Gaokgorwe, Tebogo2024-07-182024-07-182023Gaokgorwe, Tebogo. (2023). The Application of Robotics in Deep Level Mining in South Africa and its Influence on Health and Safety [Master’s dissertation, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg]. WireDSpace. https://hdl.handle.net/10539/38954https://hdl.handle.net/10539/38954A research report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Management in the field of Digital Business to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, School of Business Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023Application of robotics in mining operations particularly in deep mining is considered to be challenging when factoring the impact of health and safety in day to day operations. Majority of the employees in South Africa’s mining industry have low training levels, unskilled work content as well as large figures of underground employees labouring for survival at lower-end cost curves and excessive exposure to deprived underground conditions. The rising demand for mineral products is compelling mining companies to go deeper in mines even where such increase in the depth results in higher costs, risks, and a further decline in the conditions of working. This paper examines the current application of robotics in deep level mining, discusses the challenges in robotics adoption and their influence in health and safety. Trusting on the qualitative content analysis methodology the study adopted to interview participants and collect data from the mining journals for sampling and data collection. The findings suggest that although deep-level mines have embraced an increase in robotics and extensive methods due to global competition and the need for better access to mineral reserves trends in productivity in the gold mining industry remains unchanged for a long period and mining labour remains impacted by slow technological advancement. Inadequate application of robotics and developed control policies and measures for dealing with occurring mining disasters are some of the key challenges with the robotics adoption. The application of robotics will allow all safety experts to plan for exploration, extraction, optimisation of operations and worker monitoring as well as protection. The limitations of the study is that there are few current publications peer reviewed articles and the prevailing literature is old for the current research. The study concludes that there is a gradual advancement of technical capacities in deep-level mining. The main technical challenges to the application of robotics is the availability, reliability as well as fail-safe operations of robotics. Lastly robotics will improve exploration, mapping of mining operations as well as worker equipment. The study recommends future studies on comprehensive approaches to the socio-economic effect of robotics mechanisation and application in deep-level miningen© 2023 University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.Application of roboticsQualitative content analysisDeep-level miningImpact on health and safety.Health and safetyUCTDSDG-9: Industry, innovation and infrastructureSDG-3: Good health and well-beingDissertationUniversity of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg