Ghana’s wildcat gold mining booms, poisoning people and nature
"It's risky but I just want to survive," said one of the men at the wildcat site in the Prestea-Huni Valley district in western Ghana.
A new study by McKinsey & Company found that 45% of work activities could be automated using already demonstrated technology.
According to the research these activities represent about $2 trillion in annual wages in the US.
What’s more automation does not only affect low-skill, low-wage roles – McKinsey discovered that “even the highest-paid occupations in the economy, such as financial managers, physicians, and senior executives, including CEOs, have a significant amount of activity that can be automated.”
5 Comments
rayban
Personally , if I open a new mine anytime soon , I am going labor intensive . If wages become an issue , I am going to close or go automation intensive . I would rather have people than machines in most places , I can see how machines would be good .
onemansopinion
Whether or not one automates depends mostly on whether it’s cost effective to do so. What capital is required? Are the savings enough to overcome the cost? Many automated jobs improve safety. This is a factor that should not be overlooked.
patentbs
In some places automation is the way to go. High levels of radiation for example. Also some of the mind numbing tasks are well suited.
But it is just money! Capital cost are higher and you require specialists to maintain the high value equipment. Rolled into the manpower costs are safety and long term liabilities as well. For some operations it is the way to go. For others it is less so. Just check your balance sheets folks.
Restless Boomers
It’s the future, get used to it.
Christopher Kuntz
I like the stats. Found the graph difficult to read in detail.