How do you plan where to dig an open pit mine?

[Rowan]

This is something that's been giving me trouble, I really want to dedicate myself to a big mine and really get some depth, but trying to figure out where the veins go is really difficult. I don't have the drill sampling excavator yet, but I do have a dozer for making ramps down which works fairly well. The only way I can see to figure out where the vein is going is to dig around it manually with the fast pickaxe, but that's quite awkward and kinda cheaty tbh. Should I just cheese some money in to get the sampling drill? How much does it help?

[Djozar]

Originally posted by Rowan:

This is something that's been giving me trouble, I really want to dedicate myself to a big mine and really get some depth, but trying to figure out where the veins go is really difficult. I don't have the drill sampling excavator yet, but I do have a dozer for making ramps down which works fairly well. The only way I can see to figure out where the vein is going is to dig around it manually with the fast pickaxe, but that's quite awkward and kinda cheaty tbh. Should I just cheese some money in to get the sampling drill? How much does it help?

It really depends on how you want to play the game. If you want to cheese it by going creative, go for it. Good way to learn the ropes before the big update, and you can find your own playstyle. I tend to do everything by hand in the beginning, setting up a small office out of steel parts. Bought enough smelters and steel machines to make what i need, then I use the wood crafting to make the platforms to sell while steel items are processing. Then work my way into the motorized vehicles.

You might have a different way of playing and get your loaders and such earlier. So it really comes down to how YOU approach it. You say using the pickaxe is cheesing it, but then want to toss money at it. Cheese is cheese, no matter how you slice it. Nobody is going to yell at you for the kind of cheese you use in your game. Enjoy it how you like!

[angulion]

While you reply was nice, it missed the point which I am also interested in - how do you find ore veins underground which is not visible on the surface?

[knk2318]

Originally posted by angulion:

While you reply was nice, it missed the point which I am also interested in - how do you find ore veins underground which is not visible on the surface?

ummm the drill

[Djozar]

Originally posted by angulion:

While you reply was nice, it missed the point which I am also interested in - how do you find ore veins underground which is not visible on the surface?

I thought you wanted to talk about cheese.

[Chevy118]

Originally posted by Djozar:

Originally posted by angulion:

While you reply was nice, it missed the point which I am also interested in - how do you find ore veins underground which is not visible on the surface?

I thought you wanted to talk about cheese.

I like cheese.

[Unleashed3k]

Drill is useless sadly, it doesnt have enough depth, also the "new" drill for bigger excavators won't be really enough... just not enough depth, especially for tunnels, but also for open mines, imho.

Some maps, after 10m inside + 10m depth, there is either 95% of solid rock you need to blast or drill away, or there is suddenly a huge mountian full of paydirt, nearly no rocks, no coal, but KILOMETERS of paydirt in all directions...

Currently, different ground is more or less a placeholder.

Sometimes, in my underground tunnels, when I find some coal, I follow the vein using a new line of conveyors that drops into the main line.

[SewageEasement]

Originally posted by angulion:

While you reply was nice, it missed the point which I am also interested in - how do you find ore veins underground which is not visible on the surface?

I think that some of the ores just go straight down. The coal does at least. I took about 200 nukes to see how deep you could go (bottomless as far as I can tell BTW) and the entire way down there was a coal seam in the wall.