# How Siyanda Bakgatla Built First-of-Its-Kind Docked Drone Operations at a Platinum Mine - Event: NestGen ’26 - Published: October 2, 2026 - Length: 34:39 - Watch: https://nestgen.org/library/watch/ILOiTb3M2ig/ > The transcript of a recorded NestGen session, for reading or for use with an AI tool. It comes from the video's > captions; automatic captions can mishear names and terms. ## About this session At-scale autonomous drone programs in mining require more than a successful pilot. They depend on repeatable operations, site readiness, and a clear model for running docked drone infrastructure reliably in demanding environments. In this NestGen session, SSASS Holdings will share what it means to run Africa’s first at-scale autonomous docked drone program at a platinum mine, and what other mining teams should think through when moving from pilot activity to sustained operations. ## Transcript **[0:00]** So my talk today is about how uh Siana Bakutler built a firstofits-kind dock drone operations at a platinum mine in South Africa. So Siana Bakutler is [clears throat] the name of a platinum mine in the Limpopo province which is the one of the northern provinces of South Africa. kicked off this project uh initially in the beginning of 2022 and the mine had significant challenges in terms of criminality and at the time they were looking at some kind of a drone solution. Uh we initially went in where we offered a turnkey service where we put in our own drones and pilots on site to deliver uh surveillance as a service and in parallel as was the mine's request they wanted to build the program uh internally. Uh we took a group of their employees and we put them through pilot training. **[1:03]** Um the mine then bought their own drones uh as their own assets and it took a good nine months to get them up to scratch and speed where they could operate independently using their own drones and their own pilots. So thinking back you know 2022 2023 at the time there wasn't a readily available docked solution. So we were using what we now term today as uh legacy drone systems. So um we had uh you know the the typical operations where the pilot uh with a drone and a vehicle would need to go out into a select part of the the premises and they would need to operate from there you know independently and basically blind to the rest of the organization. and hopefully through training they would be able to communicate with a ground **[2:05]** response team in in the event that they um detected uh suspects on the premises. So let me know how to advance to the next page. Yeah, I think >> Yeah. Okay. So, the >> Yep. >> Dean, I think sorry for uh tech glitch out there, but I think before we move on, I would just try to make a a quick introduction about yourself and also about the title and give some housekeeping rule uh if that's all right. So, I think u apologies everyone. I think uh there was a small tech glitch but what's the fun without a tech glitch in some of the important session like this. So u you know first of all I would like to welcome everyone for this exciting next gen session. As an icebreaker I would love to know you know where all you are joining us from and **[3:05]** what do you do please drop that into the chat window. But a quick fact before we begin is that this is a session where we are going to be going inside a 10,000 plus sector platinum mine. Yes, we are going to be talking about platinum mine where a dock drone operation supports you know persistent security and surveillance. So if you have worked with customer from mining security or any critical infrastructure tell us in the chat where you know we would get to know about your operating autonomous system or you know whether you are still evaluating your first deployment. So today as we move from idea to drone autonomous and we look into when it has to work across a large and complex operation environment and for that uh you know I would like to introduce Dean Polly founder and CEO of SAS holding. I know Dean you have briefly introduced but u let me take that pleasure. So uh you know SAS holding is a South African technology and consulting company which is delivering turnkey unmanned aircraft and operational solution and Dean particularly has been chairing **[4:08]** US community uh of South African business aviation association and supporting a safer and more scalable US ecosystem across Africa and with more than 26 years uh of experience across technology, aviation, enterprise sales, IT leadership and whatnot. uh Dean actually brings a practical operator's perspective to move drone systems from hardware and pilots into reputable operations. He's also a licensed pilot drone, a drone pilot, public speaker and author. At next we will be hearing Dean on how SAS holding and asse build first of its kind drone operations at a 10,000 plus hector platinum mine using command center managed operations for persistent security and surveillance. So before um I pass on to Dean just a quick housekeeping notes you know please hold on to your questions and you can post them into Q&A chat and we would be taking that up once Dean's presentation is complete and uh this session is getting recorded and you **[5:12]** would be able to see the replays as well and um last but not the least is where you can tag um you know all your uh interesting insights from this sessions into LinkedIn or X using Nextgen hash and tag feel free to tag Dean and myself. So with that, warm welcome Dean and please share your screen and get it get it going. >> Okay, Revy, thank you very much for that introduction. So um I'm not sure if um your audience caught the the start of my my um my introduction before