How autonomous vehicle fleets are reshaping Australia's mining workforce

Autonomous mining vehicles are becoming increasingly common across Australian operations, reshaping the day-to-day responsibilities of the workers who used to drive and operate them.

According to GlobalData figures, more than 3,800 autonomous haul trucks were operating across surface mines worldwide by last year, with Australia the second-largest contributor following China. Mining majors including Rio Tinto, BHP and Fortescue are among those deploying smart trucks capable of operating without direct human intervention.

The implications for the workforce are significant. Data from Mining and Automotive Skills Alliance (AUSMASA) projects that the number of truck drivers, along with welders and flame cutters, will fall by more than 10% by 2028. The figure fits into a wider trend towards automation, with the World Economic Forum estimating that 39% of workers' core skills will need to change by 2030 in response to accelerating digital and AI adoption in Australia.

In this landscape, mining companies’ competitive advantage will depend not only on how quickly they adopt autonomous systems but on how effectively they prepare workers for the roles those systems create.

Haul truck drivers are perhaps the clearest example of the mining industry’s increasing autonomy. Haulage has proved particularly suited to automation because trucks operate on repeatable routes in controlled environments, making them easier to automate than less predictable mining tasks such as drilling, blasting or equipment maintenance. In the Pilbara, Rio Tinto operates a truck fleet that is more than 90% autonomous as part of its Mine of the Future initiative, while BHP's South Flank mine has a fully automated fleet of 41 Komatsu 930E haul trucks.

Further north, Hancock Iron Ore's Roy Hill mine completed the conversion of its entire 78-truck fleet (a mix of Caterpillar and Hitachi trucks) to driverless operation in late 2025, becoming what supplier Epiroc describes as the world's largest OEM-agnostic autonomous mine.

Jayden Wallis, president of APAC at mining recruitment provider Airswift, says the strongest demand for autonomy is in heavy-duty tasks.

“Manual, reactive tasks are being supplemented by technology-enabled roles focused on monitoring, control and data interpretation,” he says. “Autonomous haulage systems are a strong example, alongside predictive maintenance models that reduce unplanned downtime.”

The shift is already being seen in the market. Rio Tinto's Operations Centre near Perth Airport runs 24 hours a day, coordinating the company's autonomous trucks, trains and drills across the Pilbara from more than 1,500km away, with autonomous haulage system controllers monitoring the fleet from a console rather than a cab.

Truck drivers are increasingly moving into positions such as remote operations specialists and autonomous fleet controllers, while front line work is becoming less physically demanding but more cognitively complex.

"Rather than whole jobs being eradicated, the main thing that is happening is that people's roles are changing," says Sharon Parker, who researches the impact of technology on work at the Future of Work Institute. “This means employers are requiring basic digital skills for interpreting data and effectively intervening.”

In particular, emphasis is shifting from manual capability to digital literacy. The result is what Parker describes as a shift from traditional blue-collar work towards "grey-collar" roles that combine operational experience with digital capability.

For mining companies, success will depend on how well the transition between the two is managed.

Several companies have already invested significantly in redeployment.

BHP's FutureFit Academy, launched in 2020, is the largest example: the company invested around A$300m ($209.81m) in two purpose-built training centres, offering paid, nationally recognised qualifications to people with no prior mining experience as part of a push to widen the talent pool as much as to retrain existing staff.

Programmes such as these show the potential for reskilling, though AUSMASA’s projection of a double-digit decline in truck-driving roles alone by 2028 also highlights the potential scale of workforce displacement.

The transition has not been uniform. At Newmont's Boddington gold mine in Western Australia, many former truck drivers and drill operators now supervise autonomous equipment from a remote control room rather than from inside a vehicle. However, the company has also acknowledged that some employees chose to leave rather than retrain, illustrating that workforce transformation is likely to involve both redeployment and attrition.

The transition is also taking place against a backdrop of existing skills shortages. Enrolment in mining engineering programmes has declined by more than 60% over the past ten years, even as demand for workers capable of managing increasingly complex automated systems grows.

