A road map for attractive, inclusive and safe mine work

Purpose and goal

The overall goal is to develop a roadmap for attractive, inclusive, and safe mining work by developing knowledge about the interplay between digitalisation, skills recruitment, attractive workplaces, safety and gender equality. The roadmap aims to support the development of sustainability in the mining sector by knowledge, methods and approaches that place humans at the centre of development of technology and organisation. Part of this means that gender and diversity theories are used to design technology, organisation and workplaces.

Expected results and effects

New practical and theoretical knowledge about future mining with a focus on digitalisation, skills and recruitment needs, risks and safety in work environments, organisational gender patterns and (un) gender equality and the relationships between these with the aim of facilitating recruitment and attractiveness in the mining industry and to create safe, agile, and efficient work organisations. To meet challenges from the green and digital transformation of the mining sector – economic, environmental, and socially sustainable development in mining communities.

Planned approach and implementation

The roadmap is developed jointly by researchers (LTU) and company representatives (LKAB, Boliden, BDX) by combining scientific theories, practical industry experiences and new empirical results. The project includes two interconnected case studies: WP2 Digitization and future mining at Boliden. WP3 Equal and safe mining culture, GenSafe at LKAB and BDX in Svappavaara. The results from the case studies are synthetized in WP4, which focuses on analysis and strategic dialogue and will result in a roadmap that is generalizable to the entire mining industry.