The future of mining and the mine of the future

The Wits Mining Institute, a centre of excellence directed by Professor Fred Cawood, collaboratively with Sibanye-Stillwater, have lent some wings to the efforts of making the future of mining much more safer and sustainable through the use of digital technologies.

In an attempt to help visualise the transformation that digitalisation will bring in the mining sector, Cawood (2019) has mentioned that technology in the mining sector will have to be embraced, skills set will have to change, and jobs may possibly be forfeited just as many jobs will be created.

Cawood (2019) also added that mining qualifications of the present time may possibly be inadequate in the future. The greatest concern to many is that digitalisation in mining could isolate the digitally unskilled while those who are skilled continue having the industry under the thumb. In any event, Cawood (2019) states that the idea should be implemented such that both the skilled and unskilled are taken into consideration.

The fast-paced integration of technology in the industrial sectors has intensified. This integration of technology which has been pioneered by the manufacturing industry, has caused a ripple effect of persuasive change in all sectors.

The mining sector, which arguably still finds itself trapped in the first and second industrial revolutions - is now forced to cut a deal with the fourth industrial revolution before it has even fully come to terms with the third industrial revolution.

The idea of a digital mine is permeating the industry and mining visionaries are supportive of the new way of thinking. Excellent blueprints of a digital mine are being produced however, some in the industry have two minds about this transformation.

Industry 4.0 and its significance in the mining sector

The term ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’ was initially made popular by the World Economic Forum through founder and executive chairman, Professor Klaus Schwab, describing an era where humans would transition between the digital and reality with the help of connected technology for the purpose of managing and improving lives.

Fisher and Schnittger (2012) mention that 4IR will improve the health and safety of the workforce, maximise efficiency of mining by using lesser resources and reduce negative environmental effects of mining and costs.

Digital Mine of the future

The digital mine of the future has many imagining how it will look. Cawood (2019) explicitly state that while much planning has been invested, Digital Miners are not certain of how the mine will be structured. Ernst & Young (2017) states that the structure and appearance of the digital mine can only be projected to 50 years from now.

The digital mine of the future will consist of a lesser number of humans who would have been superseded by technology. Certain mining companies have started to embrace technology-based accurate solutions brought by digital and Rio Tinto’s Pilbara mine is one of the state-of-the-art mines that has integrated technology into its operations extensively. Xu et al., (2018) state that the digital mine will consist of Remote Operations Centres (ROC), Autonomous Operations, Mobility, Analytics, Digital Workers, Drones and Intelligent Sensors.

In a digital mining survey conducted on CEOs, CFOs and COOs of mining companies in 2014, Accenture (2014) displays that 87% of company officials state that mining companies that do not adapt to digital will be found wanting. The figure below displays the architecture of a digital mine.

Digital Mine Architecture (Accenture, 2016, pg. 5)

Stakeholders impacted by digitalisation

A majority of stakeholders and those that are indirectly involved in mining, such as those who are still look forward to participate in the sector - foresee being affected by digitalisation. The focal question remains - who is going to be adversely affected more significantly than the other. Gumede (2018) mentions that employees, mine owners, shareholders and part of management along with communities in the proximity of the mine and labour-sending communities will be affected.

In a case study conducted on haul trucks at BHP Billiton, low-levelled skilled employees who are typically from labour-sending areas were affected drastically. The mine managers of BHP Billiton aimed at reducing the number of haul trucks operators from 4.3 drivers to 3 drivers per truck which was a significant reduction of 258 to 180 employees (Bellamy and Pravica, 2011).

Jobs and the reskilling of digital mineworkers

There is a thin line between mechanisation and automation. Mines in South Africa have mainly been mechanised than automated. Digitalisation is the extension of automation. Gumede (2018) describes automation as the advancement of mechanisation whereby the interaction of humans and physical activities are further reduced.

Botha’s (2015a) and Hattingh’s et al., (2010) studies (cited in Gumede, 2018) mention that mechanisation in the South African mines would generate employment for engineers, information technologists and maintenance artisans. This indicates that digitalisation would further reduce the number of employees in the aforementioned departments.

While many believe that digitalisation will rid manual workers of their jobs, some believe that this could be prevented by investing in reskilling previously technologically-digitally unskilled workers yet reskilling the entire workforce would be impractical as the mine of the future will consist of fewer employees.

The table below, adapted from the World Economic Forum (2018) illustrates that the Mining & Metals industry will reduce workforce through automation by 72% in the predicted year of 2022. This figure of reduction of the workforce is the largest in all industries displayed and alarms investment in reskilling of the workforce.

Future of Jobs Survey 2018 (World Economic Forum, 2018, pg. 16)

With disruptive changes that are to take place due to technological advancements in the mining sector, Ramdoo (2018) mentions that there will be extensive impact on the number jobs and the level of skills required. Technology will affect the manner in which tasks are carried out and lead to a reduction in manual jobs particularly in drilling and blasting and different responsibilities will arise with a need of new set of skills and competences (Ramdoo, 2018). The figure below indicates statistics that illustrate the percentage of job losses that mining departments will incur due to the introduction of advanced technology in the sector.