“Skill shortages in the mining industry have become more prominent in recent years,” says Nilesh Raghoo, mining analyst at GlobalData. “What compounds this issue is that the industry relies on complex machinery and tools, such as specialised drills and excavators, making it challenging to ensure that relevant personnel are properly trained.”

To bridge that gap, companies need to establish clear career pathways for new roles and invest in training before workforce shortages emerge.

Lakshmi Anitha, automation training team lead at Epiroc, says the company helps miners progress to an autonomous mine by developing training pathways that combine classroom learning, practical exercises, simulation environments, on-the-job training and competency assessments, designed so people can apply what they've learned safely once autonomous systems go live.

“The objective of training is not simply to teach people how to use new technology, but to build the capability and confidence to work safely and effectively in a new operating environment,” Anitha says. “The biggest gap is rarely technical capability, but it is the shift in mindset and decision-making.”

While many workers already have valuable practical mining experience, operators must provide the support and direction needed to apply those skills in an automated environment.

Parker believes traditional education pathways alone will not be enough to bridge the current skills gap.

"There is a rising need for people to upskill more quickly and regularly than a degree allows," she says. "We're already seeing things like micro-credentials emerge, and this will continue to expand. There will also need to be tighter links between education and industry to plug the gaps."

Short, targeted training delivered alongside work is likely to become increasingly important as technologies continue to evolve. Rather than treating learning as a one-off event, companies may need to adopt continuous development models that allow workers to update skills throughout their careers.

“A successful transition is typically a gradual journey rather than a single event,” says Anitha. “One of the most effective approaches is identifying early adopters and technology champions within the workforce. These individuals help build confidence, demonstrate the benefits of automation, and support their colleagues through the transition.”

Similarly, Wallis says the workers who transition most successfully are typically those who combine their operational experience with a willingness to develop new technical skills.

“However, success also depends on employers providing the right training, opportunities, support and clear pathways into new roles,” he cautions, “ensuring workers have the confidence to adapt as technology evolves.”

Understanding the autonomous tools being used is also a matter of safety. As trucks and trains increasingly run themselves, Parker warns the people watching over them can become part of the problem.

“Human workers increasingly need to oversee and monitor AI-based processes,” Parker says. “They can become complacent or too reliant on automated decisions, creating automation surprises when things go awry yet are not picked up.”

“Often those using AI do not understand the decisions it makes because of a lack of transparency in the system,” she adds.

That creates a paradox for autonomous mining. While technology removes workers from hazardous environments, it also increases the importance of maintaining human expertise for the moments when automation reaches its limits.

“Historically we saw it with pilots who 'forget how to fly' because of excess automation," Parker says. "Systems have now been put in place to keep pilots' skills up – mandatory levels of actually flying the plane, use of simulators. We're going to face these issues in many occupations."

Reskilling, then, cannot just mean training people to monitor an automated system, but also include real opportunities to understand what that system is actually doing beneath the surface.

Despite concerns over skills, workforce transition and automation risk, industry leaders remain optimistic.

Li Binghao, leader of the mining technology research lab MIoT & IPIN at the University of NSW, says fully autonomous mines will become increasingly common for well-defined tasks, particularly in open-pit operations, while underground mines are likely to remain semi-autonomous for the foreseeable future due to their complexity and technology restrictions.

Within this landscape, he predicts the future of mining to be one in which people do not disappear from operations, but instead see their roles evolve.

“The future is not about removing people from mining but about relocating them from hazardous environments and transitioning them into higher-value roles,” he says.

Wallis shares that optimism.

"The long-term potential is transformative," he says. "People will remain essential to mining operations, particularly in remote regions like the Pilbara, but the shape of the workforce is evolving."

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For mining companies, the challenge is ensuring that evolution is deliberate rather than reactive. That means identifying which roles are likely to change before automation arrives, creating clear pathways into emerging positions, investing in flexible training and giving experienced workers opportunities to apply their operational knowledge in new ways.

“The most important step is to start investing in people before the technology arrives and goes live,” says Anitha. “Autonomy is not about replacing people with technology. It is about equipping people with new skills so they can continue to add value in a more advanced mining environment.”

The industry has already proven autonomous haulage can deliver productivity and safety gains. The next test is whether it can deliver those gains while bringing its workforce along for the journey.