Satellite radar cut slope displacement by 50% at the Kansanshi mine in Zambia

First Quantum Minerals used SkyGeo's InSAR platform to continuously monitor the pit walls — and averted a potential disaster by stepping in on time.

At the Kansanshi copper mine in Zambia, operator First Quantum Minerals Ltd. deployed SkyGeo's Antares platform, which uses satellite synthetic-aperture radar (InSAR) to continuously monitor pit-wall stability. In an area flagged as high risk, the technology helped cut recorded displacement by 50% and let the team intervene in time to avert a potential disaster.

The gain didn't come just from detecting movement — it came from being able to prioritize where to look first. The platform organizes displacement data into color-coded risk levels, letting the geotechnical team quickly read which area needs immediate attention instead of manually parsing large volumes of raw radar data. That turns a technically sophisticated monitoring system into a tool a field team can actually use under time pressure.

Monitoring that can run continuously, without depending on physical reflectors installed on the pit wall, changes the logic of geotechnical safety: the question stops being 'when is our next inspection' and becomes 'what is the data showing right now.' For operations with multiple risk fronts, that means faster decisions with the same size of team.