AI exposure: Roof Bolters, Mining
Operate machinery to install roof support bolts in underground mine.
Reading this score
computedRoof Bolters, Mining is among the least exposed occupations measured, at 2.8% of weighted task load, rank 898 of 923. 92.6% of this job is work current AI systems cannot produce at all. That is not a statement about skill or value. It is a statement about what these systems can and cannot do.
What holds the line here is embodiment. Across this occupation's 14 tasks it averages 3.00 out of 3, the highest of the five friction dimensions. In plain terms, the work has to happen in physical space. A language model cannot move matter. Until the robotics to do this work is both good enough and cheap enough to deploy widely, capability in software does not reach it.
The most exposed thing this job does is Dust rocks after bolting, at 11.7%. The least is Tighten ends of anchored truss bolts, at 0.0%. A gap of 11.7% between two parts of the same job is the reason this index publishes at task level. An occupation-wide number would have hidden both.
Within construction and extraction occupations, this one is less exposed than the median of 5.1% across the group's 61 roles, with 41 scoring higher. Being in an exposed family does not make a particular job exposed, and the reverse holds too.
What would move this score. Of 14 tasks, 0 are currently banded exposed, 0 assisted and 14 untouched. For that distribution to shift materially would take robotics cheap and reliable enough to deploy at scale, not a better language model. The score is re-computed every quarter against a fresh capability reference, and the change is published rather than quietly applied.
Where the score comes from
judgedEvery task is scored through the standardised work activities it maps to. These are this occupation’s averages on the six rubric dimensions. Capability is what AI can do; the other five are what stands in the way.
| Dimension | Mean | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | 0.29 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 3.00 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.36 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 1.36 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.00 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 1.71 | 0-3 |
Task by task
14 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dust rocks after bolting. | 11.7% | 13.3% | 75.0% | 4.85 | untouched |
| Perform safety checks on equipment before operating. | 10.0% | 15.0% | 75.0% | 4.89 | untouched |
| Perform tests to determine if methane gas is present. | 8.3% | 16.7% | 75.0% | 4.88 | untouched |
| Drill test holes and test bolts for specified tension, using torque wrenches. | 8.3% | 16.7% | 75.0% | 4.80 | untouched |
| Drill bolt holes into roofs at specified distances from ribs or adjacent bolts. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.93 | untouched |
| Pull down loose rock that cannot be supported. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.91 | untouched |
| Position bolting machines, and insert drill bits into chucks. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.91 | untouched |
| Force bolts into holes, using hydraulic mechanisms of self-propelled bolting machines. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.87 | untouched |
| Perform ventilation tasks, such as hanging ventilation curtains and tubes. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.87 | untouched |
| Install various types of bolts, including truss, glue, and resin bolts, traversing entire ceiling spans. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.84 | untouched |
| Position safety jacks to support underground mine roofs until bolts can be installed. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.68 | untouched |
| Rotate chucks to turn bolts and open expansion heads against rock formations. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.65 | untouched |
| Remove drill bits from chucks after drilling holes, and insert bolts into chucks. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.58 | untouched |
| Tighten ends of anchored truss bolts, using turnbuckles. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.37 | untouched |
Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean.
Occupations either side of this one
The four closest scores in the same occupational family, then the four closest anywhere in the index.
Read this carefully. Exposure is not displacement. A high score means current AI systems can produce this work, not that anyone will stop paying a person to do it. Adoption depends on economics, regulation and inertia that this index deliberately does not model. How the score is built.
What this means in practice
Most of this work is not reachable by current systems, so the immediate pressure is on the administrative edges of the role rather than its core: the scheduling, the reporting, the written records. That is where time is recovered.