06/03/2026
Hmmm
At Boddington, Australia’s biggest gold mine, the pit is getting quieter. Not because production has stopped, but because more of the work has moved behind screens.
Newmont’s Boddington operation, about 130 kilometres south of Perth, has become one of the clearest examples of where large-scale mining is heading. According to general manager Chris Dark, the site was the first gold mine to introduce autonomous haul trucks and autonomous drills.
That has changed the job itself. Many workers who once drove trucks or ran drills inside the pit now work from a control room, using screens and controllers to keep equipment moving from a safer distance.
For Newmont, the logic is simple. Fewer people around heavy machinery means less exposure to risk, while automation can lift efficiency and improve long-term productivity.
But the human side is more complicated. Some workers adapted and moved into new technical roles. Others didn’t want to stop driving trucks. At Boddington, Newmont says the shift was managed through retraining, retirement and movement into other equipment positions.
The question now reaches far beyond one gold mine. Across Australia, automation is spreading through gold, iron ore and other commodities. Rio Tinto, BHP and Fortescue have already pushed the technology in different ways.
For companies, the direction is clear. For unions and regional towns, it is less comfortable.
If control rooms stay on site, many jobs remain close to the mine. If they move hundreds or thousands of kilometres away, mining towns can lose more than machinery work.
Boddington shows the future arriving quietly: less dust on the worker, more work on the screen.
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Photo: Google Earth
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