Drones in Mining in Canada: Uses, Rules and Records (2026)

Canadian mines use drones to map exploration ground, measure pit and stockpile volumes, monitor tailings and water, inspect haul roads and highwalls, document blasts and track reclamation. Day-to-day work is usually flown within visual line of sight under Transport Canada’s Basic or Advanced rules, while beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) flights need a Level 1 Complex pilot certificate and an RPAS Operator Certificate (RPOC). Whoever flies, the drone’s owner must keep flight records, and those records are what an auditor, a client or Transport Canada will ask to see.

What Drones Do Across the Mine Life Cycle

Drones earn their place at a mine by doing survey and inspection work faster than a crew on foot, with nobody standing in the hazard:

• Exploration: mapping claims, planning access and camps, drone-borne magnetic surveys.
• Pit operations: pit and bench surveys, design-versus-actual checks.
• Stockpiles: volume surveys for inventory and reconciliation.
• Tailings and water: dam crest, beach and pond monitoring between formal inspections.
• Haul roads and highwalls: ramps, berms and highwall faces, captured from a safe stand-off with nobody at the toe or crest.
• Blasting: pre-blast records, blast video for fragmentation and flyrock review, and muck pile surveys, flown only when the blaster in charge clears the area.
• Closure and reclamation: revegetation, erosion and landform surveys you can compare year to year.

Pit and stockpile volume surveys

Volume surveys are repeat work, which suits drones well. A mapping drone flies a grid over the pile or pit, photogrammetry or LiDAR software builds a surface model, and that model is compared with a base surface to calculate volume. Walking the same pile with a GNSS rover puts a surveyor on loose slopes next to loaders; the drone does it from the edge.

Underground work

Scanning stopes and voids is a different case: Transport Canada states that Part IX of the Canadian Aviation Regulations does not apply to indoor or underground drone operations. You must still fly safely and follow every other law that applies, including the mine’s own underground rules.

The Safety Case: Fewer People in the Hazard

Every survey a drone flies is time a surveyor isn’t spending on a stockpile slope, at the toe of a highwall, on a tailings beach or beside a haul road full of trucks. That’s the strongest argument for drones at a mine, often stronger than the time saved.

The drone brings its own hazards, so treat each flight like any other task on site:

• Put drone flights into the site’s permit and hazard assessment process.
• Brief the crews in the area. Transport Canada’s Aeronautical Information Manual (TC AIM) treats mine workers as part of the operation when they’ve been briefed on the drone hazard and can leave the area if they’re uncomfortable. People inside vehicles, such as haul truck drivers, don’t count toward the 30 m distance that Basic operations must keep from people.
• Agree on communications, including how the pilot hears about blasts, crane lifts and helicopter movements.
• Pick launch and landing areas away from traffic.

Operating at Remote Sites

Check the airspace first

Many remote mines sit in uncontrolled airspace, but don’t assume it. Check for controlled airspace, aerodromes (including a site airstrip), restricted areas and wildfires: Transport Canada says not to fly within 9.3 km (5 NM) of a wildfire. Controlled airspace takes an Advanced certificate and a NAV CANADA authorization, requested through NAV Drone.

Beyond visual line of sight

Long haul roads, large pits and tailings facilities are where BVLOS pays off. Since the Phase 2 rules took effect on November 4, 2025, lower-risk BVLOS can be flown as a Level 1 Complex operation without an SFOC when:

• The pilot holds a Level 1 Complex certificate (18 or older, Advanced and Level 1 Complex exams, at least 20 hours of ground school and a flight review).
• The operator flies under an RPOC.
• The drone has the safety assurance declaration the operation requires.
• The airspace is uncontrolled, and the drone stays at or below 122 m (400 ft) above ground and more than 9.3 km (5 NM) from the centre of any aerodrome listed in the Canada Flight Supplement or Water Aerodrome Supplement.
• The area is at least 1 km from a populated area (more than 5 people per km²). Small drones with a pre-validated declaration may also fly over sparsely populated areas.

If your mine’s airstrip is listed in the Canada Flight Supplement, that distance applies to it too. BVLOS outside these conditions, such as in an aerodrome environment, still needs a Special Flight Operations Certificate (SFOC).