Percentage of job losses in certain occupations (Ramdoo, 2018, pg. 10)

Conclusion and Recommendations

The digitalisation of the mining industry is progressively becoming a reality. Numerous mines are attempting integrating digital technology into operations. This will bring about disruptive changes particularly in employment thus this necessitates caution and extensive planning to circumvent unemployment. Transformation across all sectors of the industry is rampant and the mining sector needs to adapt.

The digital mine of the future is still a blueprint and it is not fully known how the mine will appear or function. It is however guaranteed that the mine will consist of a lesser number of workers and will be operated remotely via connected technology. In order to implement digital mining, companies must be cognisant of the fact that digitalisation which is fundamentally an extension of automation will affect the jobs of many manual workers.

The mining industry particularly in the African continent is slowly embracing innovation. The industry should take heed of the call to adapt just as other industries are. The industry should realise that it must exploit the tools and techniques granted by the digital era in order to make improved, accurate and swift engineering decisions in mining. It is advised that mining companies get accustomed to digitalisation in order to climb up the ladder of industrial revolution.

"If we don't want to be sitting here talking about the same thing in another 15 years, we need to be smarter, more sustainable, more responsible in what we do."

Brent Bergeron, Goldcorp

Mining companies should be considerate of the effects of employment due to digitalisation. There should be a robust investment in reskilling programmes that intend to train the workforce that will remain in the industry or be referred to other relevant industries otherwise be compensated accordingly. Moreover, qualifications offered by institutions of higher education must be modified to align the needs of a mining career of the future. 

References

Accenture, (2014). Accenture Global Digital Mining Survey. Available at: https://www.accenture.com/t20151021T095019__w__/fi-en/_acnmedia/Accenture/Conversion-Assets/DotCom/Documents/Global/PDF/Industries_8/Accenture-Digital-Mining-Survey-Global-Results-Infographic.pdf [Accessed 01 March 2019]

Accenture, (2016). Digital Mining: Connecting the mine from pit to port, from sensor to boardroom, for improved safety and productivity. Available at: https://www.accenture.com/t00010101T000000__w__/ru-ru/_acnmedia/PDF-28/Accenture-Digital-Mining-Brochure.pdf [Accessed 01 March 2019]

Bellamy, D. & Pravica, L., (2011). Assessing the impact of driverless haul trucks in Australian surface mining. Resources Policy 36 (2) 149–158. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301420710000516/pdfft?md5=03b726e4bbbc38ddc9f3f781b737d419&pid=1-s2.0-S0301420710000516-main.pdf [Accessed 03 March 2019]

Cawood, F., 2019, The Digital Mine of the Future [Presentation to MINN4002A students, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg], 14 February.

Ernst & Young, (2017). Tomorrow’s mine: How digital can shape the future? Report. Available at: https://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/EY-tomorrows-mine/$File/EY-tomorrows-mine.pdf [Accessed 01 March 2019]

Fisher, B. S. & Schnittger, S., (2012). Autonomous and Remote Operation Technologies in the Mining Industry: Benefits and Costs, BAE Report 12.1. Available at: http://www.baeconomics.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Mining-innovation-5Feb12.pdf

Gumede, H., 2018, ‘The socio-economic effects of mechanising and/or modernising hard rock mines in South Africa’, South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences 21(1). Available at: http://www.scielo.org.za/pdf/sajems/v21n1/43.pdf [Accessed 02 March 2019]

Lynas, D. & Horberry, T., 2011, ‘Human factor issues with automated mining equipment’, Ergonomics Open Journal 4(1). Available at: https://www.garudax.id/redir/general-malware-page?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbenthamopen%2ecom%2FDOWNLOAD-PDF%2FTOERGJ-4-74%2F [Accessed 02 March 2019]

Ramdoo, I. (2018). Skills development in the mining sector: Making more strategic use of local content strategies. Intergovernmental Forum. United Nations Conference on Trade and Development - 8th GLOBAL COMMODITIES FORUM. Available at: https://unctad.org/meetings/en/Presentation/GCF2018_Isabelle_Ramdoo_24042018.pdf [Accessed 05 March 2019]

World Economic Forum, (2018). The Future of Jobs Report. Centre for the New Economy and Society. Available at: http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_of_Jobs_2018.pdf [Accessed 02 March 2019]

Xu, M., David, J. M. & Kim, S. H., 2018. ‘The Fourth Industrial Revolution: Opportunities and Challenges’, International Journal of Financial Research, vol. 9, no. 2. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323638914_The_Fourth_Industrial_Revolution_Opportunities_and_Challenges [Accessed 28 February 2019]