Hexagon's Green Cubes digital twin technology contributes to mining reclamation efforts across South America with Vale

R-evolution, Hexagon's green-tech subsidiary, has launched its first missions deploying advanced hybrid airborne imagery and LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) technology. This milestone supports reclamation efforts within the extractive industry and marks a key phase of the Hexagon Green Cubes initiative.

Green Cubes – a digital twin capturing the complexities of natural environments – integrates multiple reality capture technologies, including satellite and airborne LiDAR and imagery, terrestrial LiDAR, camera traps, acoustic sensors, and ground-penetrating radar. The solution provides the extractive industry with an integrated 3D environmental monitoring system. These insights are presented through an AI-powered Green Cubes platform, offering a "digital window" into forest ecosystems.

Powered by Leica Geosystems' hybrid airborne system, which simultaneously captures high-resolution imagery and LiDAR, the flights will map more than 20 square kilometres to generate a digital twin of natural habitats around mining assets, protected areas, and their surrounding landscapes.

The system produces high-density point clouds with more than 40 points per square metre, enabling highly detailed 3D modelling of forest structure. This level of precision provides accurate insight into environmental conditions – from large trees to ground-level vegetation –  and can detect even the smallest branches. These digital twins can support mining companies in monitoring biodiversity, assessing rehabilitation progress, and managing sustainability efforts with greater accuracy, while also creating new opportunities for community engagement and educational initiatives that promote long-term resource mobilisation.