This article examines how organizational and technological developers envision the future of miners’ work, given the green transition and ongoing technological development. The results are based on survey data from 44 experts across the EU and Australia. The results show that mining work will become more digitalized, automated, and remotely controlled, yet human presence will remain essential. Experts anticipate higher competence requirements, continuous learning, and the development of new hybrid skill sets that combine technical and operational expertise. At the same time, a tension becomes clear: although experts emphasize the need for further education, many express doubts about miners’ willingness and ability to participate in further education, and highlight scheduling constraints in everyday operations, indicating how perceptions and organizational conditions can limit learning in practice. To bridge this gap, mining companies require proactive collaboration among experts, developers, and miners to align competence development with emerging technologies, ensuring an inclusive and sustainable transition.

Denna artikel baseras på en enkätstudie om hur teknik- och organisationsexperter inom gruvsektorn i EU och Australien föreställer sig att den gröna omställningen kommer att påverka framtidens gruvarbete, kompetensbehov och gruvföretagens rekrytering av gruvarbetare. Resultatet visar att de främsta utmaningarna vid nyrekrytering externaliseras genom att peka på allmänhetens negativa attityder gentemot gruvdrift. Vidare betonas att den gröna omställningen och teknikutvecklingen kommer att förändra gruvarbetares arbetsuppgifter och skapa nya kompetensbehov. Detta indikerar att anställda gruvarbetares behov av kompetensutveckling kommer att öka liksom gruvföretagens behov av att utveckla lärande organisationer. Detta är ett intressant perspektiv som inte tidigare varit framträdande inom gruvindustrin.

Mining, like other industries, has progressed through a series of industrial revolutions, transitioning from disconnected, manually operated mines to operations dominated by safe, sustainable, semi-automated, and automated operations, driven by technological advancements such as digitalisation and automation. These changes have resulted in enhanced safety measures, cost reductions, and increased efciency, while simultaneously altering the nature of mining work. This paper presents a study to assess the impacts, challenges, and opportunities of automation and digitalisation in the mining industry from an end-user’s perspective. The study is based on the overall combined results from two previous studies, one surveying the opinions of LHD operators and the other the opinions of mining production workers, extracted through two workshops. The fndings indicate digitalisation and automation are predominantly perceived positively, but there are some negative attitudes. End-users have diverse opinions about the impact of digitalisation and automation on their work and the skill sets that will be required in the future, but they agree computer skills and understanding of the mining processes will continue to be crucial competencies in the future. Another common opinion is that machine maintenance is the most challenging aspect of the work to automate. The results highlight an increased need for further education enabling workers to manage new technologies as they are implemented.

In this chapter, the authors discuss how new technologies can help facilitate the implementation of the green industrial transformation on human terms. The green industrial transformation is coming by leaps and bounds and has come to change the working conditions for many people. A key question is whether the mining industry has a workforce that can handle the new carbon neutral technology. The present workforce is ageing, and companies have difficulties recruiting young talented people that in general are not very interested in working in the mining industry. The younger generation is much more concerned with environmental impacts and sustainability. The mining industry is viewed, in their eyes, as being part of the problem. The challenge that remains is to show in which ways the industry could be part of the solution, based on knowledge, mutual understanding, and trust.

This article investigates the understanding and manifestation of safety culture within the Swedish construction industry. Specifically, through 20 interviews with safety leaders, this study explores the connection between safety culture and structures and processes on construction worksites. The theoretical framework draws on different perspectives on organisational culture, in general, and safety culture, in particular. The results highlight the importance that is placed on management and leadership in developing safety culture, with leaders setting examples and being actively involved in safety practices. Safety regulations are seen as crucial tools for change, influencing safety culture significantly. The size of the company and characteristics of employees, including challenges posed by subcontractors and language barriers, also impact safety culture. Safety training is essential for directing behaviours towards a good safety culture, and housekeeping is identified as an indicator of safety culture. In the discussion, the matter of understanding safety culture in relation to specific structures and processes on construction worksites is analysed, problematised and connected to prevailing perspectives within safety culture research.