Measuring ground and structural movement from space
With more than 25 years of experience, TRE ALTAMIRA is the world leader in displacement monitoring services using satellite radar (Synthetic Aperture Radar – SAR) data. Delivering millimetric-accurate measurements, our remote technology is an established standard across the Mining, Civil Engineering, Oil & Gas, and Geohazards sectors. Designed to integrate seamlessly into existing operational plans, our solutions complement in-situ instrumentation to provide fast, reliable, and cost-effective monitoring.
Our latest Dynamic InSAR technology maximizes coverage in areas of active surface change, providing high-resolution displacement data for a complete, actionable view of your mining operations.
Driven by a team of more than 130 multilingual experts across more than 20 countries worldwide, TRE ALTAMIRA is committed to delivering tailored solutions for complex operational environments. By detecting, measuring, and monitoring displacement phenomena, we empower clients to assess risk, enhance safety, and optimize operations with confidence.
Measuring ground and structural movement from space
Millimetric-accuracy satellite deformation monitoring, complementing in-situ instrumentation across the full mine slope life cycle.
With more than 25 years of experience, TRE ALTAMIRA is the world leader in displacement monitoring services using satellite radar (Synthetic Aperture Radar – SAR) data. Delivering millimetric-accurate measurements, our remote technology is an established standard across the Mining, Civil Engineering, Oil & Gas, and Geohazards sectors. Designed to integrate seamlessly into existing operational plans, our solutions complement in-situ instrumentation to provide fast, reliable, and cost-effective monitoring.
Our latest Dynamic InSAR technology maximizes coverage in areas of active surface change, providing high-resolution displacement data for a complete, actionable view of your mining operations.
Driven by a team of more than 130 multilingual experts across more than 20 countries worldwide, TRE ALTAMIRA is committed to delivering tailored solutions for complex operational environments. By detecting, measuring, and monitoring displacement phenomena, we empower clients to assess risk, enhance safety, and optimize operations with confidence.
Presenting a unique and highly sought after technical topic
Speaker
About Andile Mkandla
Andile Mkandla is a geoscientist and business development professional specialising in satellite interferometry and its application to geotechnical monitoring across the African mining industry. For nearly five years, he has led the business development of TRE ALTAMIRA’s satellite deformation monitoring solutions across the continent, engaging with mining and geotechnical stakeholders on the integration of InSAR into broader monitoring strategies. He holds an MSc in Earth Sciences from Stellenbosch University and is passionate about mentorship, continuous learning and the practical application of geoscience and technology
The Role of Satellite Interferometry in Integrated Strategic Monitoring of Mine Slope Stability
Satellite interferometry (InSAR) has become an increasingly valuable component of integrated geotechnical monitoring, providing wide-area and repeatable measurements of ground deformation. This presentation examines the role of InSAR within a strategic slope stability monitoring framework, exploring how satellite-derived deformation information can be integrated with conventional monitoring techniques to support the identification, interpretation and management of slope instability.
Discussion points:
- The role of InSAR in slope stability monitoring – understanding the contribution of satellite-derived deformation measurements within an integrated geotechnical monitoring strategy.
- Practical application and lessons from operational monitoring – selected case studies demonstrating how sustained InSAR monitoring can contribute to understanding slope behaviour and complement established monitoring practices.
Session: The Role of Satellite Interferometry in Integrated Strategic Monitoring of Mine Slope Stability
Day 1 – 14:00 – 14:30
SOLUTIONS
What We Do
TRE ALTAMIRA delivers satellite InSAR displacement monitoring across four core industries:
Our latest Dynamic InSAR technology maximizes coverage in areas of active surface change, providing high-resolution displacement data for a complete, actionable view of mining operations.
Delivering millimetric-accurate measurements, our remote technology is an established standard across the Mining, Civil Engineering, Oil & Gas, and Geohazards sectors. Designed to integrate seamlessly into existing operational plans, our solutions complement in-situ instrumentation to provide fast, reliable, and cost-effective monitoring.
Site-wide slope monitoring – Investigate slope movements on a weekly basis, utilizing InSAR’s mm-sensitivity, even when precursors are not visible to local alarming facilities.
Tailings dam stability – Request frequent updates on the consolidation level and eventual horizontal slips, and track active displacement zones without the need for on-site visits or installations.
Historical back-analysis – Access satellite imagery archives back to 1992 to enhance geotechnical back analysis by identifying patterns of unstable behaviour.
Worldwide network – Driven by a team of more than 130 multilingual experts across more than 20 countries worldwide, TRE ALTAMIRA is committed to delivering tailored solutions for complex operational environments.
articles
TRE ALTAMIRA’s Insights
Defining the Future of Mine Stability Monitoring with Satellite InSAR
Every geotechnical team on a mine carries the same quiet responsibility: signing off on ground that never stops shifting. Excavation, blasting, dewatering, rainfall — the asset is in constant conversation with the operation, and most of that conversation happens in millimetres, long before anything is visible on a bench walk.
That’s the real adversary. Not the failure itself, but the silent window before it — the weeks where displacement is accumulating and the data isn’t.
Satellite InSAR closes that window across the whole site at once, at millimetre sensitivity, week after week — picking up slope movement even when the precursors aren’t visible to local alarming facilities
InSAR for Mining: Building a Defensible Record of Your Ground
Every engineer knows the ground is moving. Far fewer can produce the evidence of what it has been doing, at what rate, and since when.
InSAR turns that into a record rather than a recollection. The service delivers actionable reports on surface trends and stability changes across an entire mine site, covering movement from millimetres to metres. Colour-coded deformation maps make shifting trends legible at a glance, with dedicated approaches for tailings facilities and pit slopes — including consolidation levels, horizontal slips and active displacement zones on dams of any size, without site visits or installations.
Reports that hold up in an inspection start with data you were already collecting.
InSAR for Slope Monitoring at Slope Stability X26
Ground instabilities challenge mining sites across open pit walls, tailings storage facilities and block caving — and early identification of unstable areas is what protects operational continuity, safety, and the timing of inspections and maintenance.Sensitivity to subtle displacement, wide-area coverage and remote sensing are what let TRE ALTAMIRA’s ongoing InSAR services help engineers and asset owners spot ground risk early.
With archives reaching back to 1992, the same data investigates past events and legacy sites.
It’s a conversation the team brings to Slope Stability X26 and worldwide. The next one is here.