Toronto here we come! GAF will exhibit again at PDAC 2019 -  the leading convention for people, companies and organizations in, or connected with, mineral exploration.

PDAC is the event of choice for the world’s mineral industry and takes place in Toronto, Canada between Sunday, March 3 – Wednesday, March 6, 2019.

GAF will present its latest Consulting Services and Products for the Raw Materials Management. You can find us at the German Pavilion, booth # 6115N-5.

Find out more information on www.pdac.ca

The European Environment Agency (EEA) has entrusted GAF AG with the latest update of the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service’s High-Resolution Layers FOREST and GRASSLAND.

In the presence of representatives from the European Environment Agency (EEA), the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Topic Centre on Urban, Land and Soil Systems (ETC-ULS), the High-Resolution Layer (HRL) update 2018 kicked off on 21/22 Jan. 2019 in Copenhagen. Based on full time series of Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 observations, the GAF-led team will perform a pan-European consistent update of HRL Forest and Grassland characteristics for all EEA-39 countries (approx. 6 million km²) at an unprecedented spatial resolution of 10m.

A modern, reliable and transparent management system is essential for improving governance in the mining sector. The efficient and reliable granting, managing and administration of mineral rights is considered to be a key factor in increasing investment and growth in the Republic of Burkina Faso’s mining sector. The DGCM (Direction Générale du Cadastre Minier) is now operational and can be visited via its bilingual online portal. The implementation project was embedded in the “Projet d’appui au développement du secteur minier - PADSEM” which was financed by the World Bank.

Copernicus Sentinel data have successfully been used to demonstrate a Near-Real-Time Forest Monitoring System in two provinces of Ecuador. At an early stage the system is recording tree cover loss caused by illegal logging activities over large areas. The verification and documentation of the deforestation alerts is supported by aerial imagery taken with remotely piloted drones (see image) at the hot spots. Read more about the role of remotely sensed data for the protection of forests in the HORIZON online magazine.

https://horizon-magazine.eu/article/drones-and-satellite-imaging-make-forest-protection-pay.html

Dr. Peter Volk, in his capacity as Vice-Chairman of the GAF Supervisory Board, participated in the first workshop on the future of German space activities. The event took place at the DLR headquarters on 12th November 2018 and was initiated by Thomas Jarzombek, a member of Parliament and Federal Government Coordinator of German Aerospace Policy. The high-profile workshop discussed the opportunities and challenges for Germany’s space investments during the upcoming years. At the workshop, Peter Volk emphasised the importance of utilising new developments in the Earth observation downstream sector and the prominent role of industry stakeholders.

GAF, together with e-GEOS, has been awarded a Framework Contract by the European Union Satellite Centre for the provision of satellite-based digital elevation models to support the validation of innovative geospatial tools for SatCen’s exploitation activities. These digital elevation models have a resolution of between 0.5 m and 10 m and are generated using a highly automated multi-source production line. Additionally, the products are delivered with different quality- and traceability layers, and the corresponding metadata are adapted to the user’s requirements.

Dr. Bernd Schulte, Head of Geological and Mineral Resources Mapping at GAF, presented his paper “EO services and products for the mine life cycle” at the thematic conference Copernicus for Raw Materials: making the potential fully operational, which was held in Brussels on 12 November 2018. He also participated in a lively panel discussion emphasising the achievements already made using Copernicus data for the various steps of a mining project. Moreover, the full potential of Earth Observation has not yet been realised and various ideas for customisable products and services were therefore also presented.

GAF participated in the ISPRS Technical Commission 5 Education and Outreach Symposium, focusing on the motto “geospatial technology – pixel to people”, in the IPAC session on international cooperation focusing on EO for support of sustainable development and technical assistance, taking place in Dehradun/India from 20-23 November 2018, here ISRO Director Prakash Chauhan is thanking the panelists.

GAF has won the tender and been awarded the contract for a pilot project for the highly automated evaluation of satellite data for the monitoring of agricultural parcels. As part of the modernisation and simplification of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in the funding period after 2020, new procedures and the use of innovative technologies are planned. Within this framework, machine learning procedures and neural networks will be used, together with a large volume of Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2 and other suitable raster data (big data). This approach will be used for the evaluation and checking of crop types and agri-environmental and climate measures, and is intended to replace on-the-spot-checks (OTSC) in their present form in the long term.

GAF has been awarded a contract to upgrade and automate the Nigerian Mining Cadastre Office. The aim is to enable online applications, e-recording, archiving and the establishment of local offices in the six geographical zones of the country. This is the first sub-project launched within the Mineral Sector Support for Economic Diversification Project (MinDiver), which is financed by a World Bank credit from the International Development Association (IDA). The contract signing ceremony took place in Abuja, Nigeria in the presence of Abubakar Bawa Bwari, the Hon. Minister of Mines and Steels Development (MMSD), several directors of various ministerial departments and a number of officials from the World Bank. GAF was represented by Dr. Tobias Wever, Head of the Geology and Mines Section.