Stope Miner Workflow Map

What this page helps you work out This page helps you identify where your stope mining operations experience slowdowns, such as bottlenecks in task handoffs, delays waiting for approvals, and excessive manual administration. It guides you in spotting repetitive tasks that consume time but add little value, making them good candidates for automation. By understanding these pain points, you can streamline workflows, improve communication between teams, and reduce errors caused by manual processes. This clarity supports better decision-making about which parts of your workflow to automate, ultimately boosting efficiency and ensuring smoother project delivery underground.

How automation changes this role Automation reduces time spent on low-value coordination tasks such as sending reminders, updating task statuses, routing approvals, managing documentation, and compiling reports. This allows stope miners to concentrate on their specialist work, maintaining quality, making critical decisions, and handling client-specific contexts and exceptions. By streamlining routine administrative steps, automation minimizes errors and delays, ensuring clearer communication and smoother task progression without removing the miner’s essential responsibilities or expertise.

Core workflows to map - Intake and assignment of daily stope mining tasks based on production plans - Planning and scheduling of drilling, blasting, and mucking activities - Routing and approval of safety checks and risk assessments before work begins - Managing version control and updates of mining briefs and technical documents - Tracking task progress and status updates from underground teams to supervisors - Coordinating handoffs between drilling, blasting, and loading crews - Reviewing completed work and capturing quality assurance feedback - Compiling and submitting production and safety reports to management and regulatory bodies.

Example workflow map Workflow: Routing and approval of safety checks and risk assessments before work begins 1. Initiate Safety Check: Start the safety inspection process for the planned stope mining task. 2. Complete Risk Assessment: Identify and document potential hazards related to the task. 3. Submit for Approval: Send the completed safety check and risk assessment to supervisors. 4. Review and Approve: Supervisors evaluate the documents and approve or request revisions. 5. Communicate Approval: Notify the underground team of approval to proceed with work. 6. Archive Records: Store approved safety documents for compliance and future reference.

Task automation opportunities Automate intake forms for daily task assignments, automatic creation of drilling, blasting, and mucking schedules, routing and tracking of safety check submissions, approval workflows, status updates from underground teams, version control of technical documents, and generation of basic production and safety reports. Assist with summarizing review notes, compiling client feedback, and drafting handoff checklists between crews. Keep human-led tasks include final approval decisions, complex risk assessments, and quality assurance evaluations to ensure safety and compliance.

Final approval of stope designs and blasting plans must remain with experienced miners to interpret site-specific conditions and client requirements accurately. Complex risk assessments require nuanced judgment of geological variability and equipment limitations. Quality assurance evaluations depend on hands-on inspection and contextual understanding of ore grade and structural integrity. Managing exceptions, such as unexpected ground conditions or equipment failures, demands immediate decision-making informed by field experience. Maintaining strong communication with clients and coordinating crew handoffs also rely on personal relationship management and situational awareness unique to mining operations.

Automation opportunities to assess Intake and assignment of daily tasks: Verify data accuracy from production plans, clear task ownership, and consistent naming conventions to prevent misallocation. Planning and scheduling activities: Check integration with existing systems, timing dependencies, and flexibility for unexpected delays. Safety checks and risk assessments routing: Ensure approval rules are well-defined, risk thresholds are clear, and communication channels are reliable. Document version control: Confirm naming consistency, update protocols, and access permissions to avoid outdated or conflicting information. Task progress tracking: Assess real-time data availability, status update frequency, and clarity in handoff points between crews. Reporting compilation: Validate data completeness, formatting standards, and compliance requirements before automating report generation.

Systems and data needed Before automating the Stope Miner workflow, foundational elements must be in place to ensure accuracy and accountability. This includes standardized forms and templates for task intake and reporting, clear task boards with defined ownership, and consistent naming conventions to prevent confusion. Approval rules and risk thresholds must be explicitly documented to guide safety checks and assessments. Reliable communication channels and permission settings are essential to maintain secure and timely information flow. Up-to-date project data and version-controlled documents ensure all users work from the latest information. These components collectively support safe, efficient automation aligned with operational and compliance requirements.

Automation readiness scorecard Task repetition: High for daily assignments and status updates Process clarity: Moderate, some workflows well-defined, others need refinement Data availability: Good, standardized forms and templates mostly in place Approval complexity: High, final decisions require expert judgment Risk if wrong: Significant, safety and compliance critical Tool integration needs: Moderate, requires linking scheduling, reporting, and communication systems Overall automation readiness: Suitable for partial automation of routine tasks; human oversight essential for approvals and risk management.