#Mr shifty for computer manual#

'It should also actually introduce a lot more hours onto the machines, so you can actually use the machinery more because you don't need lunch breaks, you don't need crib times or shift changes,' Mr Day said.Īnd what productivity and efficiency gains essentially boils down to is lower costs for producers and greater returns for investors. However, while miners are keen to sell the technology as a ticket to safer mine sites, it is also a ticket to cutting costs. you don't need lunch breaks, you don't need crib times or shift changes. It should also actually introduce a lot more hours onto the machines. Tim Day has been in charge of rolling out BHP's automation program at its brand new Jimblebar mine in the Pilbara. With the decade-long mining boom pushing up wages and costs to unrealistic heights and ongoing scrutiny of safety in the mines, it is not hard to see why. The three iron ore heavyweights in the Pilbara have launched into the new world of automated mining, where the people are leaving the dirty work to the mechanical monsters in the pit. 'All the way from finding the new mines, processing better, mining more efficiently.' Technology revolution sweeping the Pilbara 'We have to do things smarter, we have to use technology to raise productivity, and that's going to touch on a whole spectrum of mining,' he said. Mr Kirchlechner said the move to automation was the only way for Australian miners to remain competitive in the world market.

'By eliminating those mundane, often dangerous jobs, you create safer and more sophisticated jobs.' 'It's a shifting and upgrading of skills we're moving from primitive work to advanced work,' said Philip Kirchlechner, who has spent years working in the iron ore game, his job being to marry Australian miners with Chinese steel mills.

#Mr shifty for computer manual#

Hot, dirty and cashed up have become synonymous with the fly in, fly out miner in Western Australia.īut that image is slowly being bulldozed by technology, with driverless trucks, trains and drills replacing manual and often dangerous mining jobs.