Remote Mining poses challenges for Australian Airlines
There’s a shift underway in the mining industry that will likely catch Australian airlines out if they aren’t paying attention – the shift toward ‘remote’ mining. Remote mining is being pushed by the automation ability across all aspects of current mining technology, which at the basic level, means that fewer humans are needed on site in mines. And that suggests a major challenge for airline companies of all sizes, who’ve come to rely on the FIFO (fly in and fly out) model of human capability delivery to mines across Australia. The technology advancements are across almost all aspects of mining operations with perhaps just one area (maintenance) still likely to need onsite human capabilities.
The non human automatic technology advances are quite stunning in their scope. Right now technolgy for remote explosives placement and detonation; extraction (digging or shovelling); loading and transportation are all on the cards or well down the patrh to development. What that means is that there’s far less requirement for truck drivers, load operators or explosive expertise in the human form.
Instead, and in much the same way as an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is controlled from some far distant shore using satellite and where needed canera technology, we can expect the mine of the future to be remote and unmanned. And if you don’t need people, you don’t need airlines which means the highly profitable regional routes that have developed over the past seven years suddenly become redundant. Planning by airlines must consider the impact of a profit stream evaporating as quickly as a pool of water in the Pilbara sunshine.
The challenge also begins to impact on the property speculators who’ve been snapping up shacks and homes in mining towns in the idea of obtaining a quick turnaround – without the onsite employees, the remote and regional housing bubble also pops, only with a bit more of a loud BANG.
The remote off site mining control starts to lower the impact of FIFO on local towns and economies where locals can’t afford to live in their own houses and food prices and other commodities spike in response to profit opportuniuties being captured by local businesses. The automated mining approach does suggest some other benefits to the Australian economy however – all those plumbing, bricklaying, electrical and other trade apprentices who left low paying entry roles will have to give up driving their mining trucks and go back to their earlier career paths. And that might see the delays in construction activity in both the commercial and domestic sectors begin to shrink as more capacity comes online.
Today some friends are burying their father who died last week after his health took a sudden downturn. One of them, Penny got the urgent call to get to hospital. Penny is a conservative driver at the best of times and on this occasion was aiming to get through traffic as best as she could…
Read More >Cyclone Yasi heads towards Queenslands North East coast this morning with significant concerns for residents. There is potentially an added danger based on the way cylones work. Typically a cyclone needs two things – heat and water, which is why they can dissipate quickly once they head inland. However Yasi hits following a couple of…
Read More >As promised, the wash-up to my experience with the toll-road operator Eastlink and what I regard as a pretty poor approach to Customer Service. However as I am treating this is the International Year of Solutions, I’m not complaining without making suggestions for improvement, which I have done You can download the document here…
Read More >The floods are under way throughout the majority of Queensland and now into northern New South Wales and all we can do is hang on and wait to see the impact. Unfortunately it looks like the numbers of people who have lost their lives as a result is set to rise significantly beyond the 12…
Read More >Reckon it’s time we had a focus on getting things done and so I am declaring 2011 to be the ‘International Year of Solutions’. Seems to me that a lot of talk fests have been gobbling up the neuronal space for a few years now with insufficient ACTION being generated – just lot of promises…
Read More >Another stream of consciousness on the customer service theme that I come back to frequently. If you’ve ever received one of those scam emails from say ‘the past Minister of the Immigration and Business Department in Nigeria’ seeking your assistance at repatriating funds for which you’ll be paid a fortune, or those other scams claiming…
Read More >A shift is underway in television in Australia and it has nothing to do with digital versus analogue or the pay versus free shifts. Instead we are finally seeing the promise of TV as a medium of engagement. That promise sees a shift from the passive watching of TV (a ‘push’ approach) to the active…
Read More >That will be the question many will be asking leading up to the replay of the AFL Grand Final this Saturday between Collingwood and St Kilda. Regardless of the outcome, the AFL have already had their fairytale come true courtesy of a drawn game which is believed to have handed the AFL a bonus likely…
Read More >Being someone who questions the value of technology before climbing on board, I’ve been perhaps a tad slow to check out the Google Chrome web browser. Mistake! Given it’s speed and ease of use, the first couple of days have impressed me greatly and I’m mindful that I don’t have all the working of its…
Read More >In preparation for work with a couple of clients in the past fortnight I’ve had to throw myself into substantially more ‘tourist’ style activities than I have for quite some time in an attempt to answer the following question: ‘How do we get more people to come here?’ Yes there’s a lot of fun to…
Read More >