Automation and FIFO: changing roles in Australia’s remote mines

FIFO workers are a cornerstone of remote operations. Credit: Adwo/Shutterstock.com

T here are estimated to be more than 100,000 fly-in fly-out (FIFO) workers in Australia, with the bulk of them in mining. The working model staffs mines across the country’s most remote sites, providing both technical and support staff, most commonly on a 2:1 roster (two weeks on shift, one week off). 

The number of FIFO workers has been consistently growing. In 2025, Perth-based facilities management company Cameron Facilities reported a 15% annual growth in FIFO workers in Australian mining from 2020 figures; across verticals, FIFO workers are estimated to contribute approximately $45bn (A$62.97bn) annually to the national economy. 

However, automation is reshaping working practices across FIFO-staffed Australian mines, replacing humans carrying out dangerous or dull tasks; many operators now use automated fleets or robotic drilling systems, rather than drivers or operators. Similarly, support roles, such as those in flight logistics or FIFO site maintenance, are increasingly becoming computerised. 

Ryan Carroll, vice-president for Australia and New Zealand at international workforce provider Airswift, tells MINE: “FIFO workers are already seeing a clear shift in day-to-day responsibilities, particularly in markets like Australia where automation is more advanced. Manual, reactive tasks are being supplemented by technology-enabled roles focused on monitoring, control and data interpretation.” 

An apparent conflict emerges: the demand for human labour in remote locations is growing, but so are the capabilities of automated solutions. Driverless trucks, autonomous train systems and automated drilling rigs promise safer solutions to remoteness, with an ever-growing portfolio of successful deployment to encourage adoption. 

Yet, there is still a real need for humans, but mass retraining is required to prepare a manual workforce for a digital future. Skill gaps are emerging in remote monitoring and data analytics, and it is these fields that are likely to mould FIFO’s future. 

The question then, is whether FIFO’s future will be one of mass replacement, or helping to alleviate a notoriously tough working environment. 

In the words of Liubov Shchigoleva, chief operations officer at AI-productivity company Qualtir: “The problem was never that machines do the boring parts. The problem is making sure the transition does not leave people behind.” 

FIFO work is notoriously intense for the duration of employees’ on-site stay (‘the swing’). Shifts are usually 12 hours, seven days a week, and employees live in on-site, catered accommodation in remote and challenging environments. 

Salaries tend to be high (the median earnings for Australian miners is A$2,832 per week), to compensate for the difficult conditions, but there are significant concerns around well-being. A 2024 survey in Western Australia (WA) found that 2.4% of FIFO workers had attempted suicide in the past year, compared to 0.3% of the general population. 

Despite the intensity of the work, the demand for staff is increasing. In the Pilbara, home to large iron ore miners including Rio Tinto, BHP and FMG, there were an estimated 13,384 mining-focused FIFO workers in 2023, a 400% increase on 2011 levels. Elsewhere, more than 16% of WA’s workforce were in mining and construction as of the 2021 Census. 

“It is the hardest job in the world,” says Cameron Facilities founder and managing director Sherif Sulejman. “It doesn't matter whether you are experienced and careful, it is unpredictable and dangerous. Then, at the end of the day, workers go to their rooms – and that is when depression starts to set in.” 

The types of roles considered appropriate for FIFO are gradually changing, however. A recent report by MINE’s parent company, GlobalData, notes that automation “will be one of the most disruptive forces shaping future labour markets, with the automation of specific processes already leading to job losses”. 

Early signs of automation’s disruption in mining have been in driverless vehicles, particularly dozers, load-haul-dump trucks and autonomous drilling rigs. In the Pilbara, Rio Tinto already operates a truck fleet that is more than 90% autonomous as part of its Mine of the Future initiative, while in WA, BHP’s South Flank mine has a fully automated, 41-strong fleet of Komatsu 930E haul trucks. 

“Automated vehicles will be a big area of automation, for sure,” says Sébastien Cloutier, director of sales and marketing at human logistics company Nomadis. “Safety is the main driver there, because having fewer workers on the ground, operators can reduce the number of people working 12-hour shifts, experiencing mental fatigue and the risk of error and of casualties.” 

Also in the Pilbara, Fortescue uses autonomous surface drill rigs at the Iron Bridge and Solomon mines, in partnership with provider Epiroc. After the trial of the SmartROC D65 drill at Iron Bridge, Epiroc Australia general manager and managing director Wayne Sterley highlighted the most-touted benefits of automated drilling: “We have the opportunity to put people in a safer working environment and help them be more productive and efficient.” 

Like most automated drills, the SmartROC D65 is operated remotely from within an operations centre, which could be anywhere in the world with an internet connection. The drill still uses joysticks and a touchscreen, but requires fewer operators and offers additional insights such as hole and drill pattern progress. 

Sulejman remembers the drilling space pre-automation: “The drilling industry has been able to eliminate accidents now that there are hydraulic rod handlers. We used to just use swinging rods, which was crazy, but that is what was available pre-automation.” 

