Measuring labor productivity in the
gold mining industry

By Adam Webb | 31 March 2017

Labor productivity in the mining industry is often expressed as tonnes of ore mined per man hour and, as a consequence, open pit mines are often described as being more productive than underground mines. However, looking at productivity in terms of revenue generated per man hour accounts for both primary grade and valuable byproduct metals in the ore and shows a different regional picture compared to that suggested by the more simplistic measure of ore mined per man hour. This metric shows that underground mining is more competitive in terms of labor productivity when compared with open pit mining than is sometimes suggested by the more conventional metric of ore mined per man hour.