mining technics (how do you work your mines?)

[abandoned mines 119]

hi there

i ve been working hard in my underground sphalerite silver mine when i noticed just how interesting my tunnels and shafts had become.

these are some of the deeper workings of my mine system

this is #1 down drift. its 34% worked with large scale high grade ore remaining

this is a side view of down drift #1. the ore excavated is loaded onto the above ore haulage train for surface processing

this is my ore hauler train, its run on redstone mined within the same mine

this is the mine face in #2 down drift. its almost finished.

this image shows the different layers many of the deep stopes. i mine out the lower half first and build upward to get the remaining minerals.

in the bottom left you can see the top of the ultra large silver vain currently being worked

how do you build and operate your mines ?

[Deathbytac0 46]

What mods do you have?

[Ulfengaard 44]

Wow... Infinus... Teach me dude. Seriously. Start a mining tutorial thread or something.

[GCountach 39]

First off... neat minecart mod. What is that?

Second off.... you have a lot of supports.

My mines tend to depend on the type of ore and it's depth. By depth, I'm implying that a lower vein would be a denser vein, but my best methods I can figure are branch and... what I call "slice" since I don't know what the accepted name is.

Branch mining is used when the vein is deemed dense enough to get away it and/or the metal isn't worth as much (for example: mining out iron when I already have black steel and a double chest of pig iron at home). By dense, I mean the pro-pick goes "very large", "large", "medium", "small", "traces" in on block steps (so 5 blocks would look like this on practically each axis). I find the range of the vein on all axis, go up the highest spot, pick a corner to start, and do 1x2 tunnels every 3rd block (so there's 2 blocks in-between each branch). When I go down one level, I'll shift the tunnels over one to the left or right and go again. Next level down, I shift it back to how level 1 was. level 4 is like level 2, so on. Will show a vast majority of all the ore in the area with the least amount of digging. For the supports, I tend to only use them at the main branch. Cave-in's.... happen... sometimes.

Slice mining is like branch mining at the start, but each branch goes from the top of the Z axis to the bottom. Every block is seen this way, but you have to mine out a noticeable amount more than branch, and the getting back up part has to be planned for. This is done when I'm having a hard time gathering up a certain ore I need and/or need 100% collection (for example: gold and nickel are 100% collection targets).

I have no pictures of either at the moment, I'll get back to you on that.

[abandoned mines 119]

currently i am useing trains and zeppelins mod (made to use TFcraft iron and steel) tmi (for mod testing otherwise its turned off from a config file) buildcraft and railcraft (again made to use TFcraft metals)

the reason i use so many supports is i mine from bottom to top. to better do this i use support beams as scaffolding. i ve also had to deal with large amounts of cave ins as i excavate large areas of surrounding stone.

the mine in the above pictures feeds a buildcraft / railcraft mine mill that runs at about 14 stacks of sphalerite / silver a day.

above the workings shown are another 25 yards worth of down drifting and cross cuts following the main haulage tunnel.

the silver / sphalerite forms as thin dicks within the host rock down to about the 500 meter level, with further cross cutting revealing bulk high grade native silver and galena lead ores at about the 1050 level.

my current estimate of mine life is about another two minecraft years before the economically feasible ore body has been excavated.

i must note that i did have to go into creative mode to take pictures of my site

also for some reason when i go into creative, the stacks of support beams go to 111 (when placed however they become only 1 actual support)

anyone want pics of my mill as a follow up ?

[Deathbytac0 46]

currently i am useing trains and zeppelins mod (made to use TFcraft iron and steel) tmi (for mod testing otherwise its turned off from a config file) buildcraft and railcraft (again made to use TFcraft metals)

anyone want pics of my mill as a follow up ?

Do I need any mods to use TFC metals or is it forge doing that?

And yes, we want to see how in the world you can possibly make a mine better .

[abandoned mines 119]

Do I need any mods to use TFC metals or is it forge doing that?