the glitch, but let me go for it again. So um we started back with this mine in the beginning of 2022. We were approached by the head of security um that was having severe challenges on the mine in terms of criminal activity um illegal suspects coming onto the mine uh penetrating [clears throat] the mine going underground and uh you know really stripping the mine of its resources **[6:15]** uh both in infrastructure and in natural resources. So they wanted to bring on drones to add to their arsenal of um capabilities to fight this criminal uh infiltration and um so to try and fasttrack that we we first of all went on site and we provided a turnkey service solution. So that is we brought in our our own drones, our own personnel. We signed a contract and um we were up and running literally in less than two months. Um, one of their requirements was that they wanted to build this drone program internally. So they wanted their own employees to fly their own drones. So we embarked on a parallel project where we took a select group of their personnel and we trained them from scratch uh to become a fullyfledged drone pilots BV loss certified night rating and we sold them a fleet of drones which were their assets and we allowed them then to operate under our partners' ROC or operating **[7:19]** certificate. So that took a good 9 months in order for them to get to a point where they could operate independently in the sense of the word and where we offered them um uh the necessary oversight and support um going forward. So from 2023 onwards uh they were operating relatively independent. Um but uh you know looking back now in terms of what we we refer to as legacy drone systems, it was the the the application of going out into the field uh putting the drone onto the ground uh manually, you know, flying it and literally flying in a little bit of a an isolated bubble in terms of outside overview and insight. And then hopefully there was a a interaction between the drone pilot and the ground response team uh to respond to suspects that were spotted. **[8:21]** Um there was a number of challenges with that. Um so if I can get on to just go on to the challenges. So first of all uh this is a map aerial view of the mine. Uh it's a rather large area that needs to be covered. It's [clears throat] 10,300 hectares and uh there are a number of infiltration routes around the mine. Uh I mean from the center of the mine round about there to the edge that's about 5 to 5 1/2 kilometers. So um and in amongst the the processed areas this here is sort of natural African bush if I can call it that. So a lot of trees, open areas and and a lot of places where criminals can actually use the the the cover of foliage to hide away from aerial surveillance and ground surveillance as well. So um you know how do you cover such a big area? So initially **[9:21]** uh they identified particular um uh uh operational points and we ended up with uh two teams. So um each team comprised of a drone pilot with a drone with a whole set of batteries with the charger um plus a vehicle and what you don't see here is a second person which is an armed escort. Uh those of you that are not familiar with the South African environment, it's a very crucial part of a drone operation in an area where you are uh monitoring and pursuing criminals. It's quite a high-risk uh situation for drone pilots. Uh it's not uncommon for criminals to actually um use firearms and try and take out the drones and the drone pilots. So um you know, you're taking somebody that's not used to literally taking fire and you're putting them into a dangerous situation and you know, having to fly these **[10:23]** drones. Concentrate on flying the drones. concentrate on on tactical flying as well to be able to spot criminals and then to coordinate a follow up with a ground team. you know given that um the harsh environments that uh they had to operate in. So this is a 24 by7 operation and um you know they're working right through the night you know the early hours of the morning uh in June July August you know your your temperatures drop to below zero so apart from the risk factor it's a incredibly uncomfortable uh environmental factor that the drone pilots and their colleagues were faced with and usually what that eventually uh relates to or results in is um a loss of interest in what they're doing, low morale. So what you would find just in order to you know complete the task, they'd launch the drone, get into the vehicle, **[11:27]** and just sit there and let the drone fly in a in a short automated flight just in order to be able to show on the log files later that they they did actually fly, which sort of defeated the whole object of of a drone program. >> [clears throat] >> So going into 2024 uh you know DJI launched there first of all it was the doc one um and doc when doc 2 came out uh we saw an opportunity based on the the price performance of this hardware um in looking at a possibility where we could bring this into the mining environment to address a number of the challenges. So uh we convinced the management um to to look at this from a totally new perspective. Uh you know then in the drone industry this was quite a foreign concept given that um you know they they were already used to this this aspect of a drone **[12:27]** pilot with its team and a vehicle going out into the field um operating and the belief was that these guys are are doing a proper job doing it that way. the idea of taking them out of the field, putting them behind a desk in a control room and uh you know flying the drones remotely um you know theoretically there's at the end of the day there's no real difference when you're