IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2017 - 38

Fast forward to 2016 and Newcrest announced that 100 workers'
positions could not be maintained,
with no mention of the impact of
automation or remote control technologies on these job losses [2]:
"...The majority of the workforce at Ridgeway will be
transferred to Cadia East, but
the company said it could not
find positions for 100 people.
The company said while the
figure was lower than first
thought, it was a "sobering"
time for many of the workers."
A later report from the local Central Western Daily [3] revised that
figure to an estimated 122 workers,
and then further to 300 workers by
the end of the year, as Cadia East
winds up. Again, these statements
from Newcrest are made with no
mention of the impact of automation technologies on the roles of
workers in those locations.

Mining Automation
As we move to a mining sector where
dump trucks, underground excavators, loaders, and conveyor systems
are transformed into partial or fully
autonomous systems, there is little or
no human labor required other than
to maintain equipment or provide
oversight using a range of distant
surveillance technologies.
According to International Mining Technology [4], the International Mining Company publication,
many mining operators have been
removed from the driver's-seat to
the virtual cockpit:
"...AutoMine system is a highly innovative automation system where operators, who
would normally drive a single
heavy-duty machine underground, can now sit in the
comfort and safety of an air-

38

conditioned control room on
surface, and simultaneously
monitor the movements of a
fleet of driverless loaders or
trucks hundreds of metres
below the surface. Sandvik
loaders or trucks navigate
their way between the load
and discharge points under
the control of a supervisory
system which is managing the
traffic and monitoring the
machines. AutoMine is equipped with a number of intelligent functions for example, if
one of the machines strikes a
large rock in the roadway, the
system would then place a
restriction on the speed in
that area to ensure that
machines following be hind
either slow down or stop at
the obstacle, thereby re ducing  potential damage to
the equipment."

run a fleet of vehicles from afar,
is the future of automation in the
mining industry another notch in
the magic milestone for a dawning
Singularity [6]?

Mining Virtualization
In 2012 a Western Australian based
company published a press release
[7] stating that their virtual meeting
software could save valuable human
resources, eliminating the need for
workers to be on site. Rather they
could operate from the comfort of
an offsite location (see photo at the
beginning of this article).
The same company has recently
touted that this virtualization experience, control of equipment, and
communication with others is now
transformed into real time from
anywhere in the world via wearable
technologies such as the Oculus
Rift [9]:
"...They won't have to FIFO,
they'll be able to take their
work into better places and
this is the technology that's
going to be able to enable
that," Mr Bester said" [10].

According to Australia Mining [5],
the mining industry, despite recent
advances in automation and the impact that has had on the immediate
operator workforce, is in its infancy
with automated systems:

In the same article, a Perth startup company with its eye on mining
technique advancement, Minnovare,
is cited as developing a device that
helps better target drilling. Romano
Sala Tenna from Katana Asset Management states:

"...Currently the industry is in
the early days of this evolution, and working through the
teething problems typically
associated with any new technology. One stand out factor
for automation is that it was
pegged as being safer than
many current techniques, as
by removing the man from the
operation you remove them
from the risk."

"We're seeing a company list
every one to two days with a
new technology project, so a
resource-based shell that's
given up the ghost on their
project and looking at bringing new technology to market.
They actually need technology
just to survive because the
next generation of ore bodies
aren't going to be discovered
with traditional technologies."

This begs the question that if
you remove the human (man or
woman) from the operation, then
what employment role will that
human now fulfill? With only a
handful of humans employed to
IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

∕

SEPTEMBER 2017



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