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abandoned mines

Infinus5’s guide to modern mining technics (From heavy industry to small scale placer operations)

40 posts in this topic

Infinus5™s guide to modern mining technics

From heavy industry to small scale placer operations

Hello all

As many of you have asked I have taken it upon myself to create a modern mining tutorial guide for terrafirma craft. This thread deals with several other mods including railcraft, Buildcraft, RedPower2, and the Trains and Zeppelins mod and rei's mini map.

To start off I must state that many of the modded items within this thread can only be created by the means of TMI or similar as vanilla Minecraft items no longer exist thanks to TerraFirma craft. To counter this I suggest the following.

When you start your new world with the afore mentioned mods installed follow the following steps:

  • Open TMI and place 2 chests in your inventory
  • Fill the double chest you now have with items (note that you do not add TFcraft items, only add items that you believe will help you create modded items that require vanilla items such as iron and regular wood planks or items that may come in handy while constructing your mine infrastructure).
  • Next delete any remaining items in your inventory and turn off TMI, you won’t be needing it
The above is only a suggestion on how to get modded items into your game. Happily ignore this and play freely with TMI as its your game.

Ok, to start off I am going to assume you know the basics of how to make your first equipment and shelter in TFcraft. This is not a tutorial for beginners of the mod.

Now lets move on to the first part of my series of topics

Prospecting

Geology in TFcraft is very different from that of regular Minecraft and that of the real world, though contains elements of both. The first step I usually take after setting up my first dirt home is to construct several sluice boxes and gold pans. I am going to assume you all know how to create the afore mentioned items (though links to the required wiki pages will be found at the bottom of this post).

please note that i use the traditional technics for prospecting new worlds, most of these are the same as anyone elces though i seem to get luckier than most people.

First I will look for either a large flat area. As you search for prime land pick up rocks. One of the interesting things I have noted over the hours of prospecting in TFcraft is that areas with larger rock clusters often contain rocks that turn out to be small ores.

Of course as you walk along your small wooded landscape keep an eye out for large rock out crops. I have found that areas containing diorite and granite will often contain useful starter metals like sphalerite (zinc) and sometimes native copper or silver. I realise this is common knowledge though many say that ores no longer spawn in hill sides.

this mountain rage on the seed "easy" contains heavy amounts of gold, silver, galena, hematite and redstone

Posted Image

In real life while prospecting I will quite often see a speck of rust or bacterial growth along rock faces. These are formed as mineral eating bacteria take thousands of years to dissolve sulfur and iron from the local host rock as food. As a byproduct of this process (which has a massive long scientific name I am not going to write out) large conglomerates and growths of calcium will form.

This is a strong indication of heavy natural sulfide minerals such as iron pyrite, sphalerite, lead galena, chalcopyrite, hyalite and tetrahedrite may be present within the area.

These minerals are often associated with pollutants from abandoned mine sites. The materials made by the bacteria look toxic but are actually quite clean. The heavy metals that the bacteria don’t ingest such as arsenic and cadmium are very toxic and are left to freely flow through the water as there is nothing binding them in mineral form after there sulfide minerals are consumed.

Posted Image

the water draining from this site is alive with metal eating bacteria. the chemicals left behind often are harmful to the environment

Now this might not be able to help you in TFcraft but its still useful to know exactly what that chemically smelling mass growing next to your favorite hiking path is.

the lazy sluice mining method

After you have discovered an area that contained stones of useful metals I will usually set up a sluice system. This is my own system and is defiantly not perfect and feel free to add on to it or remake it to suit your needs.

Find a body of water (preferably one of the many above water table ponds that dot the landscape) and construct 5 sluice channels off of it. Next gather some buildcraft pipe and attempt to construct a system similar to the below picture.

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this was my quick mockup system for people in a hurry to find ores

This will act as your auto feeder for the sluice system. My own systems are not very efficient and often yield very little though they are an excellent source of small ore nuggets if you’re willing to give some time. Every so often (perhaps between fire wood runs) go and switch on your feeder. The gravels loaded and dumped into the sluices will work there way through until you have a fairly large pile of metals.

Mine usually produce large amounts of sphalerite or tin which will help you create your starter metal tools.

Gold pans are not all that helpful from past experiences

Personally I don’t use the gold pan all that often as in real life I have only found it useful in detecting three metals (gold, magnetite, and platinum) most other metals are to lite and are often lost in the panning process.

A device I often use (though wouldn’t be part of TF craft) is known as a “high bankerâ€

High bankers are a combination sluice box, grizzly grate and wash plant all squished into one box. The high banker works better than a sluice in a stream as it can be placed on an adjustable angle and is fed by a water pump which washes gravels through a grate before entering the sluice. This removes large rocks and plant matter which can harm your set up, and allows for faster clean out. Here’s a medium sized high banker in action.

http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuVqw-CbSCM

Marking out your resource

This part may be tedious and there are many other ways of detecting ore bodies though this system has worked well for myself in the past. this is the same system used by IRL prospectors when mapping out a large areas resource potential.

