Loading and Moving Machine Operators, Underground Mining
In short: today's best AI models could do about 5% of this job's working time (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) if the work were set up for them, and about the same by the end of 2028 if progress keeps its long-run pace. The people and hands-on work, about 95% of the time, stays with people.
Operate underground loading or moving machine to load or move coal, ore, or rock using shuttle or mine car or conveyors. Equipment may include power shovels, hoisting engines equipped with cable-drawn scraper or scoop, or machines equipped with gathering arms and conveyor.
5,930 people do this job in the US. $74,500 a year.
A typical 40-hour week
Not yet reviewed task by task- AI could take on2 h
- A person checks AI's work0 h
- Desk work AI can't do yet0 h
- Stays with people38 h
Loading and Moving Machine Operators, Underground Mining, now: of a 40-hour week, AI could take on 2 hours, 0 hours become checking its work, 0 hours are desk work it can't do yet, and 38 hours stay with people.
The largest pieces: Maintain records of materials moved (about 1 h); Read written instructions or confer with supervisors about schedules and materials to be moved (under an hour).
Estimates for a typical week of this job, if progress keeps its long-run pace, counting work the best models finish four times in five. Every task is below.
of the working time. Now is projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index.
- 5%
- 0%
- 95%
of the work: Anthropic's measure of what people already bring to Claude at work (2025). It counts help with part of a task, so it can be higher than the share within reach.
On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.
Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030
Change assumptionsHide assumptionsLong-run pace, four in five
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 2.4 work days long four times in five.
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this job's working time was within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 2%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 5%. Today's estimate: 5%.
A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.
Measured use over time
Of the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled and tied to a work task, no reportable share went to this job's tasks in May 2026; 0 of its 25 tasks showed up. Within each of Anthropic's methods, never across a change: 0.0034% to none (released February and March 2025).
Each release
| Conversations | Share | Rank | Tasks seen |
|---|---|---|---|
| Released February 2025 | 0.0034% | 645 of 708 | 1 of 25 |
| Released March 2025 | none | n/a | 0 of 25 |
| The week of Aug 4, 2025 (released September 2025) | none | n/a | 0 of 25 |
| The week of Nov 13, 2025 (released January 2026) | none | n/a | 0 of 25 |
| The week of Feb 5, 2026 (released March 2026) | none | n/a | 0 of 25 |
| April 2026 (released June 2026) | none | n/a | 0 of 25 |
| May 2026 (released June 2026) | none | n/a | 0 of 25 |
Measured, not estimated: Anthropic's samples of Claude.ai conversations, each tied by a model to an O*NET task, from the Anthropic Economic Index. It says where Claude's use goes, not how much of this job's working time it covers, so it is not on the same scale as the reach above. The releases differ in their sample, their classifier and the smallest share they report (the June 2026 file rounds each task to a hundredth of a percent, so a smaller task reads as none), which is why a change of method starts a new line. At least 96% of each older release's task-tied use matched this site's tasks, and all of the newest. Claude.ai only, so use through other tools and other companies' models is not in it. Every job ranked.
Robots and the physical work
Anthropic rates 92% of this job's working time as physical work. For 75% of the working time, a robot has been shown doing most of the task somewhere: 47% in a purpose-built cell, 28% in a structured facility. 1.03 of 3, the 102nd highest of the 923 jobs.
- Not physical 8%
- No robot shown 17%
- In a purpose-built cell 47%
- In a structured facility 28%
Anthropic's rating, not this site's estimate: Claude Opus 5, searching the web, rated each physical O*NET task by the kind of setting in which a robot it could cite (deployed, sold or demonstrated) does most of the task, weighted by its own estimate of each task's share of the time (What work can robots do?, September 30, 2026, data CC BY 4.0; every job ranked). A robot shown somewhere is not a robot in your building: cost, setup and safety decide that. The share within reach on this page still counts no body work. The robot behind each rated task is under the task below.
