Australia's mining industry continues to push the boundaries of automation with the use of robots and remote-controlled equipment expanding in the industry.

Automation in mining has a long history as companies look to extract minerals more efficiently and more safely.

However, the new wave of automation has been tipped to change the employment landscape of the industry.

James Cook University professor Ian Atkinson said it was likely some jobs would be lost but expected it to happen over a long period of time.

"It may happen that as people retire or leave the industry they won't be replaced by a person," Professor Atkinson said.

"It's not just taking workers out and putting a machine in, it's going to happen really quite gradually for a long time yet."

Professor Atkinson said although automation had the potential to take some jobs it could also provide new employment opportunities.

"You're not going to be using machines to build new mines, people will still be doing that because that's very non-routine," he said.

"If you apply machines and actually have a mine where you normally wouldn't maybe you'll be developing new mines."

A combination of autonomy and remote control

Professor Atkinson said the latest wave of automation in the mining industry came in the form of robotics and remote-controlled machinery.

Automated and remote-controlled machinery is part of a new wave of mining technology. ( Supplied: Rio Tinto )

"Sometimes you can have combinations of things, autonomy most of the time and remote control for situations that the machine can't quite do things," he said.

"These technologies have been developed for a long time and they're in different areas of industry."

Professor Atkinson said several companies were at a stage of exploring autonomy in the industry.

"It's on what you'd say is the uptake ramp now and it may still be a very small percentage of the industry," he said.

"But it's probably climbing and at some point, in the next five to 10 years, it will probably become a lot more normal for companies to approach this technology."

Mining company MMG say automation is not a big part of their Dugald River operation in north-west Queensland, because it had not been proven to work.

MMG's Dugald River Mine says automation is not a priority at the moment but they are preparing. ( ABC News: Kate Stephens )

MMG general manager Pierre Malan said research and development was not high on the agenda, with Dugald River being a mine with small profit margins.

"We are leaving it up to the bigger players with R & D budgets and lots of money to drive and lead that innovation," Mr Malan said.

"We have taken a conscious decision not to be a first mover in that space but we will be following."

Mr Malan said the company was preparing itself to move into automation in the future when the technology became more viable.

"When some of those technologies are proven and the business case confirms that it is financially viable for Dugald River then we'll be looking at systematically implementing some of those things," he said.

"At this stage we are putting in the infrastructure and preparing the operation for new technologies."

Demand for automatic machinery increasing

Managing director of remote control machinery company Brokk Australia, Will Visser, said his company was looking to break into the underground mining market.

"I believe in situations where you've got dull, dirty and dangerous operations, humans should not be exposed to those conditions," he said.

"That's why we have these reliable machines to send them into those jobs to do the work on our behalf so we can all go home safely."

Mr Visser said they already had equipment working in open cut mining and the aboveground sections of underground mines.

He said while demand was going up in the mining sector there were still skeptics.

"Always with automation and robots some people are skeptics because robots are the enemy, they're taking people's jobs."

"That is generally the one negative perception."