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Plant and machine operators, and assemblers · code 8112

Mineral and stone processing plant operators

Mineral and stone processing plant operators monitor and operate machinery and equipment for processing rocks, minerals and stone to recover refined products for immediate use or further processing. Tasks include - (a) setting up and operating stationary plant and machinery which grind, crush, cut, saw and slice rocks, minerals and stones according to the specifications for the job; (b) positioning blocks and slabs of stone onto machines for sawing, cutting and further working; (c) monitoring and maintaining the flow of unprocessed rocks, minerals and stones from conveyors into machines; (d) operating washing, separating, leaching, precipitating, filtering, extracting and combining equipment to remove waste material and recover minerals; (e) combining mineral ores with solvents to facilitate further processing; (f) separating metal and mineral concentrates from ore and alluvial deposits by thickening, flotation, gravity separation, filtration, or magnetic and electrostatic separation; (g) observing meters, gauges and control panels, adjusting valves and controls to ensure the safe and efficient operation of equipment, detecting malfunctions and assisting with plant and machinery maintenance and repair; (h) examining processed materials visually or with hands to ensure compliance with established standards and job specifications, and collecting samples for testing in laboratories; (i) recording information about processing completed during shifts, such as quantities, types and dimensions of materials produced; (j) sorting, stacking and moving processed minerals and stone for packaging, further processing or shipping. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Coal washer - Crusher operator (mineral or stone processing) - Flotation worker (mineral processing) - Gold precipitator - Machine operator (stone cutting or processing) - Milling machine operator (minerals) Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Stone cutter (hand or hand-powered tools) - 7113 - Stonemason - 7113 - Stone polisher (hand or hand-powered tools) - 7113 - Stone splitter (hand or hand-powered tools) - 7113 - Machine operator (cast stone production) - 8114 - Stone polishing machine operator - 8114

None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count. It ranks 155 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • stone driller
  • stone planer
  • mineral processing operator
  • mineral crushing operator

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

79.2
Holds up
against AI Not Exposed

AI could take on 20.8 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 20.8 = 79.2

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

67.1
How hands-on
out of 100

From O*NET, averaged across 2 US jobs

41.8
How fiddly
and cramped

finger skill 42.9 · hand skill 42.9 · cramped spaces 39.7 · 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 67.1 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 20.8. 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

    Recording information about processing completed during shifts, such as quantities, types and dimensions of materials produced

    Low
  2. 30

    Examining processed materials visually or with hands to ensure compliance with established standards and job specifications, and collecting samples for testing in laboratories

    Low
  3. 22.5

    Observing meters, gauges and control panels, and adjusting valves and controls to ensure the safe and efficient operation of equipment, and detecting malfunctions, and assisting with plant and machinery maintenance and repair

    Very Low
  4. 20

    Separating metal and mineral concentrates from ore and alluvial deposits by thickening, flotation, gravity separation, filtration, and or magnetic and electrostatic separation

    Very Low
  5. 19

    Monitoring and maintaining the flow of unprocessed rocks, minerals and stones from conveyors into machines

    Very Low
  6. 16

    Setting up and operating stationary plant and machinery which grind, crush, cut, saw and slice rocks, minerals and stones according to the specifications for the job

    Very Low
  7. 15.5

    Operating washing, separating, leaching, precipitating, filtering, extracting and combining equipment to remove waste material and recover minerals

    Very Low
  8. 15

    Combining mineral ores with solvents to facilitate further processing

    Very Low
  9. 13

    Sorting, stacking and moving processed minerals and stone for packaging, further processing or shipping.

    Very Low
  10. 11

    Positioning blocks and slabs of stone onto machines for sawing, cutting and further working

    Very Low

10 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 this one closely, so this is about as reliable as it gets here.

AI helps you
59
AI does it for you
33

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 7129

Compared with similar jobs

There are 39 jobs in the “Plant and machine operators, and assemblers” group, averaging 80.2. This one is below that.