And yes, we want to see how in the world you can possibly make a mine better .

to allow me to make the machinery from other mods which use steel / other metals i messed around and made it so all the mods i use are using TFcraft materials.

you don t have to do what i did with the different metals,i do it to prevent odd item glitches which pop up some times.

i ll post some pictures of my mill in the morning, it automatically unloads the ore carts, stores and sorts the different minerals and sends them off to a smelter plant next door.

btw i am going to continue down much much further into the earth on most of those down drifts as theres still a massive amount of metal to be extracted.

what can i use all the zinc for ? its basically a byproduct of the silver mining.

[abandoned mines 119]

heres some pics of my main mill building at sulfide bay in the copper cliff mountain range

the building is still undergoing construction as the mineral potential for the site continues to grow

there will be an 8 barrel smelter plant on site and an on site rail line to dispose of the waste rock

heres the other side

this is actually one of my smaller mines, as many of my friends build similar structures with tekkit and the old metallurgy mod.

[GCountach 39]

the mine in the above pictures feeds a buildcraft / railcraft mine mill that runs at about 14 stacks of sphalerite / silver a day.

above the workings shown are another 25 yards worth of down drifting and cross cuts following the main haulage tunnel.

...

my current estimate of mine life is about another two minecraft years before the economically feasible ore body has been excavated.

That seems like a lot of ore in one area. Have you modded the ore generation somehow? I can easily see Getting 3-4 double chests out of a single vein, maybe more, but 14 * 365 * 2 stacks? That seems impossible. Are you running 47f?

Your operation seems absolutely amazing though. I'd post some screenshots of my mine, but mine is the old fashioned, haul it up with a ladder, style. I want minecarts too, even if yours are really advanced compared to the timeframe.

Btw, the 111 bug I believe occurs when you shift+click a stack from NEI into creative, or something like that. Has to do with shift+click is all I remember.

[abandoned mines 119]

That seems like a lot of ore in one area. Have you modded the ore generation somehow? I can easily see Getting 3-4 double chests out of a single vein, maybe more, but 14 * 365 * 2 stacks? That seems impossible. Are you running 47f?

Your operation seems absolutely amazing though. I'd post some screenshots of my mine, but mine is the old fashioned, haul it up with a ladder, style. I want minecarts too, even if yours are really advanced compared to the timeframe.

Btw, the 111 bug I believe occurs when you shift+click a stack from NEI into creative, or something like that. Has to do with shift+click is all I remember.

ore gen was natural, in some areas it seems there were some absolutely massive deposits of sphalerite that were semi exposed on the surface.

my ore cars are actually based off some that have been used since the 1840s. also due to the size of the mine workings below ground i am going to have to install lifts on many of the down drifts to move about quickly

[achartran 465]

amazing, simply amazing. I would ask for your modded .jar, but that would be, you know, illegal. Anyways, great job! this is really cool.

[abandoned mines 119]

amazing, simply amazing. I would ask for your modded .jar, but that would be, you know, illegal. Anyways, great job! this is really cool.

thanks

i could post which mods i use with TFcraft so that you guys can have the same sort of structures. now i have the smelter completed and soon a rail line will link much of the mine to my village (sulfide bay is in the middle of no where)

my other mines are (in importance)

highland valley copper gold mine

Silvan silver

Duthie silver

rouche deboule

red rose

Dome mountain gold

Metal Mountain Nickel

Anyox nickel mine

golden wonder hematite mine

i will have pictures of each operation when i have the time

[Serkas 14]

thanks

i could post which mods i use with TFcraft so that you guys can have the same sort of structures. now i have the smelter completed and soon a rail line will link much of the mine to my village (sulfide bay is in the middle of no where)

my other mines are (in importance)

highland valley copper gold mine

Silvan silver

Duthie silver

rouche deboule

red rose

Dome mountain gold

Metal Mountain Nickel

Anyox nickel mine

golden wonder hematite mine

i will have pictures of each operation when i have the time

Sounds like a mining corporation XD. Do you export ores too?