flying in BV loss operations but that concept seemed to go against the grain of you know how effective would this be um when we when we we sort of put down the uh the the cost benefit s in terms of uh what you would eradicate. So effectively we would take out um the two teams, we would free up two vehicles, we would free up two armed escorts and instead of having two drone pilots on shift, you could now reduce that to one drone pilot on shift, still operating two drones and being able to cover **[13:31]** the same area uh if not as effectively as before, but even more effectively [snorts] in terms of the tool set that we used. So um that's a photo of uh a part of the building and the complex of the security department. So we installed um uh two dock systems on on the roof as per mine regulations. This all had to conform to uh health and safety aspects. So it took some time to get this all into place. Um we had to put up the barricades uh stairs access. There's a gate at the bottom for security access. But that's literally what the the installation looks like. And then in the command center, we uh deployed a dedicated PC with large TV monitors um on the wall. And we incorporated a joystick which was also a new way of flying. So drone drone **[14:31]** pilots were more used to the traditional um remote control you know dual joystick kind of flying and the fact that they are now not the drone is not next to them but in this case um it's about 50 m 60 m away sitting in a confined or closed environment and having to take off and fly was initially quite daunting but I must say um the adaptation into that um uh was very very quick. I mean by the end of week one these guys were very comfortable with the the operation. So I said the initial deployment was with DJI do 2s with the matrice 3TDs um and uh of course we deployed the the FlytBase enterprise system. So looking at what the coverage gives you. Uh so if you look at that square with the **[15:32]** four quadrants at the center point is the point of uh installation of the dock and I mean technically speaking the dock can fly the drone can fly up to about five 8 kilometers away. So what we did is we uh limited it to 5 kilometers. So um from the installation location you're looking at a 10 km diameter. So at that single point we're able to cover uh virtually every corner of the mining premises. In addition to relying on the the the RF signal between the dock and the drone, we also install DJI's uh cellular dongle uh with a 4G data card. So we have a failover where we are flying slightly beyond the RF signal or where that RF signal drops, we able to fail over seamlessly onto um the local cellular network. Um so that uh provides us with continuous **[16:37]** flights or without any interruptions. So uh we now have uh we stepped up to being able to cover just about every point on the mining premises uh from a single point whereas previously it [snorts] was covered from multiple points on the ground. um the the the the significant change if I can refer it to that from going from the legacy uh drones to these operations. I mean within 6 months of operations um the management uh came back and they said we need to increase the fleet. Um, so we were given an order and we've now delivered another two docks. In this case, now it's the latest DJI doc 3es and the Matrice 4 TD. So we are in the process of um of deploying those. And the idea now **[17:39]** is to um place these in strategic positions around the mine where um we now have focus areas. So in if I can just jump back to the map um this might make more sense. So just looking at that map right now you've got two docks and uh from there they've got to fly to various parts of the mines. Uh given that that's about 5 kilometers you need to take into consideration the time taken for the drone to get there then to fly its mission and then you've got to make provision for the time to fly back. So that time there is about between 6 and 7 minutes and another 6 to 7 minutes back. So you're looking at round about, you know, 13 14 minutes of flying time of a total of 27 minutes of flying time where um you're losing in transition. **[18:40]** So this area here right now is a pretty hot area. So the idea is is we're going to be locating one of the docks here. And then we have another hot area here. We're going to deploy one of the second docks over there. What that will provide us for is the same pilot from the same command center can now select the area that they want to focus on. So in this case where there's a there's a focus on this area. They'll be able to take off in a very short space of time, be able to reach their target area and have maximum time in the air uh in terms of surveillance and more importantly is uh once suspects have been identified is to then coordinate their location uh with the ground team because in most cases or in almost all cases uh the suspects do know when they've been spotted by the drone and uh they immediately flee. flee the scene. Uh there's a number of directions in which they **[19:43]** can flee and the drone pilot then follows them and is able to uh talk to talk the ground team into the location into where the suspects are fleeing. So um by hopefully the year end we'd have four docks still being operated by a single drone pilot. And when I say a single drone pilot uh a single drone pilot at a time. So the drone operations are currently running uh 24 by7. There's a drone in the air uh literally every hour. Um but you're still using a single person uh to operate all four drones. And it's now become quite uh effective in terms of uh having a list of your drones on the uh in the system and just you know