In the new world, the miner brandishes a mouse connected to a computer. Lowly bacteria may eat through ore to metal, replacing the traditional melting of ores at fume-belching smelters. Natural products like seaweed could combat dangerous mining waste.

Even for aluminium, the top energy user and the biggest global metals market outside of iron, researchers are testing an innovation in the production process that would sharply cut back noxious carbon emissions.

"The number one goal is to lower world production costs, but there are some other benefits and in the long-term environmental implications could be exceptionally beneficial," said Dan Brebner, global mining analyst at UBS Warburg.

Many major orebodies have been extensively worked at, or close to, ground level. So, the only way to go now is down to deposits and reserves that as of yet are not exploited. Deep hard-rock underground mining is more costly, much more difficult, and less efficient, so productivity tails off.

"We are going deeper underground now, where the temperatures are higher, the rock-faces are more difficult and the risk of cave-ins is greater," said Professor Pekka Sarkka of Helsinki's University of Technology.

The seams are often difficult to exploit by traditional methods, where impurities and precious metals are harder to remove and the metal, sometimes encased in other rock types, is more difficult to extract.

If successful, analysts said the new technologies would bring significant cost savings. Falling costs signal lower metal prices. This would benefit demand through increased market penetration at the expense of competitive materials.

AUTOMATION TO HELP WITH INCREASED DEPTH

In the mines of the future, operatives will sit at consoles and use joysticks to control equipment operating in a mine 2,000 feet (610 metres) or more underground, miles away from their air-conditioned offices.

"Automation is what you do when your costs are high. Typically, where there are large underground caverns and there is plenty of room to do things," said Dr Ivor Kirman of the Nickel Development Institute.

Specialists say automation in mining has been driven by many factors, and key players in the global industry are actively developing alternatives to human labour.

"If we are going to deep level mining, can we access the deep material without exposing human beings? Rock temperatures at these levels are around 40/45 degrees, there is also high rock stress - ultra-deep mining has huge problems," said Andy Wetherelt, mining degrees programme director at Britain's Cambourne School of Mines.

Mechanisation already sees fewer miners underground, often working alone, directing blasting and retrieving ore operations from just outside caverns that cannot be entered because of the dangers of roof collapses, he said.

INCO'S TELEMINING INCREASES PRODUCTIVITY AND PROFITABILITY

Canada's nickel miner Inco , which is a partner in a Mining Automation Programme (MAP) with Dyno Nobel, Sandvik Tamrock and Natural Resources Canada, is developing what it calls 'telemining' at a pilot test mine near Sudbury, Canada.

The MAP's goal is to shorten cycle times and lower costs while improving productivity and safety through bringing control of the entire mining cycle, including development and production, to a surface-based operation centre.

Inco said that at present time available to work in the mine is about 15 hours out of 24, which limits the mining rate. Also, tunnels are oversized by 15 to 20 percent to take account of increased ventilation systems.

But some of the mining methods considered too costly today may be profitable with the introduction of telemining techniques.