Mine of the Future
For future access to resources, we are looking beyond our current licence to operate and thinking about better ways of mining.
With our Mine of the Future™ programme we are demonstrating improvements to mining processes that include unprecedented levels in automation, and remote operations that will revolutionise the way mining has been conducted for more than 100 years.
Mine of the Future™ will help us improve our sustainable development performance in several areas. The programme is designed to create next generation technologies for mining operations that result in greater efficiency, lower production costs, improved health, safety and environmental performance, and more attractive working conditions.
- Innovation
- Engagement
- Results
The future involves reducing our footprint through improved capability for underground operations; relying more on technology such as remote controlled equipment; and ensuring we are at the top of our game on environmental management.
Our robotic Mine of the Future™, continues to be developed at the West Angelas iron ore mine in Australia's Pilbara - at a location called A Pit - could deliver many of our sustainable development goals.
For example, some of the roles currently based at the mine site will, in the future, be based in a city thousands of kilometres away. Employees will work like air traffic controllers. They will supervise the automated production drills, loaders and haul trucks from a remote operations centre in Perth.
Projects such as Resolution Copper in Arizona and the Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold project in Mongolia will use an underground block cave mining method. This method requires construction of significant underground infrastructure prior to ore production. In anticipation of this need, Rio Tinto Technology & Innovation has been engaged in a long running development programme to improve significantly both the safety and speed of constructing underground infrastructure such as shafts and tunnels.
The two new tunnelling concepts from Atlas Copco and Aker Wirth will enable fast and cost effective tunnel creation. The shaft boring machinery being developed by Herrenknecht will combine rock excavation, rock transport and structural support - currently three separate processes - into a single system. All three new concepts are a result of civil tunnelling industry technologies combined with input from Rio Tinto mining experts and contractor partners Redpath and Cementation.
In the area of exploration, a next generation airborne gravity gradiometry system is under development which promises to deliver significant increases in sensitivity and resolution of land surveys.