clicking and selecting that particular drone uh taking off and and flying that particular mission. So that is when we talk about results **[20:45]** um we you'll see that virtual circle there which is a 6 km radius geo fence. So we actually restrict the drone pilots from flying beyond that. We actually increased the 6 km uh range purely because of this particular reason here. You'll see in FlytBase that you have a function where you can uh create annotation. So annotation is literally a function where you click on the screen and you can create a particular color code and it can be a ge geographical area. It can be a point of interest. that could be highlighting an incident. So these uh colors that you see here in sort of purple or lilac are areas of that they've [snorts] identified where uh criminals have started digging on the surface to try and penetrate the underground mining operations and um they've given them particular numbers. So a supervisor will now on the WhatsApp group will order a flight to a particular they **[21:50]** call them haulings. They'll say I need a drone over hauling 33. The drone pilot knows exactly where it is. In fact, he'll go to the tag or the annotation that says hauling 33. He'll click on there and say go to location. The drone will take off automatically. It'll fly directly to that point. When it gets there, it'll stop and hover. The drone pilot will take over and fly around manually, control the drone and the camera uh with the joystick uh click any kind of recording uh or record video in the case of an incident and all of this would be um would record it in the back end. >> [clears throat] >> So where we are today with this mine after four years is we at a at a point where we've achieved what we call persistent security surveillance. So what that means is we have a drone in the air virtually on the hour. Uh we **[22:52]** swap currently between the two drones. Um we will be in the near future having two more docks out there. So we will have a selection of four drones that we uh can operate from. Most likely what we're going to be doing is bringing in a second workstation where um if the need requires we would have two pilots sitting next to each other and each pilot operating you know a different drone covering a different area of the mine simultaneously. I mean also what this is a sign significant step forward in terms of oversight and management is now we have complete stakeholder oversight. So no matter where you are located, I mean there's probably a bad representation there, but literally we sit in our offices in the capital city of Ptoria. The mine is 168 kilometers northwest of us. And at any point in time, we can log in, we can **[23:54]** sit and monitor uh the same screen as the pilot. uh we can uh troubleshoot, we can view logs, uh we can monitor any anomalies in terms of what the pilots are doing and what they're not doing. Um there are reports that are generated at the close of every shift. Uh and where there's been a serious incident, the management um you know the manager can sit in his office on the mine. I'm sitting in my office in Ptoria. uh we can both log into the system and we can have a discussion around an incident that happened by viewing flight historical flight paths by viewing uh replaying videos. Videos can be downloaded. Um it is just a whole new uh ball game in terms of oversight and management and I think um the management have uh have bought into this in in more than a committed way. uh and I think um the feedback from the the general the senior **[25:00]** management of the mine um has has been really really positive and then uh I mean I I was speaking at an event two weeks ago where we talking about integ the integration of UAVs into jet aviation airspace. I think this is one of the first instance in instances that I have heard of where um the mining management that are located about 200 250 kilometers away in Johannesburg head office uh they visit the mine once a month with the with the company's helicopter. uh they actually radio ahead and uh asked for clearance for a man helicopter to fly into the mining premises um and notify the drone team so that they can ground the t the the drones at that time of the the man helicopter flying in. So quite a shift in uh discussions that's been going up until now in the drone industry where the questions have always been **[26:03]** how do you integrate drones into general aviation airspace and where general aviation airspace has always had the right of way. I think to a large extent that's always it has it is the case but [snorts] he has an exception where general aviation uh where the drones have the the right to way on this particular mine and where general aviation has to call in and get permission to fly into the drones airspace. So just a completely different mind shift in in in terms of that. [snorts] Uh just a screen grab of um of FlytBase um the the device overview screen. This is one of the drones just to give you an idea from January this year. Uh and this is now increased. Uh this was as of two weeks ago. So the one drone we've done over 2,400 flights in excess of a thousand hours. Um and if you think about you know a drone average flight is about 27 to 28 minutes **[27:06]** you know a th000 hours of flying uh without an incident is a significant uh improvement over the legacy uh drone fleet that they had. So, if those of you that do know the DJI Enterprise drone um uh fleets from two years ago, you're looking at something like the DJI Matrice 300, then the 350s and the Matrice 350s. So of that fleet uh we lost uh three DJI Matrice 300s uh due to crashes drone pilot error and one Matrice 30 also