New technology will change the nature of mining personnel tasks, with workers becoming passive supervisors of the process rather than active operators of equipment. Automation will reduce the number of operational jobs in areas such as drilling, blasting, and train and truck driving—areas that typically constitute over 70 per cent of employment in mines.
New roles will be created in the development, observation, servicing and maintenance of remotely controlled autonomous equipment as well in data processing and systems and process analysis. Workers with specialized skills in remotely controlled and automated systems will be in demand as automation increases, while current employees will need retraining, re-education or both to keep their jobs.
This report discusses the likely impacts of these changes.