Current affairs excerpt on tonight, and it made me think of the drone "pilots" in the middle east.
Mining Companies are making out large in the world's biggest quarry (Australia), as they dig up vast deposits of iron ore and bauxite, to be shipped to other places for handling and refining (that bit gives me the thorough's, we should be processing here rather than sending iron ore and coking coal O/S)...
Anyway, because the mines are way out back, 50C at times, the wages are phenomenal.
Market forces mean that a truck driver/plant operator working fly in/fly out bunkhouse can earn $250k a year, asset managers $300k, with a house thrown in...market forces, it's hot, dry (low humidity, and most mine sites are dry as well), remote, months without seeing family...market forces.
Now the mines, the most profitable companies in the country are outsourcing these jobs...but to the cities.
Having remote control mining machines (my cousin showed me some remote control stuff in a gold mine 15 years ago, to keep operators out of unstable geology...they stayed in the safe zone, and joysticked the truck under the stope), they can employ "truck drivers" in casual dress 1,000km away to drive the trucks and machinery, making the whole business "more efficient".
Ultimately, will only need refuelers and mechanics and breakdown teams on the mine sites...won't need a site manager, if all of the decisions are made off site.
If they can move the driving jobs to the cities today, where's the future ?
Who's to say that the mining machines digging up vast quantities of Oz aren't remote controlled from Malaysia or India ?
How much of a leap is it that an item could be "made" in Aus, or the U.S., with a majority labour component e.g. machinery operations being out of country ?
Mining Companies are making out large in the world's biggest quarry (Australia), as they dig up vast deposits of iron ore and bauxite, to be shipped to other places for handling and refining (that bit gives me the thorough's, we should be processing here rather than sending iron ore and coking coal O/S)...
Anyway, because the mines are way out back, 50C at times, the wages are phenomenal.
Market forces mean that a truck driver/plant operator working fly in/fly out bunkhouse can earn $250k a year, asset managers $300k, with a house thrown in...market forces, it's hot, dry (low humidity, and most mine sites are dry as well), remote, months without seeing family...market forces.
Now the mines, the most profitable companies in the country are outsourcing these jobs...but to the cities.
Having remote control mining machines (my cousin showed me some remote control stuff in a gold mine 15 years ago, to keep operators out of unstable geology...they stayed in the safe zone, and joysticked the truck under the stope), they can employ "truck drivers" in casual dress 1,000km away to drive the trucks and machinery, making the whole business "more efficient".
Ultimately, will only need refuelers and mechanics and breakdown teams on the mine sites...won't need a site manager, if all of the decisions are made off site.
If they can move the driving jobs to the cities today, where's the future ?
Who's to say that the mining machines digging up vast quantities of Oz aren't remote controlled from Malaysia or India ?
How much of a leap is it that an item could be "made" in Aus, or the U.S., with a majority labour component e.g. machinery operations being out of country ?
ops