The potential of automation is both incredibly broad and still emergent, as Shchigoleva notes: “Automation demand is highest wherever the gap between what AI can do and what people are currently doing is most visible, and that gap is becoming visible in more places every month.” 

That is certainly the case on FIFO sites, where the mine is not the only workplace environment. Significant infrastructure is required – known as a village – to host hundreds or thousands of workers. Rio Tinto reports that, in WA, it hosts 11,000 FIFO workers across 250 villages, requiring 3.5 million nights of accommodation per year. These villages include canteens, dry bars, gyms, kitchens, laundry facilities and recreational spaces. 

Sulejman sees significant automation potential here, too. “Automation would be good in the kitchen area; cooks and staff there do very high-volume work that can be very heavy, making them prone to accidents or injuries. I would like to see automation make things easier for them.” 

There has been some early movement in this space. Last month, Sodexo Australia and Ottonomy deployed the ‘Ottobot’ at Rio Tinto's Gudai-Darri iron ore mine village, which accommodates more than 2,000 FIFO workers in facilities spanning in excess of 9,000m². The AI-powered Ottobot is a four-wheeled last-mile delivery robot that will navigate the remote site to provide autonomous, on-demand deliveries of food and drinks to miners across the village. 

Automation could find a use case in FIFO site management then, and Sulejman also points to the massive workload associated with cleaning and maintaining more than 2,000 dongas on a single site. Roles such as deep cleaning, changing bed linen and fixing televisions are not likely to be automated yet, but simple, repeatable tasks – such as sweeping or hoovering – already are. 

GlobalData’s report highlights this potential: “Facilities maintenance and services providers are increasingly investing in cleaning robots to fulfil contracts with fewer staff, more consistent quality and better audit trails.” 

Also looking beyond the pit, Cloutier notes “complexity” in the human logistics side, explaining that “the supply chain to get workers has become a lot more complex. Once, a mine site could have two ops and get 90% of their workforce from those large cities. Now, if staff come from 80 different cities, it can become a complete mess.” 

Automation has potential here, too. AI-driven analysis can efficiently allocate human resources, schedule workforce requirements, and instantly assess transport logistics and potential flight disruptions. It can also intelligently manage inventories around FIFO workers, predicting food and electricity demand, and forecasting fatigue. 

Automation is set to shape the future of work for FIFO workers both on and off-site. Some of these changes could improve FIFO environments on a human level, rather than an operational one, but Shchigoleva argues that automating the dullest tasks frees up human labour for the “work that is worth doing”. 

Her comment is a nod to a question that looms large over any discussion of operational efficiency: can every worker be retrained fast enough to stay relevant in an evolving workplace, and do they want to be? As machines replace humans – whether they are haul truck drivers, drillers or on-site cleaners – Shchigoleva acknowledges that “when a skill becomes obsolete faster than people can retrain, that causes real pain for real people”. 

The counter-argument is two-fold: the mining sector has a skill gap more than a glut, and automation creates new opportunities for FIFO workers. Indeed, the Mining and Automotive Skills Alliance reports that demand for AI-skilled workers is growing rapidly, with related roles increasing 135% between 2019 and October 2025. Deployment of robotic solutions also has a positive track record; robots were deployed in ore sampling laboratories and warehouse spaces at Gudai-Darri in 2022, reportedly creating 600 permanent jobs. 

Yet, these roles are not accessible to most FIFO workers without retraining. “The transition will need to be carefully managed to balance these trade-offs,” says Carroll. “Automation can improve safety, productivity and environmental performance[…] However, there are challenges – high upfront investment, uneven reskilling outcomes and the risk of reducing the economic contribution FIFO workers bring to regional communities.” 

Therefore, it is a question of (potentially painful) evolution, before one of replacement. “I don’t think we will see a world without FIFO in our lifetimes,” comments Cloutier. “Even a lot of the mines of the future – at least the near future – are still planning to have thousands of workers on-site.” 

That is because automation requires maintenance and, often, remote control. In a perfect world, FIFO workers will find themselves retrained, doing more work from the comfort of on-site control centres, or maintaining machines above ground. Workers are also likely to find themselves on shorter ‘swings’ as the sector becomes less demanding. 

Some specialist work will be irreplaceable for some time, however, such as underground service (which involves installing ventilation, piping and electricals underground), and shutdown. Non-routine, highly complex and often dangerous tasks such as these mean that human labour is far from becoming irrelevant. 

Sulejman suggests this is good news for the industry: “I don't think you are going to be able to eliminate staff altogether, and I don't think you want to either,” he muses. “It would be great to have very practical automation, but you will still have to have humans to check in and supervise.” 

Ultimately, Carroll concludes that “FIFO will remain a core part of the mining workforce, particularly for remote operations, but its shape is evolving.” He suggests that the overall volume of FIFO roles is expected to decrease in the long term, but foresees a future in which FIFO is “more flexible, more specialised and less reliant on large numbers of workers deployed for extended periods”.