Robotics and Automation will change the way we mine.

Robotics and automation are closer than you think. A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how robotic dragonflies might be a way for mining companies to move large amounts of ore using small, slightly smart robots, in this case dragonflies. The idea is that using insect levels of intelligence and very small robots you could replace the enormous, highly complex, trucks, conveyors, and other methods currently used. The idea is that a robot dragonfly, powered by the sun, could move a few grams of ore in a direct line to a leech heap of even straight into a ship. If any individual robot was damaged or destroyed, the overal capability of a swarm would be only marginally affected, and the bot could be recyled, or repaired relatively cheaply. Alternatively, if a large truck breaks down its expensive to fix, and while it is out of commission the mass transport capability is significantly degraded. Anotyher advantage to this kind of approach is that the whole mining process could be changed. You don't need to design, build , and maintain the huge ramps that the trucks need. on a hole planned the size of the Olympic Dam site, the savings could be in the billions of dollars.

Now here is a story (thanks to Future Scanner) that has teams of robotic 'ants' that team up to do things. This story talks about them building labs on Mars. Things just are not that far away.
So just how small can robots get? Researchers at the Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal have coupled live, swimming bacteria to 150-nanometer beads to develop a self-propelling "nanobot" device steered through the body using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) (Thanks Ray Kurzweil and Technology Review). If they can be that small why not smaller. Molecular robots are on the way. Once they can manipulate individual atoms, then why not mine in situ with molecular bots taking only the desired elements?

Finally, how will we be interacting with the electronic world. I've already spoken about the 'Fatigue Cap' designed by the CRCMining at the University of Queensland and others. This cap can measure brainwaves and let you know how tiored you are - an important thing if you are driving one of those big trucks. But if you really want to know where this is going check out the video link to the 60 Minutes story on Jack Uldrich's 'Jump the Curve" blog.

I remember talking to one of my mining clients that this human - machine interface would be about 10 years away - that in 2004, based on some stories I'd seen about mice with electrodes in their brains operating food dispensers. I think it'll be sooner than that.