Multispectral Remote Sensing

Airborne remote sensing has been used at Highland Valley Copper since 2001 as part of the reclamation program to provide annual high spatial resolution maps of vegetation cover and complement the vegetative assessments. In 2011, the multi-temporal analysis was applied to all sites undergoing reclamation, with the exception of Valley and Lornex, where mining operations have been extended to 2025. As in previous years, Remote Sensing biomass was calculated based on the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and then appended to the existing NDVI time series. This unique and growing dataset allows examination of vegetation changes over time with spatial resolution of 2.5m.

Entire mine site can now be classified according to its vegetation history and whether or not it has reached and maintained biomass above 1500 kg/ha, which is one of the permit thresholds for self sustaining status. The resulting ‘reclamation status maps’ provide a detailed synopsis of the vegetation trends between 2001 and 2011. These maps are designed to be helpful tools to reclamation managers, as they provide a means to focus further remediation efforts on specific locations most needing it, rather than having to make costly wholesale changes to entire sites.