping.

What data does the workflow produce?

Imagery uploads automatically and is processed in the cloud into orthomosaics and 3D models. An orthomosaic joins many aerial photos into one map-like image of the area.

How are stockpile volumes measured?

Volumes are measured in FlightHub Analyzer from the processed site model.

How often do the docks fly?

The schedule is set for each site. Daily flights are scheduled at our established sites, and the site can ask for extra flights. Weather and site conditions can stop a flight on a given day.

Does someone need to be on site to fly the drone?

No. Each flight is automated and supervised remotely by a licensed remote pilot.

Where is Celestial Digital based?

Our office is in South Perth, Western Australia.

About us

Celestial Digital Pty Ltd is a Perth company that installs and operates drone docks for the mining industry. We look after the equipment, the flight schedule and the data workflow.

Discuss your site

Tell us where the site is, which areas you need captured and what outputs you need.

Prefer to talk? Call (08) 6102 2832 or email info@celestialdigi.com.