The future of mining in Ghana: Are stakeholders prepared for the adoption of autonomous mining systems?
The future of mining in Ghana: Are stakeholders prepared for the adoption of autonomous mining systems?
复制标题
加纳采矿业的未来：利益相关者是否准备好采用自主采矿系统？
DOI：
10.1016/j.resourpol.2019.101411
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发表时间：
2019
期刊：
影响因子：
10.2
通讯作者：
Clement Kweku Arthur
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
B. A. Kansake;F. Kaba;N. Dumakor;Clement Kweku Arthur
自主采矿系统（AMS）正在开发和部署，以提高澳大利亚和美国等国家的矿山生产率、安全性和效率。然而，医疗辅助服务的实施众所周知会造成失业等社会挑战。预计这些系统最终将被引入加纳的采矿业。因此，有必要了解利益相关者对AMS的看法，以便为加纳实施的政策方向提供信息。这样的知识在文献中并不存在。本文评估了加纳露天采矿业采用AMS的矿山利益相关者的准备情况。使用封闭式和开放式问卷收集数据，并在MS Excel中使用透视图进行分析，以确定受访者的知识水平，以及采用AMS的准备情况。对加纳唯一的采矿工程项目进行了详细的定性和定量内容分析，以评估该项目在满足采矿业未来技能需求方面的充分性。结果显示，尽管受访者普遍了解AMS，但由于担心失业率上升，他们表示不愿意接受AMS进入加纳矿山。受访者认为大学课程侧重于世俗和过时的采矿技术。对加纳一所大学采矿课程的详细内容分析证实了这些看法，因为48%的本科和75%的研究生采矿课程都侧重于这些普通的技术。因此，不存在获得未来采矿业务所需技能的途径。我们建议设立矿业教育基金（MEF），为矿业项目配备必要的设施，培训AMS的利益相关者（现有员工和未来员工），以提供足够的当地劳动力，与AMS合作。
Autonomous mining systems (AMS) are being developed and deployed for improving mine productivity, safety and efficiency in countries like Australia and USA. Nonetheless, AMS implementation is known to cause social challenges such as job losses. These systems are expected to eventually be introduced into the Ghanaian mining industry. Thus, it is necessary to understand stakeholder perceptions of AMS to inform policy direction towards their implementation in Ghana. Such knowledge does not exist in the literature. This paper assesses the preparedness of mine stakeholders for the adoption of AMS to surface mining industry in Ghana. Data was gathered using closed, and open-ended questionnaires and analyzed in MS Excel using pivot charts to identify respondents’ knowledge levels, and preparedness for adoption of AMS. Detailed qualitative and quantitative content analyses of the only mining engineering program in Ghana were conducted to assess the adequacy of the program in meeting the future skill demands of the mining industry. The results reveal that even though respondents generally had knowledge of AMS, they expressed unwillingness to accept AMS into Ghanaian mines due to fear of increased unemployment. University courses were perceived by the respondents to focus on mundane and outdated mining technologies. These perceptions were corroborated by detailed content analysis of mining curricula of a Ghanaian university, as 48% of undergraduate and 75% of postgraduate mining courses were focused on these mundane technologies. Thus, avenues for acquiring skill set demands of future mining operations do not exist. We propose setting up a mining education fund (MEF) for equipping mining programs with the needed facilities to train stakeholders (employees and future employees) in AMS to provide adequate local labor that can work with AMS.