sustainable mine development and it is changing the mining ecosystems and revolutionising its traditional value chain (Jang & Topal, 2020). Mines of the future that adopt automation and digitalisation will improve safety, environmental performance, productivity, and energy efficiency, but also will bring new roles for people who will remain fundamental to the process (Bearne, 2014). In different contexts, implementing automated systems has been successful (Woods et al., 1997). In mining, for example, automation can reduce operators’ exposure to injury risks (Kramer et al., 2019), thereby improving safety by removing workers from hazardous mine sites (Chirgwin, 2021). However, developing new technologies and digitalisation also bring new challenges that must be appropriately identified and managed (Atkins & Ritchie, 2019). The benefits of automation in safety are undeniable, as it removes humans from hazardous and hostile areas around machinery and unstable ground. However, crucial aspects have been overlooked in the implementation of the automation processes in the mining industry. Automation does not remove the need for human involvement. It changes it, and in some cases, it can be reduced. Automation may have unforeseen impacts on systems' safety and productivity unless the role of humans is carefully considered (Horberry et al., 2016). Lessons from other industries, such as aviation and medicine (where this is common), have been introduced with the belief that human error will be eliminated and operator workload reduced. However, automation can introduce new errors and, in some cases, increase mental workload rather than reduce it (Wickens et al., 2021). A diverse range of authors has expanded the understanding of the effects of automation on situation awareness across different domains. These studies have mainly focused on aviation, medical, and military contexts. However, less is known about this phenomenon in other hazardous industries, such as mining, where errors can cause serious or fatal accidents. To address this gap, this research aimed to provide insights into how autonomous and automated systems affect situation awareness, identifying the aspects to be considered to support automation implementation and ensure safety. This study contributes to the conference theme of Health, Safety and Well-being by examining how automation influences workers’ situation awareness and the associated implications for safe systems of work in mining. 2. BACKGROUND Human factor issues at individual, team and organisational levels have far-reaching implications for safety, productivity, and organisational culture. Findings from studies on automation in aviation, land transportation, and process control indicate that the rise in automation may lead to unforeseen consequences for system safety and efficiency unless the human element is systematically incorporated. In mining, incidents regarding the interaction between human operators and automated systems will continue to occur or increase as automation becomes increasingly complex (Burgess-Limerick, 2020). According to Endsley (2017), automated systems affect situation awareness through three 23
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