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Elementary occupations · code 9311

Mining and quarrying labourers

AI can run the mine plan. Clearing rock underground is still hard, hands-on work.

AI barely touches any of the seven tasks, from maintaining and moving mining equipment to taking out old supports and dangerous rock.

What they actually do (and what else they get called)

Mining and quarrying labourers perform routine tasks in mining and quarrying operations. Tasks include - (a) assisting miners and quarriers in maintaining machinery, equipment, and mine and quarry installations; (b) assembling and dismantling mining equipment; (c) removing tunnel supports from disused workings in mines and quarries; (d) removing dangerous projections from mine and quarry workings; (e) removing waste and serviceable materials and equipment from work areas after extraction activities have been completed, and clearing rock and mineral spills; (f) cleaning machinery, equipment, tools, roadways and haulage tracks; (g) sorting, loading, unloading, stacking and storing tools, materials and supplies used by other mine workers. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Mining labourer - Quarry labourer Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Driller (mining) - 8111 - Miner - 8111 - Mining plant operator - 8111 - Quarrier - 8111 - Driller (oil or gas well) - 8113 - Drilling plant operator - 8113

  • mining assistant

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

89 / 100

Strongly holds up against AI

Most of this job still needs an actual human. AI would mostly be making the tea.

Not the odds you keep your job. It's how much of the everyday work still needs a person, out of 100.

← Robot's turf Human's turf →

The ILO's official verdict: Not Exposed

17 of 427 for holding up against AI

Why this score?

The ILO rated each of this job's 7 tasks for how much of it AI could do. They average 10.9 out of 100, so it holds up at 100 − 10.9 = 89.1.

That's the whole sum. No black box, no secret sauce: you can check it against the ILO's study. ILO group “Not Exposed”: None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count.

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.8-observed-use

Pinch of salt: this number is probably too rosy

It only asks what AI software could do, and this job is 91 out of 100 hands-on. A chatbot can't do that part. A robot might, one day, and nobody measures how close that is.

Man v Bot · compare

Who holds up better?

Mining and quarrying labourers 89

v

Go on, try your partner's job. Or your sibling's. We won't tell.

Man v Bot

Where the bot helps, and where the human wins

Bot

What AI takes

The routine stuff. You may not miss it.

  • Planning shifts and maintenance schedules.
  • Safety monitoring with sensors.
  • Tracking equipment and supplies.

Man

What people still do better

Judgement, trust and skilled hands. Hard to download.

  • Working safely in dangerous, changing conditions.
  • Maintaining and repairing heavy equipment.
  • Responding when something goes wrong underground.

Both

What's arriving

New work that only exists because the AI does.

  • Supporting remote-operated and driverless vehicles.
  • Sensor and equipment maintenance roles.
  • Mine rehabilitation and closure work.

Written by a human, from the ILO's task ratings below. Yes, we see the irony. Read it as one person's take.

Meet your two rivals

They're not the same machine. AI software can only reach the parts of a job done on a screen or in words. A chatbot can't climb a ladder. A robot might, one day, if it doesn't fall off.

The AI

Lives in a screen. Never had to fix a boiler.

Threat level: Low

18 could do without you

It could take over very little of the work on its own. It could help with 40 of 100.

The robot

The wildcard. Has hands, still working out stairs.

How much it matters here: Higher

91 how hands-on

Most of this job needs hands, a body or turning up. That's robot territory, and nobody measures how far robots have got well enough to give you a number. We won't make one up.

So could a robot do the physical part?

Physical work where helping and caring for people is a big part of the job. For care work, whether a machine could do the movements is only half the question. The other half is whether anyone wants one to. The US data counts helping workmates too, so a few trades end up here.

Robots hate fiddly work in awkward spaces. On that measure, this job scores 51 out of 100. The higher it is, the longer the robot waits.

91 How
hands-on
51 How fiddly
and cramped

Kind of hands-on work Hands-on, helping and caring for others

The small print

They aren't a robot score, and nothing on this page is. Nobody measures how far robots have got well enough to put a number on it. These are the closest thing we have: how hands-on the job is, and how much fiddly, cramped work it takes, which is what Frey and Osborne found hardest for machines.

From O*NET, matched to one US job .

finger skill 46.4 · hand skill 46.4 · cramped spaces 59.5 · averaged · rule: hands-on 50+ · caring 4+ of 7

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 0.8-observed-use measures chosen by Frey & Osborne (2017) · the grouping is a sorting, not a measurement

The job, task by task

Every job is really a bundle of tasks. Here's this one unpacked, with how much of each AI could do, out of 100. The score is the average, and averages can hide a lot.

AI's favourite task here scores 14, against an average of 11. The bigger the gap, the more lopsided the job: some of it wide open to AI, some of it barely touched.

  1. 14

    Assisting miners and quarriers in maintaining machinery, equipment, and mine and quarry installations

    Very Low
  2. 13

    Assembling and dismantling mining equipment

    Very Low
  3. 11

    Removing waste and serviceable materials and equipment from work areas after extraction activities have been completed, and clearing rock and mineral spills

    Very Low
  4. 11

    Sorting, loading, unloading, stacking and storing tools, materials and supplies used by other mine workers.

    Very Low
  5. 11

    Cleaning machinery, equipment, tools, roadways and haulage tracks

    Very Low
  6. 10

    Removing tunnel supports from disused workings in mines and quarries

    Very Low
  7. 8

    Removing dangerous projections from mine and quarry workings

    Very Low

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

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.8-observed-use

Sidekick or replacement?

A tool that makes you faster is a very different thing from one that does the task while you watch. Jobs and Skills Australia measured the two separately, which is handy.

AI helps you
40
AI does it for you
18

Sidekick wins, by 22 points.

How good a match is this?

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

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.8-observed-use matched to Australian jobs 8219

So, should mining labourers be worried?

Short answer: not really. Put the kettle on.

Not about AI software. Every task, from maintaining machinery to clearing workings, rates Very Low. Mining is automating in other ways, with remote-controlled and driverless vehicles on some sites, which changes who works underground and what they do.

Worth remembering: we score tasks, not jobs. When AI takes on a task, the job usually reshuffles around it rather than vanishing.

Where this job could lead

None of the new jobs we've written up start from here yet. Could be you're the first. See the jobs AI is creating →

How are the neighbours doing?

There are 33 jobs in the “Elementary occupations” family, averaging 85. This one is above the family average.

Pit this against any other job →