
Mining 24 hrs a day with robots - ChuckMcM
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/603170/mining-24-hours-a-day-with-robots/
======
ChuckMcM
I've been following robotic mining stories for a while, this one summarizes
what Rio Tinto has been doing in Australia.

One of the questions that I've wondered about is what will it take to achieve
robotic mining of asteroids or other planets. Its an important question
because if you want to colonize a remote planet you need to recover your raw
material from the planet (its prohibitive to ship it) but you can't also
afford to ship an entire population of miners and their support
infrastructure. Leaving us with robotic mining as something that has to exist
before colonizing remote planets can exist.

This work by Rio Tinto is getting closer than anyone else so far to an answer.
Combined with a robotic refinery and one could imagine parking something like
this in the eastern mounts of Afghanistan to pull out iron as an export (for
example).

