Most of the pieces are in place but a mine without people in hazardous environments won’t happen unless a “zero-entry mindset” emerges in the industry, say authors of an exploratory white paper released by the Global Mining Guidelines Group (GMG).
“Other industrial sectors have already adopted the zero-entry mindset and use it as their normal operating mode,” they say in the paper. Dark factories, or “lights-out manufacturing”, are among them. A major mining conference in Adelaide, South Australia, recently heard: “Dark mines are not far away.”
GMG, backed by many of the world’s major mining and mining equipment manufacturing companies, suggests zero-entry mining is the clear embodiment of the so-called mine of the future, combining the skills and expertise of the world’s best geoscience and engineering minds with technologies rapidly changing other industries to reset mining health and safety, capital intensity and productivity.
“Zero entry mining is not just about automation; it’s a complete transformation of how we approach mining,” says self-proclaimed mining futurist and former BHP executive, Gavin Yeates, who is a co-leader of GMG’s zero-entry mining project.
“This white paper emphasises that the greatest challenge in removing people from harm’s way is the mindset shift, not the technical challenge. To succeed, the industry must embrace this new mindset and commit to the journey ahead.”
At the recent AusIMM 2025 Underground Operators Conference in Adelaide, an event attended by more than 1800 people from around the world, Adriatic Metals CEO Laura Tyler said the trifecta of vast computational power, AI and robotics were fundamentally changing industries and mining was next.
“Over the last decade as we have seen computational power and efficiency grow and storage cost reduce we have seen AI use that power to access, improve and use our data to improve efficiencies and how we operate,” Tyler said.
“While robots are common in manufacturing humanoid robotics are being developed to replace people from the most routine or dangerous work.
“And this next step is not far away. It will revolutionise how we work and routinely eliminate people from the most extreme of conditions. For the value to be fully utilised it will require computers to be able to think through complex and ambiguous situations and it will need 5G connectivity.
“Examples of mines where autonomy or remote operation has almost eliminated people include Kiruna in Sweden or Northparkes in Australia and there are many global examples.”
This week at a Sandvik capital markets day in Gimo, Sweden, bank analysts and investors heard the world’s largest copper producer, Chile’s Codelco, had produced the critical red metal from one million tonnes of ore that had “turned to red mud [and was] way too difficult and risky to mine out” using equipment operated by people. Instead, autonomous machines at the El Teniente mine “safely recovered all of that ore”.
Tyler said a mine without people used less power, had fewer camps as technicians and strategists were based elsewhere, and caused less expensive equipment damage and therefore lowered maintenance levels.
“It will … reduce the impact on the environment and as we struggle to attract more people to our industry the need to replace people work with robotics will steadily increase,” she said.
“There will be an emphasis on managing the technology that drives the machines rather than manually operating them.
“We have dark factories now; dark mines are not far away.”
The GMG paper said zero-entry mining would alter economic blueprints, allowing for increasing the conversion of resources to reserves (as in the Codelco example).
“Zero entry mining can be a viable and effective means to contribute to the demand for metals and minerals,” it said.
“There is a sharp rise in capital intensity along with a continued rise in operating costs, driven by rising input costs and lower productivity across the industry.
“Zero-entry mining can reduce capital intensity by eliminating development and infrastructure designed to allow a human presence. Items such as second means of egress, refuges, ventilation, refrigeration, size of openings, ground support, roads or berms, slope angles, working areas or clearances, and factors of safety will be eliminated or significantly reduced if there is no expectation for human presence in the mine.
“Being able to access deeper, complicated orebodies in remote areas without the need for people to enter the active mining areas will become essential.”
The GMG paper says societal changes are “forcing the mining industry to change tactics”, feeding a potential broad mindset shift.
“The mining industry faces a person-power issue,” it said.
“Demographics, urbanisation, greater value being assigned to human life and an expectation of work-life balance are global trends making recruiting and retaining people to work in remote, harsh environments difficult.
“People are choosing to migrate to urban centres far away from the areas where new mines are likely to be developed.
“There is a reduced number of people willing to perform more manual labour tasks, traditional in mining.
“Mining also has an image problem, being perceived as dirty, polluting, damaging the environment, contributing to climate change, and unsafe. These perceived factors aggravate the inability to recruit and retain staff to extract the target metals and minerals.”
A series of workshops, webinars and interactive sessions will be run by the GMG in the wake of the white paper’s release.
