Mining’s old guard needs strong medicine
A new report details subpar investor returns in the mining industry over the last decade, particularly big cap diversified companies which have not adapted to new realities.
Fin24 reports South Africa’s gold mining industry is under such cost pressure, owing to gold reserves that are too deep to be mined profitably, that within a decade or two this could mean the end of the industry.
That’s why there is great excitement about a promising new technology which could make deep underground mining possible and ensure the future of the industry. The world’s deepest mine is AngloGold Ashanti’s Mponeng, which extends about 4 km (2.5 miles) underground. To be able to mine much deeper than this, where millions of currently inaccessible – or uneconomic – fine ounces of gold lie, would require a breakthrough. Significantly, AngloGold was recently the first group to herald such a breakthrough with an apparently large degree of certainty.
This target not only involves machines that can do the work of humans at the “coalface”, but also means the end of mining methods in standard use for more than a century. AngloGold, and probably all its peers, wants to mine gold without using blasting to break up rocks.
MINING.com reported in September that BHP is looking for robotics exec to dig world’s biggest open pit because it wants to “future-proof” its massive Olympic Dam project, including using driverless haulage trucks and has put out a recruitment ad for an executive to oversee the high-tech initiative. The system would mean operators can be in a control room on the site or even in the comfort of a city office hundreds of kilometres away.
3 Comments
K Vijay Soni
I want detail about company
The Mafia Man
What will this do to the drivers good jobs driving these driverless trucks???
The Mafia Man
This needs to be a very “Strong Union” house, to protect the drivers/workers. The “Teamsters Union Int.” would be the best/only choice!!!!!!!!!!!