End-users’ perspectives on digitalization and automation — Insights from the Swedish mining industry

Mining is progressing toward increased automation and digitalization, enhancing safety and efficiency and simultaneously changing the nature of work. This paper examines the impacts, challenges and opportunities associated with automation and digitalization in the mining industry from the perspective of end-users, highlighting why their insights into technology development and further education may be crucial for the sector. Overall, end-users expressed a broadly positive attitude toward digitalization and automation, although they pointed out that not every task can be automated. Machine and road maintenance is seen as the most difficult to automate. The findings underscore the significance of involving end-users at an early stage in the development and implementation of technologies, as their perspectives can improve technical solutions and foster more favorable attitudes toward them. They also reveal that as new systems are introduced, digital skills, technical knowledge and the ability to adapt will become ever more critical. This emphasizes an increased need for further education to enable workers to effectively manage new technologies as they are introduced. Consequently, mining companies should strategically address learning, skill development and continuing education during working hours, offering flexible and diverse learning opportunities to prevent knowledge disparities among individuals and work teams within the mine. Background The mining industry has progressed through successive industrial revolutions, from manual and isolated operations to today’s semiautonomous and fully autonomous systems. Autonomous systems can react without human intervention, but human expertise is still vital. For example, mixed-fleet automation and artificial intelligence (AI) rely on humans’ knowledge to work efficiently, but bringing automated and human-driven processes together will change how workflows are designed and carried out. Digitalization boosts productivity, safety and the overall work environment, but the transition can bring temporary productivity losses. As mining moves toward more digitalization and automation, it will entail new skill requirements for the workforce. This necessitates upskilling and reskilling mine workers so they can keep pace with technological developments and perform their jobs. The mining industry recognizes the need for new competencies, but further education remains challenging. Two key questions persist concerning the optimal approach to further education and determining the competencies needed in the future. Abrahamsson and Johansson [1] argue that mining will require more abstract knowledge as automation increases, while Marszowski and Iwaszenko [2] suggest that new working methods will create new decision-making paths, with production workers making more rapid decisions. Workers will need both formal knowledge, such as geological, computer and technical skills, and generic knowledge [3] — for example, analytical, teamwork, communication and digital skills [4]. Fig. 1 What activities at the mine do you thinkwill not be automated? Methodology This study synthesizes two independent research studies at LKAB and Boliden’s mines in Sweden to gain a comprehensive view of end-user views, experiences and attitudes toward new technologies in their work. The first study was a survey sent out to 120 LHD loader operators at LKAB to quantify their opinions and experiences of automation and digitalization. The second study used participatory workshops with 12 production workers at Boliden’s Garpenberg and Aitik sites to collect rich, qualitative insights. Each data set was first analyzed separately. We then carried out a joint inductive secondary analysis, iteratively comparing and triangulating emerging themes across both sources. By combining the results of the survey and the workshops, the study uncovers consistent patterns in the empirical material, which can guide the design of further education programs in the mining industry. Fig. 2 What new skills will future operators require?(*SA = semiautonomous) Results and discussion The respondents of this study acknowledge the significant transformation due to extensive technological development. The results indicate that most end-users hold a positive view of increasing digitalization and automation in their daily work. However, many respondents also expressed skepticism about the feasibility of automating every aspect of mining operations. For example, the LHD operators’ perspectives on activities in the mine that could not be automated were captured in an open-ended question (Fig. 1).As shown in Fig. 1, machine maintenance was cited as the least automatable activity by LHD operators (29 percent) and production workers agreed this would remain a key manual task. Other activities deemed by the LHD operators as difficult to automate included road maintenance (22 percent), loading (20 percent), scaling (15 percent) and charging (9 percent). Even though not all tasks are expected to be automated, the implementation of new technologies will necessitate new and varied skills and competencies. The results show that LHD operators and production workers share some views, and differ in others, regarding which skills and competencies will be in demand in the future. When asked what skills future LHD operators will need, the majority highlighted digital and data literacy (28 percent) followed by manual loading (9 percent) and semiautonomous loading (8 percent) (Fig. 2). Production workers concur that basic computer literacy is essential and predict growing demand for advanced competencies in electrification, IT, automation, hydraulics and networking as machinery becomes more complex. Many foresee hybrid roles, such as electricians handling battery systems and mechanics with IT expertise, while respondents from both groups believe that “rock knowledge” remains indispensable. However, the production workers emphasize social skills more than LHD operators, highlighting cooperation, communication and group work. The production workers identified potential skill gaps, due to insufficient opportunities of further education during working hours. Lastly, both production workers and LHD operators highlight the significance of further education and training, emphasizing cross-departmental collaboration and collegial learning. Conclusions Based on the findings: Most end-users view digitalization and automation positively, while a minority expressed concerns. This highlights the need to involve end-users earlier when implementing technology to enhance solutions and facilitate broader acceptance. Although views differed on how much work can be automated, both LHD operators and production workers agreed that machine maintenance is the hardest task to automate. Human expertise will therefore remain essential, justifying continued investment in miners’ further education. The end-users foresee digital literacy, social skills, communication and “knowledge of the rock” as future skill requirements. This highlights the challenge of keeping pace with the requirement of new skill sets as miners need both traditional and modern skills. All end-users emphasize the growing importance of education due to rapid technological advancement. Mining companies should address learning and skill development during work hours, offering flexible learning options to prevent knowledge gaps between individuals and teams. Selected references Abrahamsson L, Johansson J (2006) From grounded skills to sky qualifications: A study of workers creating and recreating qualifications, identity and gender at an underground iron ore mine in Sweden. J Ind Relat 48:657–676 Marszowski R, Iwaszenko S (2021) Mining in Poland in light of energy transition: Case study of changes based on the knowledge economy. Sustainability 13:13649 Herbert JH, Hidalgo A (2021) Improving the engineering education in the raw materials sector in an advanced, decarbonised, and digital European society. 1015–1024 Jerman A, Pejic Bach M, Bertoncelj A (2018) A bibliometric and topic analysis on future competences at smart factories. Machines 6:41

End-users’ perspectives on digitalization and automation — Insights from the Swedish mining industry

Authored by: M. Tariq, A. Pekkari, A. Gustafson, H. Schunnesson and J. Johanss

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