Geotechnical & Ground Control

Static scans of pit walls, headings, and stopes give geotech teams a precise, repeatable baseline for tracking convergence and movement over time. Comparing scan to scan makes it possible to catch ground instability early, before it becomes a hazard or a production stoppage.

Stockpile & Tonnage Reconciliation

Regular scans of stockpiles turn volume estimates into hard numbers, replacing rough truck-count math with measurements accurate enough to hold up against mill reconciliation and audit. The same data can be pulled on demand without sending a crew back out for every count.

Underground Mapping & Drift Progress

Mobile scanning covers drifts, drives, and headings fast enough to keep pace with active development, giving survey teams current as-built data without slowing production. That data can be checked directly against the mine plan to confirm progress and flag deviations early.

Open-Pit & Highwall Surveying

Wide-area capture of pits, benches, and haul roads produces accurate surface models without putting a surveyor near an unstable face. The resulting data supports slope stability checks, haul road planning, and pit design validation from a safe distance.

Blast Planning & Post-Blast Verification

Scanning a face before and after a blast gives engineers a direct, measurable comparison — muck displacement, fragmentation coverage, and actual versus planned excavation. That comparison feeds directly into refining the next blast design instead of relying on visual estimates.

Plant, Infrastructure & Digital Twin 

Scans of processing plants, shafts, and conveyor systems produce accurate as-built data for maintenance, retrofits, and CAD/BIM work — capturing what's actually installed rather than what the original drawings show. Stitched together across the site, this same data builds toward a full digital twin for planning and simulation.

FARO Focus

HIGH-ACCURACY SCANNING

Best for operations that need precise 3D documentation, measurements, and defensible records for geotechnical monitoring and detailed reconciliation workflows. FARO positions Focus as a high-accuracy laser scanning solution with up to 2 mm accuracy and workflows suited to capturing everything from a single stope face to full-site surveys.

Common missions:

• Tunnel and stope convergence monitoring 
• Pit wall and highwall stability capture
• Ore pass and shaft condition surveys
• Shaft and ore pass condition surveys
• Precise volumetric measurement
• Health and Safety Investigations

FARO Orbis

FAST MOBILE SCANNING

Best for teams that need to capture drifts, open pits, and complex underground environments quickly while still producing accurate 3D data. FARO describes Orbis as an all-in-one mobile laser scanner, combining rapid mobile capture with detailed stationary Flash scans, up to 120 m range, and accuracy up to 5 mm in mobile mode and up to 2 mm in stationary Flash scans.

Common missions:

• Drift and drive walkthrough capture
• Open-pit and haul road mapping
• Stockpile surveys
• Mine plan progress tracking
• Large-area site documentation
• Fast interior and exterior capture of processing plants

FARO Blink

SIMPLE, ACCESSIBLE REALITY CAPTURE

Best for teams that need a fast, low-complexity scan without a dedicated survey crew. Blink trades some precision for speed and ease of use, making it a practical option for site personnel who need a usable 3D record without specialized training.

Common missions:

• Quick stockpile captures
• Pre-shift or pre-blast area documentation
• Safety assessments
• Escapeway and evacuation route mapping
• Facility documentation
• Easy scan-to-share workflows

FARO Scene

Scan processing and registration

Best for operations that need to process, register, review, and manage 3D scan data from FARO laser scanners.

Common missions: Underground survey processing, pit mapping, geotechnical data registration, point cloud registration, measurements, scan review, digital twin records.

FARO As-Built

CAD and BIM deliverables from scan data

Best for operations that need to turn scan data into accurate as-built documentation for plant, shaft, and infrastructure design and maintenance.

Common missions: Processing plant documentation, shaft and conveyor as-builts, infrastructure design support, CAD/BIM deliverables, maintenance records.

FARO Connect

Mobile scan processing for Orbis

Best for teams using FARO Orbis who need to process mobile scan data, create clean colorized point clouds, and prepare data for viewing, sharing, and collaboration.

Common missions: Orbis scan processing, mobile mapping, drift and drive walkthroughs, facility documentation, pre-planning, large-area capture, Sphere XG collaboration.