Connecting Geological Samples to Their GPS Coordinates
A mining exploration company had thousands of geological photos with no connection to their survey locations. We built a tool that matches photos to GPS coordinates from KML files.
Days → Seconds
Photos Without Context
Mining exploration generates thousands of geological photographs. Each photo documents rock formations, mineral deposits, or soil conditions at specific survey points. But the photos were stored in flat folders with no metadata linking them to the GPS coordinates where they were taken.
Geologists had to manually cross-reference photos with survey maps — a tedious process that slowed every exploration report. When multiple field teams worked concurrently, matching the right photos to the right coordinates became nearly impossible.
KML Enrichment Pipeline
We built a Python pipeline that reads KML files (the standard format for geological survey data), extracts GPS waypoints, matches them with photographs based on timestamps and file naming conventions, and enriches the KML with embedded photo references.
The enriched KML files can be opened in Google Earth Pro or any GIS tool, showing geological photos pinned to their exact survey locations. What took geologists days of manual cross-referencing now happens in seconds.
“What took geologists days of manual cross-referencing now happens in seconds.”
Seconds Instead of Days
Geologists now generate enriched survey maps in seconds instead of spending days on manual cross-referencing. The tool processes thousands of photos against hundreds of waypoints without human intervention, and the output integrates directly into their existing GIS workflow.