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Plant and machine operators, and assemblers · code 8111

Miners and quarriers

Miners and quarriers operate plant, machinery and hand tools to extract rocks, mineral ores and other deposits from underground and surface mines and quarries. Tasks include - (a) positioning, operating and monitoring the performance of a variety of underground and surface mining equipment including continuous mining, cutting and channelling plant; (b) setting up and operating drilling equipment in underground and surface mines and quarries; (c) operating machinery and using hand or power tools to remove loosened rock, ore, coal and other deposits; (d) preparing, fitting and installing supports in underground workings including rock bolts; (e) operating machinery to open new shafts, drives, air vents and rises; (f) operating auxiliary plant such as pumps to expel air, water and mud; (g) performing minor maintenance and repairs and lubricating and cleaning plant, machines and tools; (h) completing records detailing operations completed during shifts; (i) collecting mineral samples for laboratory analysis. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Bogger operator - Continuous miner operator - Dragline operator (mining) - Driller (mining) - Jumbo operator - Miner - Mining plant operator - Quarrier - Roof bolter (mining) Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Mining supervisor - 3121 - Blaster - 7542 - Shotfirer - 7542 - Driller (oil or gas well) - 8113 - Mining labourer - 9311 - Quarry labourer - 9311

None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count. It ranks 100 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • dewatering technician
  • surface miner
  • underground heavy equipment operator
  • driller
  • underground miner

Job titles from the EU's ESCO list. Search for any of them on the jobs page and you'll end up here.

82.7
Holds up
against AI Not Exposed

AI could take on 17.3 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 17.3 = 82.7

That's the whole sum, and you can check it against the ILO's study.

73.8
How hands-on
out of 100

From O*NET, averaged across 7 US jobs , so treat it as rough

50.3
How fiddly
and cramped

finger skill 44.3 · hand skill 49.5 · cramped spaces 57.2 · averaged

Kind of hands-on work · hands-on 50+ · fiddly 39.4+ Hands-on, fiddly work in tight spaces

More fine handwork, and more time in cramped or awkward spots, than a typical hands-on job. That is exactly what machines find hardest: they do best in tidy, predictable places.

estimated O*NET 31.0 BLS occupational crosswalk chain ISCO-08 to 2010 SOC (Aug 2012, rev. Jun 2015); 2010 to 2018 SOC (Nov 2017); O*NET-SOC 2019 taxonomy data 0.7-work-setting measures chosen by Frey & Osborne (2017) · the grouping is a sorting, not a measurement

This number is probably too high

This score only looks at AI tools like chatbots. It doesn't look at robots at all — and this job rates 73.8 out of 100 for how hands-on it is, which is exactly where robots come in.

Have a look at the tasks below and judge for yourself. The ILO scored them low because a chatbot can't do them. Whether a machine with hands could is a different question, and we can't answer it yet.

The tasks behind the score

The score is the average of these. A job is really a bundle of tasks, and an average can hide how uneven that bundle is.

The task AI could do most of scores 46, while the average is 17.3. A big gap means some of this job is wide open to AI and some of it barely at all. That's quite different from a job where everything sits somewhere in the middle, even when the averages match.

  1. 46

    Completing records detailing operations completed during shifts

    Low
  2. 16

    Operating machinery to open new shafts, drives, air vents and rises

    Very Low
  3. 15

    Collecting mineral samples for laboratory analysis.

    Very Low
  4. 14.5

    Positioning, operating and monitoring the performance of a variety of underground and surface mining equipment including continuous mining, cutting and channelling plant

    Very Low
  5. 13.5

    Operating auxiliary plant such as pumps to expel air, water and mud

    Very Low
  6. 13.5

    Performing minor maintenance and repairs and lubricating and cleaning plant, machines and tools

    Very Low
  7. 12.8

    Operating machinery and using hand or power tools to remove loosened rock, ore, coal and other deposits

    Very Low
  8. 12.5

    Setting up and operating drilling equipment in underground and surface mines and quarries

    Very Low
  9. 11.5

    Preparing, fitting and installing supports in underground workings including rock bolts

    Very Low

9 tasks · the High to Very Low labels are the ILO's

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.7-work-setting

Helped, or replaced?

The score above can't tell a tool that makes you faster from one that does the task instead of you. Jobs and Skills Australia looked at those two things separately, and this is their result, matched to this job.

One Australian job matches, but only partly: not everyone in it does this job. Treat the numbers as a rough guide.

AI helps you
50
AI does it for you
24

Helping wins by 26 points.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 7122

Compared with similar jobs

There are 39 jobs in the “Plant and machine operators, and assemblers” group, averaging 80.1. This one is above that.