The Use of GIS Tools in Mining: Process Automation of Calculating the Volume of Mineral Extracted from a Deposit

The recording of minerals extracted from a deposit is crucial for effective planning, exploitation management and compliance with legal requirements. It also enables improved workplace safety and minimization of negative environmental impact. Automation in mining optimizes exploitation, transportation, and data management processes, resulting in better forecasting, more accurate resource calculations, and reduced operational costs. Due to the usage of Geographic Information System tools, it facilitates data modelling and analysis, enhancing monitoring and mining exploitation management. This paper presents the classical approach to determining the volume of extracted minerals and proposes the automation of the volume calculation process using GIS tools. The automation of process is presented both from a theoretical perspective, providing requirements and parameters for individual calculation procedures, and from a practical perspective, using the example of a typical open pit mine, where the procedure was implemented starting from field measurements, through calculations, and ending with visualization and interpretation. The study highlights the benefits of automating the calculation procedure for the volume of extracted minerals, including task execution acceleration, increased efficiency, reduced calculation time, and minimized human error. This ultimately leads to more precise and consistent results.