The mining workforce of the future May 4, 2021
Digital and automated technologies are transforming all facets of the mining industry, including the profile of its workforce. People have to be safe and protected first of all and for that to continue to happen progressively they have to be connected and enabled, and ideally upskilled rather than replaced.
Understandably, most people want to know: “Is my job at risk, or will it vanish?” The answer is that manual roles that put workers at risk, such as explosive charging, are the most likely to be replaced with robotic or remote solutions. Other workers, those that carry out checks on electrical safety and maintenance systems, for example, will see the way in which they work fundamentally transformed, from physical inspection to using remote tools to proactively predict and prevent system failures.