Rio Tinto To Heavily Invest in Robotic Mining

In a recent post, futurist Thomas Frey described how mining robots will be replacing mining jobs in the next twenty years.  Robots and remote controlled mines could be the solution to some of the biggest challenges facing miners today, according to industry giant Rio Tinto.  For instance, Rio Tinto's labour-intensive iron ore business is already trialling automated trucks, drill rigs, sorting machines and trains at mines

In addition to filling what has been a perenial labour shortage in the mining area, robotics could help create safer working conditions and permit access to ore deposits that would otherwise be inaccessible.


These systems can be operated from more than 1000 kilometres away in the comfort and safety of the Perth city office, according to Rio Tinto head of innovation John McGagh.

"The revolutionary technologies being tested now cement Rio Tinto's leading position in the field of mining innovation," Mr McGagh said in a statement.

Scenes like this of miners trapped underground may fade into history as
companies like Rio Tinto automate their mining operations.

But innovation would likely only come after long runs of trial and error and at considerable cost to miners, according to a privately commissioned report.  Consultancy firm BAEconomics yesterday released a report commissioned by Rio Tinto  on how the rise of autonomous and remote operation technologies would impact the mining industry.


In its report, BAE argued that as well as overcoming labour shortages, the automated systems would mean less waste as efficiency improvements would result in reduced need for energy and consumables.

Greater safety and lower costs would also follow the shift from human to machine labour, according to the report.  "In the absence of automation, these risks will increase in future as mines expand on the surface and deeper underground. The need to access ore deposits in deeper and increasingly complex environments heightens safety risks, and accounts for the heavy emphasis on automation in modern mines being commissioned today," the report said.

"These benefits may help to counteract a number of the challenges currently facing the industry, including persistent skills and labour shortages, declining ore grades, and more complex mining environments, as well as environmental challenges arising from the need to reduce emissions and impacts on the environment," BAE report.  The report also suggests that Australian mines also needed to innovate and change in order to remain cost competitive as mining began to come online in other countries.


For the future, Rio Tinto has concluded that the benefits of introducing automated aids on Australian mining sites, including remote-controlled trucks, diggers, extractors, loaders and shippers, would far outweigh the sky-high cost of purchase, testing and installation. Rio Tinto demonstrated this commitment in 2007 when they invested over $20 million into the University of Sydney to fund a Centre for Field Robotics.

However, safety concerns will not mean an immediate roll out of robotic mining operations globally for Rio Tinto and others.

“In Africa you don’t want to automate mines in a poor town where people need jobs, you probably won’t be able to get away with it in places like the Congo” said analyst Joe Lunn in a 2007 interview.