How the World's Largest Gold Mining Company Is Turning Its Miners into A.I. Engineers

Gold has had a good year—up nearly 25% over 12 months as Brexit and trade wars nudge investors into the traditional safe haven. But Catherine Raw, Barrick Gold’s Chief Operating Officer for North America, said at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women International Summit in Toronto Tuesday that the mining industry is facing “huge pressures” over the longer term. That includes an aging workforce and growing concern about the danger of mining jobs.

Raw says artificial intelligence and automation are helping address those challenges. Barrick, one of the largest gold mining companies in the world, is using data analytics to control costs—the main path for a commodity producer to grow profits. Raw says Barrick has also partnered with smaller firms to design systems, such as remotely piloted mining machinery and autonomous ore trucks, that reduce the number of human beings working in risky spots such as a mine’s seismically-active “face.”

And Barrick is helping the workers displaced by that automation learn how to run the machines.

“We’re taking the truck drivers and turning them into data analysts,” Raw said. “We’re taking the mining technicians and turning them into A.I. engineers.”

Raw’s purview includes Barrick’s operations in Nevada, and some of that retraining is taking place through a partnership with Great Basin College in Elko. “We’ve partnered with them to create the core skills we’re looking for the future. That’s both electrical skills and data analytical skills, to bring it in locally.”

Barrick’s focus on innovation and training also aim to attract younger workers, who Raw says are badly needed. “What we don’t have is a huge amount of young blood … we have to make mining cutting edge.”

As for being a woman in the predominantly male mining industry, Raw describes the challenges more in terms of ignorance than any hostility—especially during her recent pregnancy. “It’s been quite entertaining. These chaps are trying very hard to be helpful and accommodating, but with no experience” with the reality of pregnancy, she said. Raw, despite her appearance at MPW, is still technically on maternity leave.

Correction 9/18/19: This story previously stated that Barrick is the largest gold mining company in the world. That distinction now belongs to Newmont Mining, following its acquisition of Goldcorp this year.