[Deathbytac0 46]

Do you export ores too?

No just immigrants.

Anyway, why are you using trains? Just push a minecart with a chest down a hill, 1840 is way too new for TFCraft I think lol. Your game though.

[abandoned mines 119]

No just immigrants.

Anyway, why are you using trains? Just push a minecart with a chest down a hill, 1840 is way too new for TFCraft I think lol. Your game though.

my massive mines are long distances away, so i use the trains mod to haul ores to a central smelter area. i am planning on setting up this world as a server (though i am new to them so this may take time) so some groups could run different mines and create villages around there resources

[eichermacher 0]

Wow. This is amazing. How many hours have you spent on this world? I can't even begin to imagine how you thought of that mining system.

[abandoned mines 119]

Wow. This is amazing. How many hours have you spent on this world? I can't even begin to imagine how you thought of that mining system.

actually i ve gotten pretty good at setting up these mine structures

there fairly simple and when you have lots of resources there easy to build

the mines themselves are built in three ways

1) a tunnel is driven into a nearby hillside. an incline is built down into the ground to the level of the ore body. the ore body is tapped by a haulage tunnel is constructed (or several are built if the ore body is large enough). ore is stripped out depending on the dip and width of the deposit.

2) a shaft is driven directly into the earth to a point 10 blocks below the ore body. the shaft is usually a fair distance from the ore body. an ore loading tram is constructed (to haul ore up and down the shaft. the haulage tunnel and transit tunnels are built along the major ore body and ore is removed in the same fashion as above.

3) an ore body found near the surface can be open pit mined. open pits are reserved for the largest ore bodies and are primarily automated mining.

heres the schematic i use to build some of my shaft mines

i use this form of underground mining for medium to large deep underground ore bodies.

this is my style of mining when ore bodies are closer to the surface though in a difficult area to work in

[Jed1314 420]

-snip-

Teach me ! No seriously, I am in awe of your TFC mining proficiency. You're like a dwarf, but real and probably not as short

[RogueHydra 32]

Teach me ! No seriously, I am in awe of your TFC mining proficiency. You're like a dwarf, but real and probably not as short

I second this... maybe the dwarf thing too. HA!

[Ulfengaard 44]

Yeah. Like I said, I really would like some tips or even a tutorial on these techniques. I was amazed at your images.

[Jed1314 420]

A tutorial would be awesome (presuming it isn't too much to ask)

[Deviator 51]

Teach me ! No seriously, I am in awe of your TFC mining proficiency. You're like a dwarf, but real and probably not as short

Another vote for this. I will be installing the trains mod and starting a new world as soon as 48 comes out. Maybe you could have a good tutorial on it by then?

[abandoned mines 119]

sure guys it may take me some time to write out my technics and strategies, but i will defiantly write out a tutorial thread for mining techincs.

for those who want to use the train mod, your best bet would be to use TMI to get them as constructing the machines with TFcraft materials can cause odd glitches and errors.

another good mod to use for those who wish to construct mills and smelter plants i suggest that you install the buildcraft and redpower mods

for red power install wiring only (also lights if you wish) other redpower modules will cause incompatibility's with TFcraft.

the first thing i will touch off on is prospecting (as that is my actual field of work) and simple geology.

[Jed1314 420]

sure guys it may take me some time to write out my technics and strategies, but i will defiantly write out a tutorial thread for mining techincs.

for those who want to use the train mod, your best bet would be to use TMI to get them as constructing the machines with TFcraft materials can cause odd glitches and errors.

another good mod to use for those who wish to construct mills and smelter plants i suggest that you install the buildcraft and redpower mods

for red power install wiring only (also lights if you wish) other redpower modules will cause incompatibility's with TFcraft.

the first thing i will touch off on is prospecting (as that is my actual field of work) and simple geology.

The anticipation and excitement is literally killing me

I think this will be a real winner of a thread when you have finished it

[Azdoine 218]

Can you post your patched buildcraft? Or do you have vanilla recipies on?