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Gold Prospecting With Lidar


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To bad no Lidar really from Rockies West.  Here in SD its still in progress.  The drone mapping intrigues me.  What drone did you use for that PG?  Why did you sell?

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14 hours ago, DolanDave said:

 

M600-Riegl-LiDAR1-1024x683.jpg

I have a DJI Phantom 4 Pro - is there a small Lidar unit I can fit to that?

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20 hours ago, oldmancoyote1 said:

This guy needs an editor.  He prattles on forever.

On the contrary, I thought his video was very interesting and contained a lot of useful information.  

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Thank for all the feedback!  The raw Lidar data that i use is available online for free it just takes certain programs and the know-how to be able to turn it into something useful.  

The drone was not used for Lidar, only photo mapping of that one river location.  As far as i know there is no current lidar systems with under 2m accuracy that can be using by small drones like that pictured above.  All the 2m lidar data out there is flown either by fixed wing plane, or helicopter.  I believe it might be able to be carried on large fixed wing drones but from what i know it requires a license to fly the larger drones.  But the technoloy is advancing quickly and from what i know within 5 years it may be possible to out fit a commercially available drone with lidar that has 2m accuracy or less.  

For the phototomography that i showed in the video i used a DJI Mavic pro, and i sold just because i never used it enough and i used the money to buy an equinox 800 lol.  

Afreakofnature - there is lidar available west of the Rockies, the Tahoe National forest area has a good amount including many gold bearing area along the American River and Yuba rivers.  Ive made a few maps for a guy out in that area.  I also believe Oregon and Washington have some already as well, and both of those states will have a lot more available in the next few years.  

 

Sorry about being long winded in the video there was lot to cover and looking back i know that i still missed things.  I plan to do a similar video about lidar but more so for a relic hunting point of view.  Lots of people here in VA have shown interest in the maps for civil war relic hunting.  

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Thanks again for what you've done, and I tried to absorb as much of what you were saying as I could, did not think you were long-winded but felt you were trying to be as descriptive as possible about a new process.

All the best,

Lanny

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This NOAA website Interagency Elevation Inventory shows where, and what kind of LIDAR the U.S. government agencies have available. There are links to the mapped data downloads. Most of the green areas on the map are only about 3 foot resolution so they may or may not be an improvement on the existing DEMs.

Open Topography is another good source for free lidar data. It's more international in scope. The Tahoe Basin Lidar set is very high resolution as PG-Prospecting pointed out. It looks like there are several nice sets in New Zealand. You can directly download a selected area at this website.

You will probably notice that the coasts have some pretty good LIDAR coverage and quality but the west has been pretty much left out of the feds LIDAR efforts. It's always a good idea to check your State's GIS office to see if they have different coverage.

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On 2/23/2019 at 5:54 PM, afreakofnature said:

To bad no Lidar really from Rockies West.  Here in SD its still in progress.  The drone mapping intrigues me.  What drone did you use for that PG?  Why did you sell?

Yeah i should have said, no Lidar for where I want to map LOL.  The West does have some for sure, but sure is crazy to see green from the central US all the way to the East Coast.  

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I received some California LiDAR data from Matt. It is very easy to install and view in Google Earth.

It is very interesting. I think I found a few rows of stacked rocks in a few deep gullies and/or along some stream beds. I will check them out this spring or summer.

Caterpillar logging trails and caterpillar built fire breaks appear in many places. Mostly on hillsides and ridges.

Have a good day,
Chet
 

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