Space Enabled Monitoring of Illegal Gold Mining
Providing Government authorities with the capability to improve detection of illegal mines in remote forested regions
Project Lead
Satellite Applications Catapult
Target country(s)
Colombia
Project consortium
Carbomap, SSC, Uni of Leicester, Uni of Portsmouth, LTS
Project Summary
Illegal gold mining is a billion-dollar trade which causes devastating impacts on local communities and the environment.
Mercury is used by illegal mining operations to extract the gold from the ore, it then enters the atmosphere through smelting operations in local towns, or seeps into the surrounding soil, rivers and the food chain causing serious health problems such as kidney failure, acute anaemia and brain damage in new-borns.
This project will enable authorities to increase their capabilities in the detection of illegal gold mining activity in remote forested areas, without putting their personnel at risk. The first barrier to stopping the illegal mining is locating where it is taking place and understanding the scale of the problem.
The ability to identify potential areas for further investigation will support the Government’s efforts to offer individuals working illegally the opportunity to comply with regulation and ensure that safe employment practices are adopted. In turn, this will help reduce the health-related effects of mercury contamination associated with illegal mining.
Using freely available Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data, and incorporating machine-learning techniques, the team intend to develop a software tool that could show suspected areas of illegal mining.
Objectives
- Full working operational tool with smart analytics capability, to identify illegal mining sites with suggested likelihood (Red, Amber, Green).
- 50 Ends users trained on how to use the new operational tool to identify and manage cases on illegal mining sites.
- Deforestation detected and likelihood of link to illegal mining quantified and displayed in the operational tool allowing end users to take action and mange individual cases.