The advantages of automating a mine are clear, as the technology increases efficiency and improves safety. The cost profile of the mine has been reduced by as much as 15% thanks to the implementation of automation. This reduces the cost of production from $881 per ounce down to $746 per ounce.
Despite the upfront additional cost of the autonomous equipment being as much as $10m-$15m, Resolute will ultimately cut mining costs by 30%.
Efficiency is also improved with automation. “With fully automated equipment, no time is lost during handovers at the end of a shift,” says Pulli. “It is also not necessary to protect mobile robots from explosive gases, nor to suspend operations to allow for ventilation. We have examples where machines are now working 22 hours a day, rather than the 15 or 16 hours they worked before. This is a pretty amazing improvement.”
Many of the challenges that work against automation, such as connectivity concerns, are centred on the retrofitting of mines. The Syama mine avoids these problems, thanks to its purpose-built nature.
A concern that remains, however, is that as automation improves, fewer employees are needed. This is particularly prevalent in regions that rely on mining as a key provider of jobs. The Syama mine is the largest employer in the area, providing 1,500 jobs, as well as playing an important role in the broader economy of Mali – particularly as the government holds a 20% stake in the operations.
Resolute and Sandvik are both adamant that automation will not reduce employment. Instead, “automation allows for new types of technology roles in mines,” says Pulli.
This may initially mean that there is a skills gap, but Welborn simply views this as an opportunity. “There's an important requirement in this sort of mining activity to be good at training,” he says. “All miners are going through a technology journey. The opportunity in Mali, in a developing country, is huge.
“Technology and adaptive technology provides a great opportunity to train local workers to use equipment in a way we haven't been able to do in the past. So whereas traditionally mines in Africa have employed a lot of expatriate managerial labour, or the highly skilled technical jobs have been performed by expatriates, I think the use of innovative and adaptive technologies allows us to be more proactive with training local workers to use and up-skill into those roles, and that's what we intend to do in Syama.”