Cold, distance and no signal

Cold shortens battery life and invites condensation. The TC AIM says you must fly within the manufacturer’s limits, including temperature, and that the controller, tablet or payload may have narrower limits than the aircraft. See our winter drone operations guide.

Then there’s connectivity. Download maps and airspace before leaving camp, make sure flights get logged without a signal, and plan how imagery reaches engineers who aren’t on site.

The Rules and Records That Matter

Certificates. Each pilot needs the Transport Canada certificate that matches the operation (Basic, Advanced or Level 1 Complex) and must have met the recency requirement in the past 24 months.

Flight and maintenance records. Under section 901.48 of the Canadian Aviation Regulations, the drone’s owner must record the pilots and crew involved in each flight and the time of each flight, and keep it for 12 months. Maintenance, modification and repair records are kept for 24 months. After an incident such as a flyaway, the pilot stops flying until the cause is analysed and corrected, and keeps that analysis for 12 months.

The operator’s safety system. An RPOC requires an accountable executive, a person responsible for maintenance, a training program, standard operating procedures and a process to manage safety risks. That’s the backbone of a drone safety management system (SMS), and it gives a mine’s contractor safety review something concrete to check.

Audit-ready logs. The legal minimum is short. A useful mine site record also shows, for every flight, the pilot and their certificate, the drone, the date, time and location, the airspace check, the site survey and any incident.

In-House Program or Contractor?

	In-house program	Contractor
Best fit	Frequent repeat work, such as monthly stockpile surveys	Occasional surveys, specialist sensors, or BVLOS without your own RPOC
Upfront cost	Aircraft, sensors, software and training	None; you pay per job or contract
Certificates and approvals	Your pilots, and your RPOC for BVLOS	The contractor’s, which you verify
Scheduling	Around your blasts and shift changes	Depends on availability and travel to site
Records	In your own system from day one	Ask for flight logs as a deliverable

You don’t have to pick one: keep routine volume flights in house and bring in a contractor for LiDAR, magnetics or BVLOS work. When you hire, check the pilot’s certificate, ask for the RPOC on BVLOS jobs, confirm the insurance your contract requires, and make flight logs and raw data part of the deliverables. Mapping is often priced per acre or hectare, or as a day rate.

Where RPAS WILCO Fits

RPAS WILCO doesn’t fly your surveys. It’s the operations and compliance layer around them.

• Before the flight: RPAS WILCO runs airspace checks and site surveys on official NAV CANADA aeronautical data, so the pilot sees controlled airspace and aerodromes around the pit before leaving camp.
• Records: your drones, pilots and audit-ready flight logs sit in one place, not in spreadsheets on a site laptop.
• In the field: RPAS WILCO Fly, our Android app for enterprise teams, streams live video to engineers off site and keeps the crew coordinated. Flights at sites with no signal are still logged on the device and sync when you’re back online, and flight data is stored in Canada.
• Finding a pilot: the RPAS WILCO Marketplace lists independent pilots across Canada who offer mapping, photogrammetry and LiDAR. Filter by service, province, industry and language, then contact them directly, with no booking fees and no commission. You check each pilot’s credentials before you hire.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you need a drone pilot certificate to fly at a mine in Canada?

Yes. Flying a drone of 250 g or more outdoors at a Canadian mine takes a Transport Canada pilot certificate: Basic, Advanced or Level 1 Complex, depending on the operation. Underground flights fall outside Part IX of the Canadian Aviation Regulations, but the mine’s own safety rules still apply.

How accurate is a drone stockpile volume survey?

It depends on ground control or RTK/PPK positioning, image overlap, flight height and how the base of each pile is defined. Ask for a check against independently surveyed points, and keep the method the same month to month.

Can drones fly beyond visual line of sight at a remote mine?

Yes, as a Level 1 Complex operation in uncontrolled airspace, at or below 122 m, more than 9.3 km from listed aerodromes and away from populated areas, with a certified pilot, an RPOC and a declared drone. Anything else needs an SFOC.

What flight records does a drone operator have to keep?

The owner records the pilots, crew and time of each flight and keeps it for 12 months, with maintenance records kept for 24 months. A mine’s own audit may ask for more, such as the airspace check and site survey for each flight.

Do drones work at mine sites in a Canadian winter?

Yes, with planning: warm batteries, shorter flights, the manufacturer’s temperature limits for every part of the system, and care with condensation.