I know this technology has been used and currently is in Australia and on other mine sites for decades but still interesting as it grows. Now on 797s in the Canadian oil sands. From -40C to plus 30C. From frozen ground to super soft underfoot conditions.
It's going to become more & more common in any country where operator salaries are a significnat part of the cost of operation of larege mining trucks IMHO.
I think they are going autonomous regardless of operator saleries. They never stop to pee or eat so when the programing gets good enough that they follow orders, they will be more productive and thats the name of the game, But as with all technology the support staff will get bigger and more sofiscated so wages will go up on that end. Progress never ends and workers will, as always, have to take the oppurtunities its provides to prosper.
One thing that has been noticeable to me is that most mining operations that are moving or have moved to autonomous truck operations are generally "shallow pit, wide open spaces" operations. From what I've seen so far, iron ore, coal, & oil sands. In that type of mine it's easy to construct wide haul roads with quite low ruling grades (see video) and also to separate non-haultruck traffic, even to the extent of using separate access roads for service vehicles. I'm thinking that would be a lot more difficult in a narrow deep copper or gold operation. it's not uncommon to see haul roads that aren't even wide enough for two trucks to pass on the move and where one has to pull into the side of the road and stop to allow the other to go past in the opposite direction. I feel that would present quite a few challenges for autonomous operation.
Autonomous trucks give the haulroads hell according to one bloke I've talked to as the stay in the same grove all the time. I don't think graders will be autonomous though.
Haul truck operators in the oilsands were making well over $150k/year during the last boom. Can't say I blame the companies for wanting to eliminate that expense now that oil is worth less than half the price now.