South Africa is developing drones for the mining industry. For inspections, in potentially unsafe areas underground, removing the need to put humans in harm’s way, an industry conference heard on Thursday.
Fred Cawood, the director of the Mining Institute at Johannesburg’s University of the With Waters and, told the conference that drones were being developed to send to danger zones beneath the surface.
“It is to use the machine in areas where people should not be,” Cawood told Reuters on the sidelines of the conference.
South Africa’s mines are the deepest and among the most dangerous in the world. Safety is a huge concern for the government, unions, and boardrooms in the world’s top platinum producer.