Workforces, processes, and advances in technology are constantly changing and evolving industries around the world. When used to streamline processes or increase efficiency, technology can determine whether a business stays competitive or falls behind.
The mining industry is no exception. While historically slower to adopt new technologies, recent advancements are now delivering clear benefits, including:
- Greater ore recovery
- Flexibility in mining operations
- Increased productivity
- Enhanced safety for workers
- Lowering costs
Given the competitive mining landscape and the growing need to extract resources at greater depths, gaining an economic advantage is now more important than ever. To remain competitive, mining companies must adopt innovative designs and technologies that improve the capability, efficiency, and reliability of mining systems responsible for:
- Sensing and data collection
- Analysis and monitoring
- Extraction and refinement
Lithium, Battery Metals, and the Future of Mining
While some areas of the mining industry are slowly rebounding, others are expanding rapidly. One of the fastest growing markets involve lithium and other minerals used in battery production to support the demand for electric vehicles.
New mining technologies allow companies to:
- Quickly respond and scale production
- Reduce long lead times
- Minimize intensive upfront capital investment
These advancements benefit not only mining and exploration companies, but also contribute to the recovery of the entire mining industry.
Dangers in Mining and The Need for Modernization
The 2010 Chilean mining accident brought the industry back to the public eye and served as a reminder that mining remains one of the most dangerous jobs out there.
While numerous safety regulations have been implemented over the past 25-30 years, mining continues to present risks due to environmental, structural, and chemical hazards.
Cave-Ins
The most common threat to miners working in underground mines is cave-ins, which can occur due to:
- Shaft walls or floor cracking, weakening the larger structure
- The gradual sinking of land
- Unsecured underground mineshaft ceilings and walls
Explosions
Explosions pose another major risk in mining environments:
- Methane gas explosions occur when the mine is not well-ventilated. The gas builds up and explodes when it comes in contact with a heat source.
- Coal dust explosions are less common, but more extensive than methane explosions, however, these are often initiated by methane explosions.
Once the dust is ignited, the resulting flame can continue to grow and consume all available oxygen and fuel it encounters, while generating large amounts of toxic gas.
Floods
Flooding can occur due to uncontrolled surface runoff from heavy rains or flash flooding. These events can:
- Rapidly inundate mine shafts
- Compromise the stability of the mine structure
- Resulting in collapses that are dangerous both to those below in the mines and those above on the surface
Chemical Leaks
Mines use several chemicals to treat excavated ores. When these chemicals are not handled with the proper safety procedures or they are not stored properly, they can lead to:
- Inhalation of dangerous fumes
- Long-term physical damage to human physiology
Additional hazards include electrocution, silicosis, black lung, radon poisoning, mercury poisoning, and ruptured eardrums.
While the aforementioned safety regulations have greatly reduced the threat of some of these risks, they do still exist.
Human and Automated Solutions in Modern Mining
Drones
A drone isn’t the first thing one thinks of when discussing mining exploration or mine safety, but Flyability has been successfully working to change that.
Drone applications in mining help address challenges such as:
- Unsteady ground
- Falling rocks
- Limited visibility in underground environments
The new Elios drone is the first drone outfitted with a rotating carbon fiber protective frame, or cage, that protects the propellers, camera, and drone body from damage as well as keeping it stable in the air upon collision.
It has already been successfully used to explore the North American Palladium Lac des Iles mine in Ontario, Canada.
Blasting Technologies
Excavating rocks is usually done by miners drilling holes into the rock, then filling those holes with explosives to blast away the hard rock in surface and underground mining. For underground mines, this presents a fire hazard as well as potentially destabilizing and collapsing the mine.
Recent advancements in micro-explosives used with computer-assisted-design and timing look promising to:
- Reduce the dangers associated with blasting
- Improve fragmentation control
- Reduce the cost, time, and energy requirement for downstream crushing and grinding
Robotic Drills
Automated drilling rigs offer mining companies a mobile and rapid solution for hard rock excavation.
