By Dave Goddard
Automation is often discussed in our industry as if it is a distant future or a nice-to-have enhancement. But from where I stand, full automation will become a non-negotiable standard for new mines within the next 20 years. The driver won’t be the pursuit of massive cost reductions or dramatic throughput gains. It will be something far more fundamental: labour.
Why labour, not cost, will drive automation
Hexagon’s Mining President, Dave Goddard
When I look across regions that have embraced autonomy earliest, a clear pattern emerges. Western Australia and the Canadian oil sands were not seeking radical cost transformation when they adopted autonomous haulage. They were responding to a simple constraint — not enough people.
Automation ensures business continuity when labour is scarce or inconsistent. That alone will make it essential. Some mines also rely on local employment as part of their social licence to operate, which means fully removing operators isn’t always the answer. In those cases, semi-autonomous or operator-assist technologies provide the right balance: keeping local jobs while still lifting efficiency and safety.
The future of mining automation is not binary. It’s a spectrum, and every mine will find itself somewhere on it.
Operational discipline: the real value creator
Automation itself is not the magic lever some people expect. The real improvements often come from the operational discipline required to support autonomous systems.
Take tire life as an example. Some operations proudly point to 10,000 hours of tire performance with autonomous haulage. Yet a mine in Indonesia achieved the same tire life a decade ago with staffed operations. The common denominator wasn’t technology — it was disciplined road maintenance, TKPH (Tonne-Kilometres Per Hour) monitoring, and operator training.
Autonomous trucks demand well-maintained roads. When mines adjust their practices to meet that requirement, tires last longer, productivity improves, and variability drops. It’s not the truck that creates value; it’s the structured, consistent way of working that autonomy forces us to adopt.
Across every major autonomous deployment I’ve been part of, this theme repeats itself. True operational gains come from institutionalised discipline, not simply machines running without people.
Hexagon’s approach: enabling automation, delivering value now
Hexagon has invested heavily in the foundational elements of automation: advanced machine positioning, actuation systems, and the shift from teleoperation to semi-autonomous and fully autonomous workflows. Autonomous operation is absolutely within our capability.
But what our customers tell us is equally important: they don’t want automation for its own sake. They want to know the path to autonomy exists, but they also want solutions that deliver value today, improving safety, productivity, and decision-making.
That is why we focus on automating the process rather than the machine. The biggest opportunities lie in streamlining workflows, reducing human dependency in specific tasks, and empowering operators with decision support.
The drilling opportunity: where automation truly pays off
Hexagon’s award-winning Drill Assist solution has helped mines see a 30% improvement in penetration rates.
A powerful example is our Drill Assist programme. Some autonomous drilling providers focus mainly on tramming between holes — a one-minute activity in a 35-minute cycle — and celebrate saving 15 seconds. But that isn’t where the real value lies. The true opportunity is in the drilling process itself.
By applying AI to automatically adjust input parameters in real time, we’ve seen an average 30% improvement in penetration rates, depending on ground conditions. In Minnesota’s Iron Range, miners have seen gains of 50%–60%. Suddenly that 35-minute dwell time becomes 19 minutes.
This leads to meaningful, strategic questions: How many more metres can we drill? How many rigs do we actually need? That’s where automation becomes transformative.
Looking ahead: designing workflows for a digital mine
As I challenge my teams, the future is not about automating a machine simply because we can. It is about designing workflows that minimise the need for human intervention altogether, while still harnessing human oversight where it adds value.
Automation should enhance safety, improve repeatability, and empower mines to operate confidently in the face of labour shortages. But above all, it should create measurable value — not theoretical potential.
This mindset will shape the next generation of innovation at Hexagon. As mines move steadily toward a digital, autonomous future, we will help them build not just automated machines, but integrated, intelligent workflows that redefine what “good” looks like.
This conversation is only just beginning. That’s why we’re launching Shift, a new monthly newsletter where we’ll take you behind the scenes of the ideas, challenges and unexpected insights shaping mining’s next chapter. In the first issue, I dig into a realisation that surprised even me — and why it matters more than ever for the mine of the future. If you’d like to follow along, learn with me, and help spark the discussion our industry needs, I invite you to subscribe. The first edition lands on 5 January. Subscribe here.