Caterpillar's autonomous trucks are already being used at mines in Western Australia. ”An autonomous truck doesn't need to stop for lunch breaks or shift changes," Caterpillar said in a promotional page on its website. And it is proceeding with semiautonomous drills, including a system that lets one worker control three drills at once.
A shift from underground coal mines to surface mines — which involves opening mountains with controlled explosions, then using automated heavy machinery to mine the coal — has also led to a decline in mining jobs.
In 1980, the industry employed about 242,000 people. By 2015, that figure had plunged 60 percent, to fewer than 100,000, even as coal production edged up 8 percent. Helped by automation, worker productivity more than tripled over the same period, according to data from the federal Energy Information Administration and the Brookings Institution.
And a recent study by the International Institute for Sustainable Development and the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment predicted that automation was likely to replace 40 to 80 percent of workers at mines.
Automation makes mines more ”safe, efficient and productive," said Corrie Scott, a Caterpillar spokeswoman. ”While mines would not need as many drivers, they will need more people who use and understand the latest technology," she said.
”However way you spin it, gas and renewables are going to continue to replace coal," said Nicolas Maennling, senior economics and policy researcher at Columbia University and an author of the automation study.
”And in order to stay competitive, coal will have to increase automation," he said. ”What Mr. Trump does will make little difference."