While there are many variants of automated drill rigs in development, perhaps the most promising are battery operated drill rigs capable of:
- Drilling blast patterns more quickly and accurately
- They don’t produce harmful exhaust fumes
- Lower maintenance costs
- If equipped with rapid chargers, or replaceable batteries, would contribute to the long-standing need of creating continuous mining operations
These technologies include preconditioning the rock with water jets, thermal and explosive impulses, as well as other technologies being developed for weakening rock.
Self-Driving Ore Carriers
Autonomous ore carriers operate continuously while removing workers from dangerous environments. These vehicles use:
- Radar and laser scanners that allow them to navigate in the dark through areas that pose breathing hazards.
- Battery technology is leading to the development of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) for mining
Rio Tinto is even in the works of developing automated ore trains that can carry ore for hundreds of miles.
Robotic Assistance
Not all technological updates to mining are replacing having boots on the ground, some are just giving them a helping hand.
Assistants like “Julius”, a wheeled robot that is roughly the size of a shopping cart, support miners rather than replace them.
It is equipped with a robotic arm that ends with a three-fingered hand that is able to hold scanning devices still enough to analyze ore samples.
Changes to the Workforce
While many of the restrictions in favor of the environment have been reversed or loosened, in order to spur job growth and help the U.S. mining industry recover, there is still a long way to get back to the levels of the last mining boom.
The old Appalachian mines, once reopened, would not be filled with rows of pickaxe-wielding miners in hard hats. As discussed earlier, some of these jobs would be automated. However, that does not mean that machines are replacing human workers entirely, but that the workforce itself is changing.
In some cases, those jobs just don’t exist anymore, or there’s little to no interest in doing them.
The Modern Mining Workforce
As mining operations become more technologically advanced, workforce needs are shifting. “Smart mines” reduce manual labor while increasing demand for roles in:
- Information technology positions
- Data analysis
- Automation and system monitoring
- Equipment operation and maintenance
With the mining industry moving forward, many of the systems surrounding the industry will require new skills and training. Positions supporting the mining ecosystem will continue to evolve, including IT consultants, suppliers, truck drivers, and METS professionals.
Modernizing Mining Infrastructure and Mining Camps
The advances in mining technology are very promising. Incorporating automated systems that offer greater productivity, leveraging new technologies to aid in the discovery and accurate quantifying of deposits, and systems capable of real time analysis to increase efficiency and profitability.
Modern mining operations increasingly require infrastructure that is:
Rapidly deployable
Relocatable
Durable in extreme climates
Cost-effective over shorter operational timelines
Continued advances in mining technology have the potential to reduce the extraction period of a mine nearly in half. A mine given a 30 year lifespan, with the adaptation to new mining technologies, could see the mine’s lifespan decreased to 15 to 20 years. This makes investing millions of dollars into permanent infrastructure not as economically feasible.
Engineered Fabric Structures for Mining Infrastructure
Engineered fabric structures meet these needs by providing modular, prefabricated building solutions designed for harsh environments. Unlike traditional construction, these buildings require minimal foundations and can be assembled or relocated quickly.
Companies like Alaska Structures have supported mining operations around the world since the mid-70’s. Their unique structures:
- Employ a tensioned fabric membrane over a high strength metal frame
- Are engineered to meet building codes for safety
- Are custom designed modular buildings for mine sites up to any width and length
- Are engineered as portable buildings or camp systems for extreme cold climates
Over the course of 4 decades, they have engineered fabric buildings to work in many different environments, including: temperate, tropical, high desert, or extreme heat.
More than 65,000 of their fabric building systems have been used in more than 85 countries, supporting not only the mining industry, but construction, oil and gas, as well as building solutions for private businesses, organizations, governments, and militaries. When researching other fabric building companies, none come close to matching the sheer number of projects or buildings.
So why choose fabric buildings from Alaska Structures for mine sites and shorter mining operations?
- By design, all Alaska Structures building systems are modular and can be easily relocated, or setup and left in place for decades of use
- They fill every category when it comes to needing a temporary building, a semi-permanent building solution, as well as meeting building requirements for a permanent building system
How does a fabric building compare to modular containers or flat-pack containers?
Consider the high cost of transporting individual trailers to your remote mine site. A flatbed truck, carrying a single container can house 1-2 workers. If you are less concerned with comfort and don’t have to adhere to certain square foot per person requirements, you can potentially get away with cramming 4 workers into a single container.
