A Technology Accessibility Index (TAI) to Select Appropriate Technologies for Mining Sites

In this study, we propose a Technology Accessibility Index (TAI) to address the conventional limitation of relying only on performance metrics when introducing new technologies in mining.The TAI quantifies accessibility through three modules, including economic (E), operational (O), and cognitive (C) aspects with a context-based weighting rule defined by the size of a given company and the type of user considered.An item set comprising 18 positive statements is included (six per module).Responses are coded using five levels mapped to scores of 2-10 points.The total score is the calculated by integrating the means of the modules using the context weights.A normalized score that removes weighted-sum differences is also reported to ensure comparability across different sites and technologies.By transparently quantifying barriers to adoption such as costs, integration, support, and learning, the tool can support comparable and reliable decision-making to select technologies, review investments, and plan subsidy programs.