The tasks
Sorted by . 25 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clean, fuel, service, and perform safety checks on all equipment, and repair and replace parts as necessary.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 12% | 50 min25 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Handle high voltage sources and hang electrical cables.Done hourly or more by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Liebherr cable reeler system for electric mining excavators (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 11% | 25 min13 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Examine roadway and clear obstructions from the path of travel.Done hourly or more by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Sandvik AutoMine AutoLoad 2.0 (underground LHD automation) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 8% | 13 min4 min to 25 min | Stays with people | |
| Monitor loading processes to ensure that materials are loaded according to specifications.Done hourly or more by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Kanawha Scales & Systems batch-weigh train/truck loadout (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 8% | 13 min4 min to 33 min | Stays with people | |
| Drive loaded shuttle cars to ramps and move controls to discharge loads into mine cars or onto conveyors.Done hourly or more by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Sandvik AutoMine (Multi-Lite) with Toro LH517i loaders (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 7% | 8 min4 min to 17 min | Stays with people | |
| Advance machines to gather material and convey it into cars.Done hourly or more by most who do it.Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Sandvik AutoMine AutoLoad 2.0 (Toro/Sandvik LHDs) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 6% | 13 min4 min to 33 min | Stays with people | |
| Clean hoppers, and clean spillage from tracks, walks, driveways, and conveyor decking.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 5% | 25 min8 min to 1.1 h | Stays with people | |
| Measure, weigh, or verify levels of rock, gravel, or other excavated material to prevent equipment overloads.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 5% | 8 min3 min to 21 min | Stays with people | |
| Replace hydraulic hoses, headlight bulbs, and gathering-arm teeth.Done more than monthly by most who do it. Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 4% | 50 min17 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Pry off loose material from roofs and move it into the paths of machines, using crowbars.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 4% | 13 min4 min to 29 min | Stays with people | |
| Oil, lubricate, and adjust conveyors, crushers, and other equipment, using hand tools and lubricating equipment.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Graco automatic lubrication systems (on-vehicle/off-road mining) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 4% | 38 min13 min to 1.1 h | Stays with people | |
| Operate levers to move conveyor booms or shovels so that mine contents such as coal, rock, and ore can be placed into cars or onto conveyors.Done hourly or more by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, Epiroc Scooptram ST14 SG battery loader with Deep Automation (Nexgen SIMS) (demonstrated). Anthropic's rating. | 3% | 7 min3 min to 17 min | Stays with people |
Within reach, per task: the share of the task's time whose instances are short enough for a model to finish at the chosen date, pace and reliability. Half by: the date half of that time comes within reach.
Jobs that share skills with this one
From O*NET's related occupations. Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
- Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators1% now, 1% by 2028
- Excavating and Loading Machine and Dragline Operators, Surface Mining10% now, 10% by 2028
- Continuous Mining Machine Operators0% now, 0% by 2028
- Hoist and Winch Operators0% now, 0% by 2028
- Tank Car, Truck, and Ship Loaders20% now, 20% by 2028
- Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators3% now, 3% by 2028
Where this job works
The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025).
Where the most of these jobs are
The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025).
Questions about this job
- How much of the work of Loading and Moving Machine Operators, Underground Mining is within reach of AI now?
- An estimated 5% of the working time is within reach of AI models now and 5% by the end of 2028, on METR's long-run pace at four in five. Within reach means a model could finish work that long at that reliability. It is not a forecast of jobs lost or of savings.
- Which tasks of Loading and Moving Machine Operators, Underground Mining come within reach first?
- Weighted by the time each takes, the tasks with the most within reach now (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) are: Maintain records of materials moved (100% of the task's time now); and Read written instructions or confer with supervisors about schedules and materials to be moved (100% of the task's time now).
- Which tasks of Loading and Moving Machine Operators, Underground Mining stay with people?
- Tasks that are people work or body work are not counted as within reach at any date. The largest: Clean, fuel, service, and perform safety checks on all equipment, and repair and replace parts as necessary; Handle high voltage sources and hang electrical cables; and Examine roadway and clear obstructions from the path of travel. Together such tasks are about 95% of the working time.
- Do people already use AI for the work of Loading and Moving Machine Operators, Underground Mining?
- In the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled for May 2026, no reportable share went to this job's tasks. Anthropic's labor market measure puts the share of the job's tasks seen in real Claude use at work at 0%. These are measures of use, not of how much of the work AI could finish, and they cover Claude only.
- Can robots do the physical work of Loading and Moving Machine Operators, Underground Mining?
- Anthropic's robot exposure rating (September 2026) finds 92% of the working time is physical work, and that a robot has been shown doing most of the task, somewhere, for 75% of the working time, 28% in a structured facility. Its index is 1.03 of 3. One example: Epiroc Scooptram ST14 SG battery loader with Deep Automation (Nexgen SIMS) for "operate levers to move conveyor booms or shovels so that mine contents such as coal, rock, and ore can be placed into cars or onto conveyors". A robot shown somewhere is not one in every workplace; this site's own estimates still count no physical work as within reach.
- How is this estimated?
- From the 25 tasks O*NET lists for the occupation, each with an estimated length checked against GDPval and a share of the working time, each classed as desk, people or body work, and METR's measurements of how long a task the best AI models can finish, carried forward to the date from the latest, Claude Mythos Preview (early) in April 2026. Data checked November 10, 2026.
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