Can You Dig It? The Future of Mining in Canada

From drones to automated vehicles, technology is not just transforming our personal lives, but Canada’s resource sector as well. In the mining sector alone,autonomous vehicles, aerial data from drones and the use of IOT sensors have the ability to improve day-to-day operations and overall safety. These technologies alone could help to augment our world-class environmental practices and draw foreign investment capital into the sector, ultimately enhancing the competitiveness of Canadian mining.

That being said, achieving digitization of the mining sector in Canada is not without its challenges, Canada must foster a regulatory environment that can support the integration of new technology or else we are hindering resource companies from taking full advantage of all that is available. Successfully integrating high technology will require significant foresight into the possible advantages and challenges of automated mining sites, especially with many of our mining operations being in remote communities with limited infrastructure and harsh environments.

All of this begs the question: With all this new technology, will the mining industry be able to dig it? Yesterday, we held a roundtable with key leaders in the resource sector to answer just that. We will continue to examine the issue in order to better advocate for an infrastructure plan that includes a strategy ensuring our mines are capable of incorporating connected and automated technologies within the next five years.

To learn more about our advocacy on the resource sector, click here.