due to drone uh pilot error. Uh so that is four enterprise drones at quite a cost that were written off in terms of of accidents and crashes and here we are same drone pilots different platform thousand hours in excess of a thousand hours and we haven't had one crash that's mainly due to the the the nature of the automation of the platform. **[28:11]** It's really difficult for a drone pilot to uh to cause a crash. Um, you know, the only instances where a crash would occur would be, uh, I would call it a freak of nature, where, you know, you'd have a bird strike or a a sudden, uh, serious gust of wind. But, as I said, to date, we haven't had an incident. And I think it's a remarkable record considering the environment that we're flying in the um the environment mental conditions such as you know mine uh typically a lot of dust in a mining environment uh periodic rain high winds um I think it's it's quite something to to write home about. [clears throat] So just geographically we've gone from a legacy environment to where um we now have a command centerbased uh drone operation uh currently with two uh uh operational docks solutions. We're in the process of uh installing another two. **[29:15]** So it'll give us a total fleet of four. and we now have um a situation where we've opened up the access to this to a number of stakeholders. So currently we are only um it's only security that are accessing the system. Uh there has been discussions where we can open this system up to uh the surveying department where they could use the same platform uh to fly periodic uh uh weekly and monthly stockpile volutric surveys. uh engineering in terms of uh infrastructure inspection uh uh things like mine um uh slag dump monitoring um and the the slimes dams monitoring the environmental people would be looking at vegetation encroachment etc. So it opens up now whole new set of >> applications **[30:15]** uh using a common platform. Yeah, that was my last slide. So, yeah, thank you for that and I'll give it back to you Ravi for questions. >> Yeah, fantastic Dean. I think there's so much to cover. I know um we are running out of time, but I think this was an interesting uh case study plus the deployment that we talked about. I think we'll just take one question in the interest of time and it's on your screen. you know given the risk of criminal how did we mitigated it across the kind of spectrum and you know the 6 km overall spectrum and the surface area that we have to tackle with >> well I mean by very nature of the docked solutions taking the drone team out of the field which puts them in direct conflict or direct contact with criminals um they're now sitting in a in a compound a secured compound which is the the headquarters of the security department. **[31:15]** Um sitting, you know, behind uh fences um by nature of it being the the head of security. Everybody is armed there. There's there's secure access to the premises. They sitting inside a a a secured office. Um so it removes them from that direct confrontation with criminals. The the ground team will always will always have that um contact, but they are more geared up for that with vehicles, with uh flat jackets, uh firearms, uh and engage the criminals like they would ordinarily. And then also we've removed that environmental discomfort factor um where you know the environment is now controlled. In winter it's all air conditioned and and and in winter it's heated up and in summer it's air conditioned. >> Got it. Okay. I think the last one um very quickly Dean is when we have transition or progress from the DJI doc 2 to DJI doc 3 you know across again a large **[32:20]** operating radius what has changed in the architecture and operating model in order to go ahead and deploy this more maturely. >> So I think well first of all the reason why we went for the doc 3 uh is um it is the latest option available. Had it been available at the time when we deployed the dock twos, we would have we would have naturally gone for that. The dock 3 just brings in a new a new performance aspect. So first of all um as you know the doc 3's deployment is you save quite a few minutes in terms of launch. >> Secondly flying time with the with the Matrice 4D is is longer. So we'll be increasing our flying time per mission from around about 27 minutes to hopefully about 40 minutes. >> [snorts] >> Um and then in terms of range uh we also deploying the um DRTK3 um uh fixed the fixed deployment uh repeater stations. So we'll be deploying those uh with these docks. So technically that would give us a much further um range but in **[33:26]** this case it would be about uh focusing on smaller zones in order to to have more rapid deployment and to have more air time if I can call it that time in the air. >> Got it. Amazing. You know I I think u there is so much to still capitalize on this brilliant case study but um you know in the interest of time Dean thank you so much for taking us through this complex mind security challenges you know and uh taking advantage of how a command center manage autonomous operation has been executed in this particular mind. I think the story is very useful and um it actually gives us the complete value of the autonomous uh drone operation from the operation perspective. So I'm sure that you know everyone out here uh take lessons from this mine into their respective autonomous drone program and infrastructure program. Thank you again Dean for sharing this uh deployment lesson with us and thank you everyone for joining and contributing to the conversation. >> Okay, thank you Revy and the FlytBase team and the audience that did take the **[34:28]** time to join us. >> Thank you.