At the United Wambo Joint Venture Open Cut Mine, a partnership between Glencore and Peabody, drone technology is playing a growing role in overcoming operational constraints. With two active pits and a high demand for frequent survey data, the survey team needed a smarter, faster, and more efficient way to support mining operations. That’s where HubX came in.
United Wambo produces both thermal and semi-soft coking coal from two pits on site. Surveyors often lose time simply driving between locations, which impacts productivity.
“Survey team workload can get pretty hectic,” adds Mine Surveyor, Dale Hall. “Supplying remotely will allow us to provide more data more frequently.”
With pressure mounting on the survey team to deliver high-frequency data across a changing mine landscape, they needed a way to expand coverage without increasing headcount. Traditional drone operations required boots on the ground for setup and deployment, adding more strain to an already busy team.
HubX was deployed as a portable, all-in-one drone-in-a-box system built for mine operations. Designed for rapid relocation and full autonomy, HubX gave the United Wambo team the flexibility to trial drone deployments at the pit edge, where data is most critical, without requiring manual setup or site reworks.
Some of the key features of HubX that made the difference:
This level of integration meant that deployment was quick, risk management was automated, and data capture could happen more frequently without draining surveyor bandwidth.
With HubX deployed on site, the United Wambo survey team saw an immediate improvement in operational efficiency and responsiveness. Instead of being limited by time-consuming travel or manual drone setups, surveyors could now launch and monitor missions remotely, directly from the office.
This shift meant:
HubX gives the team “the capability to respond almost immediately, capture the data from the office, process it, and give it back so they’re able to continue operations.”
- Senior Mine Surveyor, James Sherritt
Ultimately, HubX helped the United Wambo team do more with the same resources, delivering better insights, faster turnarounds, and a safer, more scalable way to run survey operations on a dynamic mine site.
