With the rapid social and economic development in China,  technology innovations in the extraction and utilization of mineral resources are demanded to address the problems associated with larger mining depth and other adverse conditions confronted by the mining industries,  increase the efficiency of extracting mineral resources,  and safeguard the safety and health of mining workers.  To this end,  the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) has launched a series of research directions through the 863 Program aimed at frontiers in the subject of personless mining to enhance technology innovations in personless mining and provide the mining industries with a fresh perspective to personless mining.  In response to the MOST initiative,  this paper presents a brief review on the development of automated mining technologies in the industrialized nations such as Canada,  Australia,  Finland and Sweden,  outlines the major technological issues on the frontiers of automated mining,  and proposes some avenues of advancing technology innovations in automated mining in China.