Virtual and Augmented Reality for Mining Safety and Sustainability

The mining industry continues to face significant safety challenges impacting sustainability. Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) technologies represent innovative tools for enhancing occupational safety, facilitating immersive training, emergency response drills, risk assessment, and real-time hazard identification. Implementation of VR/AR technologies contributes significantly to reducing accident rates, improving emergency preparedness, and creating safer working environments, thereby ensuring long-term operational continuity and fostering a sustainable organizational culture. Additionally, the paper contributes by synthesizing current industrial applications into a conceptual framework linking VR/AR technologies with sustainability and safety performance. This framework highlights how immersive technologies can bridge the gap between simulation-based learning and real-world safety management in mining.