The future of mining: less workers, more robots

Mining Man: The future of mining: robotics and automation

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This is why the Wisconsin Republicans holding out "700 jobs" in exchange for permanent damage to the Penokee Hills with an iron ore mine is nothing but a cruel hoax.  They're not planning to provide 700 jobs, you can bet on it. After you read this article, you'll see why.

Thanks Barbara for the link and suggestion.

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by Jamie Ross

Last night I saw a vision of the future of mining - there were unmanned trucks communicating with each other and helping each other decide which haul road to take; there were automated drill rigs sending drilling rate data directly to the mine database and then out to the 3D models used by robotic shovels for grade control.
The best thing about this vision was that all of this is already happening, and the goal of a fully automated mine is close to being realised.
This vision was shown to me at a fascinating presentation I attended last night on the future of autonomous mining and the use of "robots" in the mining industry.
The presentation was by Professor Hugh Durrant-Whyte, one of the world's leading researchers into large field robots, and also the director of the Rio Tinto Centre for Mine Automation.
Professor Durrant-Whyte gave us an overview of why Australia is such a prime location for research into large outdoor robots and automation, and why the mining industry is so well suited to be at the cutting edge in these fields.
He said mining has both the need and the money to drive automation research forward, and that the work being done by Rio Tinto at the moment (read more about it here) is at the forefront of technology worldwide.  And is in fact even more advanced than the work being done for the US defence forces.

Automate the Whole System, not just the Machines

The most interesting part of the presentation (besides the robotic helicopters which can fly hundreds of kilometres identifying and target spraying weeds on farms) was his overall concept for why automation is important.
He said it is not at all about removing people from the mines, although there are obviously some health and safety benefits in moving people off drills into air-conditioned pods for example.  He believes we need to think not so much about how to automate individual trucks or drills, but to automate the entire mine.  And to change the way our business models and information systems work to achieve that.
So he doesn't think we need to necessarily automate every single thing, and indeed we can't (maintenance is the first thing that springs to my mind).  But we do need to think about how all our mining processes and systems can work automatically together.
An example of this would be drill rigs automatically drilling out shot patterns, and at the same time recording metres/hour drill rates.  This drill rate data is then sent in real time back to the mine geological database, where it is converted into rock hardness models, and then used to drive mining plans and grade control.  This is already happening in the Rio Tinto mines.
He also says the advantages you get from having automated trucks controlled directly by humans is one thing, but the real advantages come when these trucks are part of an overall automated mine planning system.  When this happens, you don't just know where the tucks are right now, you know where they will be in one hours time, or two days time.  Everything becomes so much more predictable.

Effects on Manning

Professor Durrant-Whyte says there will be a slight shift in the skills required by operators and tradesmen at these new mines, and mines will need to employ more people with specialised skills such as electronics and robotics.  But he says reducing manning overall is really neither the primary aim, nor the outcome in real life.  The aim is not to get people out of the loop, but to create better systems for them to work in.

What about Underground Mining?

Most of the work to date has focussed on surface mining, with the main research area currently being Rio Tinto's surface iron ore mines in Western Australia.  I asked Professor Durrant-Whyte about the future of automation in underground mining.
He says that to date work in underground situations has focussed on automating machine X or process Y (i.e. automated haul trucks or drill rigs), and that the real key is to forget about individual equipment and look at how to automate entire mines or mining systems.  He says it is as much about automating the flows of information between parts of the mining process (i.e. drilling to grade plans; surveys to truck routes) as it is about automating machines.
In fact, his view is that automating a particular machine is easy, and the technology is already there.  It's getting that machine the right information in real time which is the challenge.

Summary

Professor Durrant-Whyte certainly paints an exciting picture for the future of mining.  I believe his focus on creating new business models and better systems is a great way to look at the challenges and benefits of automation, rather than looking purely at which machine to automate to take someone out of the mine.
Whole of mine automation is on the way, but it's still going to need a lot of people to run it!!

- Jamie Ross
Mining Man - Great Safety, Leadership and Productivity Ideas for the Mining Industry


http://www.miningman.com/Blog/August-2010/The-Future-of-Mining---Robotics-and-Automation