Technological change in the Canadian mining industry

Abstract

In Canada the mining industry's downturn in the early 1980s resulted in greater research and implementation of technological change into all aspects of mining so as to downsize the workforce and reduce production costs. The industry is therefore reaching new levels of mechanization and in some cases moving into the early stages of automation. Suzanne Dansereau gives a background to this process and makes a preliminary assessment of direction and the impact on labour.