BlueCap Geophysicists, Remote Pilots & Data Specialists

Andrew Musinov has more than 25 years’ experience in senior executive, technical and operational management across engineering, telecommunications, manufacturing and technology, including multi-shareholder engineering ventures.

From 2004 to 2015, Mr Musinov founded, grew and managed international IT businesses with more than 7 offices and, over time, more than 300 personnel. They supported more than 1,100 ongoing clients. Mr Musinov reports that, in their relevant operating periods, these businesses achieved net profit margins above 75%.

From 2015 to 2017, Mr Musinov managed surveyor teams working on the Australian National Broadband Network (NBN) rollout across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

In 2017, Mr Musinov founded Mira Robotics Corporation in Australia to engineer, develop and deploy heavy drone platforms with a 75 kg MTOW, including proprietary systems for long-range, contactless delivery of essential goods in remote and industrial environments.

Since 2017, Mr Musinov has led drone-based aerial-geophysics development and testing in Australia, including in-house heavy petrol-powered platforms carrying payloads of up to 25 kg, together with their field deployment for mineral exploration. In 2023, he founded BlueCap Minerals to advance heavy-drone and airborne-geophysics capability for exploration and mining.

At BlueCap, Mr Musinov is Chief Remote Pilot, Chief Technology Officer and Managing Director. He leads the company’s Australian R&D programme, which is conducted in Australia, as well as field deployment, flight operations and technical strategy for BlueCap’s drone geophysics platforms.

Roman Gornov is a remote pilot certified by Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), with operational experience in drone systems dating to 2015. His background covers aerial survey operations, field maintenance, diagnostics and remote-area technical support.

At BlueCap, Mr Gornov flies survey missions over mountainous terrain, along remote operating corridors and across areas with limited ground visibility, within approved operational procedures.

He supports the Chief Remote Pilot (CRP) with flight planning, operational risk assessment and coordination with crewed aviation operators, airports, airspace stakeholders and other remote pilots. He also reviews and optimises operational plans, identifies procedural and operational issues, and helps integrate aerial survey work safely into controlled and shared airspace.

His practical field and mechanical experience covers rapid diagnostics, repairs, maintenance and replacement of critical drone components in remote locations, helping the crew maintain continuity and minimise downtime.

Mr Gornov also looks after aircraft health monitoring, payload performance checks, operational logistics and technical troubleshooting during aerial geophysics work and remote deployments.

During flight operations, he monitors and analyses live telemetry from dozens of onboard systems across several displays. This helps the crew identify potential aircraft, payload, fuel-system or flight-control anomalies early in a remote survey mission.

He is involved throughout operational preparation, mission execution and field deployment for BlueCap’s aerial geophysics programmes.

Eugene Podgorbuntsev’s background spans mineral exploration, geophysics, geological engineering and resource-project management, including operational leadership in exploration and mining businesses across Central Asia and Russia.

Before joining BlueCap, Mr Podgorbuntsev founded and managed a 15-person, full-cycle gold exploration and mining company operating across Central Asia and Russia. The business covered the complete cycle, from mineral exploration and geological assessment to gold extraction and the sale of refined bullion products.

At BlueCap, Mr Podgorbuntsev leads geophysical data processing and post-processing. His remit includes large geophysical datasets, LiDAR point clouds, cloud processing infrastructure, AI-assisted interpretation workflows and the software that supports drone survey operations.

He leads the development of automated processing pipelines, integration of geophysical and LiDAR datasets, and optimisation across distributed computing environments. The work produces high-resolution subsurface and terrain models for mineral exploration and drill-target definition.

Mr Podgorbuntsev has used LLM and AI-assisted setups for many years to accelerate geophysics workflows. The automation lets him handle a broader delivery workload while he remains responsible for quality control and interpretation.

He also works directly on BlueCap’s Australia-based internal drone R&D for aerial geophysics and survey-platform integration. This work is conducted in Australia and includes equipment field trials, operational validation and piloting during development and testing.

Vadim Balba is an electrical engineer and technical operations specialist with hands-on experience in rotary-wing drone systems, remote operations and industrial equipment maintenance.

Mr Balba has worked with BlueCap since its early development and leads the team that assembles, maintains, repairs and restores the BlueCapHeli® fleet.

Within BlueCap’s Australian engineering programme and before a commercial aerial geophysics deployment, his work covers quality control, system diagnostics, flight testing, tuning, vibration analysis and operational validation of the rotary-wing platforms.

He also manages component sourcing, supplier coordination, spares logistics and technical inventory to support uninterrupted field operations and long-term fleet reliability.

During active missions, Mr Balba monitors helicopter systems remotely in real time, tracks component life and maintenance intervals, analyses aircraft performance, and coordinates technical support and field logistics for safe, continuous work in remote environments.

He also contributes to BlueCap’s Australia-based internal R&D programme for heavy rotary-wing aerial geophysics platforms. The programme, including platform development and testing, is conducted in Australia.

Phan Thị Minh is an experienced business operator and manager with a practical background in sales, administration, client relations and operational coordination in Vietnam.

Before joining BlueCap, Ms Phan held a senior sales management role in the technology and equipment supply sector.

At BlueCap, Ms Phan contributes operational knowledge, client requirements and field feedback to the company’s R&D programme in Australia. All BlueCap drone development, testing and R&D is conducted in Australia. In Vietnam, she coordinates the compliant introduction and deployment of the resulting aerial-geophysics systems for mineral exploration and mining, including work in mountainous and tropical operating environments.

Government coordination

Ms Phan coordinates with Vietnamese government departments, regional authorities and local stakeholders as new aerial survey technologies are introduced to improve the efficiency and accessibility of mineral exploration programmes in Vietnam.

She also helps secure operational approvals and coordinate regulatory engagement for drone survey work, including liaison with the Ministry of National Defence (MND), the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment (MAE, formerly MONRE), and other government stakeholders involved in aerial survey, mineral exploration and mining.