Future Mining – Thoughts on Mining Trends

Even though mining for energy resources is likely to decrease, mining activities generally will increase. The demand for metal resources will rise in the next decades. The question is, what will mining look like in the future? Mines have to be dug even deeper and processing has to mill even smaller because ore is getting more complex. One possibility is automation, which may be a solution for mines with certain conditions, e.g. where heat and gas levels (NOx and CO) are a major concern. However, automating an underground mine is a very complex task. The relevant influencing factors are introduced and discussed in this paper, with brief descriptions of some investigations into different approaches and technologies for handling these situations