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Mines May Eliminate More Than Half Their Human Workers Within 10 Years (computerworld.com)

An anonymous Slashdot reader quotes ComputerWorld: In the next decade, the mining industry may lose more than half of its jobs to automation, according to a new report... This industry is adopting self-driving trucks, automated loaders and automated drilling and tunnel-boring systems. It is also testing fully autonomous long-distance trains, which carry materials from the mine to a port...

A broader question is whether mining is a bellwether for other industries. There's no clear answer, but what Aaron Cosbey, a development economist and a report author, can say is this: "Where you can find robotic replacements for human labor you tend to do it." Cosbey estimates that automation will replace 40% to 80% of the workers at a mine...

Driverless technology can increase output up to 20%, while decreasing fuel consumption up to 15%, according to the article. "This will increase demand for people with IT skills who can set up and operate the automation systems -- but at far smaller numbers than the people automation displaces."

2 of 231 comments (clear)

  1. Not if Trump wins by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    He will bring all these coal jobs back and make sure this rigged automation crap never happens...

    1. Re: Not if Trump wins by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

      If people like you hadn't tried to stop progress across the ages, maybe we would already be past the point where the outdated idea of "economy" in this context was even a thing. Stop trying to keep us all in the dark ages and working menial jobs for no goddamn reason.