In the field of robotic development for deep-level mining, innovation “abounds” and several models of robot were ready to be rolled out at South African operations, mining innovation consultant Dr Andries Leuschner said last week.

Describing this as the “dawn of mining robots”, the former Gold Fields group services senior consultant said recent models included design considerations that would enable the systems to operate in a deep-level environment and remove the risk to humans that was inher-ent at these depths.

“Robots operating through remote control are ready to assume tasks and will work well [in local deep-level mines]. The primary reason for robots at this depth is to go where humans cannot, and should not, go. [Robots] are not meant to replace [people],” he told delegates at the fourth Global Mining Technology Forum, in Johannesburg.

According to Leuschner, purpose-built deep-level robotic systems have been engineered with underground environmental conditions in mind.

These include the possibility of extreme temperature variations, humidity, dust, water pools or flooding, electromagnetic fields, flammable gases and possible radio interference.

US National Robotics Engineering Centre director Jeff Legal added that the benefits of using robotics in mining included a reduction in operational costs, increased productivity, increased utilisation and the identification of possible new applications.

“However, the most critical benefit of the use of robots is an improvement in the safety of miners by removing them from hostile conditions,” he commented.

Leuschner added that, while the primary motivation for the deployment of robotics in mining was to reduce the threat of physical harm, the use of these systems would also enable greater access to reserves that would otherwise be too hazardous to explore.

While acknowledging that there was no clear solution to the integration of robots and humans in the workplace, he asserted that there would, most likely, be an interim period in which robots worked alone in deep-level environments.

“We expect humans to remain in control, with diminishing direct operational command as the systems become more automated, leading to enhanced productivity,” Leuschner said.

His comments follow assertions by former Public Enterprises director-general Dr Sivi Gounden earlier this month that South African mining needed to pursue a technology trajectory to put it back in line with other mining countries that were also exploiting complex orebodies at depth.

Gounden told Mining Weekly that the right technologies needed to be identified and the labour pool to be upskilled to lower the unit cost of production.

“The many mining methodologies available need to be taken to the next level, taking advantage of technologies, including robotics, which have come such a long way in the last two decades,” he commented.