U.S. Bureau of Mines research currently has a major program directed toward robotics and automation of mining systems to increase mining productivity and safety. One area that the Bureau is investigating under this program is the use of voice technology as a means to interface to computers on intelligent mining systems. Voice technology can allow communication to computers on mine machinery, and its use does not require the operators or mechanics to direct their eyes from their work. Voice technology, which uses the spoken word as an input-output medium to computer systems, has already been implemented with success in the manufacturing environment. Such technology would interface to robotic and other intelligent mining systems to provide information about various aspects of the mining operation or conditions, or to control mining systems. Bureau research in this area is investigating the functionality, ease of implementation, and feasibility of using voice recognition and voice synthesis as a user interface to intelligent mining systems. Commerically available voice technology devices are described and Bureau applications are discussed in this paper.