Alternatively, a single flatbed truck carrying Alaska Structures portable buildings can provide spacious housing and living accommodations for 56 people. When scaled to discuss large mining operations of 100, 200, 500, or 1,000 or more people, the logistical costs of transporting and placing trailer systems become astronomical.
Alaska Structures designs fabric buildings for:
Advancements in fabric building technology now make it possible to maintain comfortable living and working environments across extreme temperature ranges. These structures are capable of performing in conditions as cold as -80˚F and as hot as +130˚F, a range few building systems can reliably withstand.
Alaska Structures designs and engineers building systems for these types of conditions. Its proprietary insulation system is capable of reducing the amount of energy required to heat or cool and maintain a comfortable interior by up to 33%.
For a mining company operating in remote locations without proper access to shore power, this efficiency translates into fuel savings:
- Up to 1,310 gallons of fuel per year
These savings multiply significantly across large mining camps
What about metal buildings or steel buildings?
Metal and steel buildings present several challenges when used to support mining operations, particularly in extreme environments:
Heavy materials that increase transportation costs
Specialized equipment and skilled labor required for installation
High heat and cold conductivity, leading to increased energy demand
Expensive insulation packages needed to achieve acceptable R-values
Limited ability to dismantle, relocate, or reuse structures effectively
Once installed, steel buildings are not designed for easy relocation. Attempts to dismantle and move them often result in structural compromises, making reuse impractical. This lack of flexibility is a significant drawback for mining operations that require adaptable, relocatable infrastructure.
New Demands Spurring the Mining Boom
While parts of the mining industry are experiencing workforce downsizing, this trend is being partially offset by growing demand for cobalt and nickel, two critical materials used in lithium-ion battery production.
Lithium ion batteries power a wide range of everyday technologies, including:
- Pacemakers and medical devices
- Digital cameras and wearable electronics
- Laptops, tablets, and smartphones
- Electric vehicles
- The device you are likely using to read this article
The demand is massive and could prove to be a new lifeline for miners.
Much of these materials are still mined under dangerous circumstances. However, the technological advancements discussed throughout this article have the potential to create safer, more reliable alternatives for those who perform this line of work. Additionally, several companies such as Apple have begun more thorough vetting for where their resources come from to help reduce dangerous and exploitative mining practices.
Australia, currently the world’s largest lithium supplier, is expanding operations and, in some cases, planning to more than double production capacity. Canada is experiencing a similar mining boon, driven by demand for electric vehicles and battery metals. Reportedly, “over 60 percent of supply from planned large projects through about the next five years will be added in Australia, enabling the country to cement its grip on the market.”
This isn’t to say that other companies don’t have an opportunity in this emerging and booming industry. Emerging mining companies focused on lithium, cobalt, or nickel can remain competitive by leveraging mining technology to:
- Improve worker safety
- Reduce operational cycle times
- Increase productivity and efficiency
- Focus on energy conservation
Bolstering Developing Economies Through Mining
While gold mining has been floundering at a steady low, the industry as a whole has continued steadily. In fact, it has been prompting emerging economies as major players in terms of providing essential commoditized resources.
According to a 2000 report by the World Bank Group Mining Department, mining contributes significantly to economic growth by:
- Supporting production of key commodities such as copper (70%), bauxite (40%), iron ore and precious metals
- Creating employment opportunities and generating income
- Providing skills transfer to more than 2 million workers
- Producing a multiplier effect that increases economic benefit by a factor of between 2 and 5
The report also highlights strong social and economic benefits at the community level, particularly in countries such as Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Papua New Guinea and Mali. The most positive cases are related to the growth of local small- and micro-enterprise activities.
Within the United States, the Bureau of Labor Statistics is anticipating a growth to 716,900 jobs in the mining industry by the year 2026, as opposed to the 626,100 jobs reported in 2016.
If you are interested in learning more about engineered fabric structures for the mining industry, or discuss your building or camp requirements, please call Alaska Structures at +1-907-344-1565.
Additionally, you can submit your inquiry by sending an email, or use the online contact form .
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