It’s no secret that technological advances continue to transform workflow and processes across various industries. These innovations increase efficiency and give businesses an upper hand over competitors who are slow to implement forward-thinking technology.

Over the years, the mining industry has integrated artificial intelligence and automation into its operations, making mining efficient, safer, more sustainable, and profitable. Below are three innovations gold miners use in their modern-day mining activities. 

1. Robotic Drills

Mining companies now rely on automated drilling rigs as a faster and more mobile solution to excavate hard rocks. Many forms of automated drilling rigs are in use, like battery-powered ones that can drill blast patterns quicker and more accurately than humans or human-operated machinery. These automated drill rigs are also equipped with the latest innovations in cutters and preconditioning equipment, making it easier for miners to weaken rocks and extract mineral reserves from them. Many mining organizations use robotic drills in their operations to make mining more efficient. Leading mining businesses such as Alamos Gold are good examples of such companies. 

Alamos Gold is a Canadian-based intermediate gold producer with three operating mine sites in North America. Their Island Gold and Young Davidson Mines are located in Northern Ontario, while their Mulatos mine is in Sonora State, Mexico. Alamos CEO, Mr. John A. McCluskey, is committed to upholding high sustainable development standards throughout its mining operations. As such, Alamos Gold invests in social responsibility and reforestation projects in local communities, taking measures to ensure that cyanide used in their operations will not impact any surrounding areas. What's more, Alamos continues to uphold its core values of integrity, teamwork, safety, sustainability, and commitment to creating lasting legacies for all stakeholders.

2. Drone Usage

Drones have significantly enhanced mining exploration since they’re excellent for capturing raw visual data. They collect timely images that are quickly transformed into a 3D copy of mine sites. With this 3D copy, mining companies can perform site surveys, design road layouts, calculate volumes of mineral resources, among others. As such, drones bring new insights to mining operations, the same way business intelligence introduces manufacturing leaders to novel information. Helpful websites such as Digital Tips can provide more details on how the manufacturing sector leverages business intelligence in its operations. 

Digital Tips provides interesting tips for businesses on the best SEO and Digital Marketing campaigns and strategies to take your company to the next level. Their article on business intelligence in manufacturing offers unique insights into how big data infrastructures and practices, business analytics, and intelligence tools are used on the factory floor. These intelligence tools conduct reports using data mining to process accumulated big data and relay them to your team. Machine learning and data analytics also help you conclude your gathered data, allowing you to adopt best practices in your operations. Data visualization through easy-to-read platforms like spreadsheet and charts also help you understand information, integrate new solutions, and recognize future strategic plans.

3. Safer Blasting Technologies

In underground and surface mining, rock excavation is usually done by drilling holes into rocks and filling them with explosives to blast the hard rock surfaces away. This practice is efficient but is a significant fire hazard that can collapse the entire mine if there's any negligence afoot. Consequently, micro-explosives used with computer-assisted design and accurate timing are being used to reduce blasting risks. These micro-explosives also allow for better fragment size control, so miners minimize time, cost, and energy when grinding and crushing blasted rock fragments.

The gold industry has benefitted from several technological advancements that have streamlined its operations. The above-listed points are three great examples of innovations that miners rely on for safer and more efficient extraction of ounces of gold.