After determining your area contains metals (example: native copper) mark out a 41 x 41 block area with torches, creating a square.

I am assuming you already now have a pro – pick (as the next part will need one)

Mark the center of the cube with a torch, test the ground every 2 blocks. If you detect an ore body mark it with a torch. Next start at the center and walk in a different direction and again mark any detected ore bodies.

After awhile of this form of testing you now have a general direction to which way the ore body is.

Surface resources

If you are lucky and discover a surface ore body I recommend you mark its location and mine what you can on the surface for processing as you may now have a “site†to deal with.

Underground mining and infrastructure

This section outlines several different methods of extracting underground resources with modern mining systems.

In the previous topic we discussed how to detect ore deposits. Now that you know where your ore body is we can determine whether or not it will require a mill and infrastructure. How large is the ore body? How far is it from your base? What sort of geography are you in?

These are all things to take into consideration when building your mine.

There are several practical and simple ways to mine that I use. The three best are the open horizontal portal system, the deep shaft system and the inclined portal system.

The portal system

No, this does not mean we get to mine with an Aperture Portal Gun (though that would be fun hmmm). Portal is a term used in the mining industry when talking about a tunnel driven into a hillside that does not have a direct exit on the other side. These tunnels are the entrance to your underground workings and are often only used in small scale mining operations.

A tunnel is driven into the hillside where ore is present.

This tunnel is constructed to follow the side of the ore body, so that drifts and shaft work can be constructed to remove the ore. This main tunnel is the main haulage for your mine and should have several turn off stations within the underground potion. If track work is in use, several structures are recommended that will help keep your mine running.

At the entrance of the mine construct a section of track work that will split into three lines. The first line will lead into a work building with construction materials, chests and spare parts or equipment. The second track will lead to a load out for waste rock and ores.

The load out consists of two railcraft cart unloaders placed below your track.

When the ore train moves over these unloaders the contanse of the ore carts will be transferred to the nearest chest space. I suggest you place them below your unloaders and construct a buildcraft pumping system that will move the materials to storage chests.

The thread track will act as storage for extra ore carts and machinery.

These forms of underground mine usually don’t require a mill (unless you get lucky and have a massive pile of ore on your hands).

Heres a picture of an early portal mine from a while ago.

go to link to veiw pic >.>

http://i.imgur.com/UG6Jw.png

The deep shaft system

The deep shaft system sounds just like what it actually is. These mines consist of your standard Minecraft 3x3 or 2x3 shaft that stretches down to about 5 -10 blocks below the actual ore body.

Note:

This will act as the haulage for ores (but not yourself). A second shaft is sunk fairly close to the first shaft. This will be fitted with a hoist system to move you up and down your mine.

go to link to view image >.>

http://i.imgur.com/8gG0Q.png

Note:

that I build my mines a fair distance from the ore body and not directly above it. I prefer to have a large margin of error for my mines in case I screw up along the line.

At the bottom of the first shaft construct some form of unloading system for your ore carts. This will pump ores to the ore lift.

Posted Image

here we see several buildcraft pumps, a railcraft unloader, and a double chest acting as the "unloader mechanisum"

My system is relatively rushed. Plan out your own systems that could work better.

At the top of the shaft you should build a “head frameâ€. This will act as the haulage and loading system for your mine.

go to link to view picture >.>

http://i.imgur.com/PJAbE.png

Construct a system to load carts to supply a mill or train station.

This form of mine is constructed on flat land where a tunnel might not be practical.

This is the Silvan silver mine which does not have a mill on site as there is a much larger nearby mine with an active mill.

The inclined portal system

This style of mine is built on hilled locations with limited space. The mine below in the picture is one such site called sulfide bay

Posted Image

In this style of mine, a tunnel is driven into a hillside in the same style as a portal mine. At the end of the short portal the tunnel sloops down into the earth until it reaches a train track change room.

Ore is mined from a long haulage tunnel that leads to the ore body.

Posted Image

Ore is taken down the haulage tunnel and brought to the change room where one ore cart train has already waiting.

go to link to view image >.>

http://i.imgur.com/chHh4.png

Ore from one train is loaded onto the waiting cart train and the haulage cart train is sent back down to the ore body.

The newly loaded cart train is driven up the incline back to the surface and is than loaded into a storage building or mill.

Any of these systems will work well on servers with more than one person working alone.

Mills and mine buildings

In my opinion, only large scale mines should have a mill, as otherwise it’s a waste of energy and resources on your part to build a structure which will only last a couple days.

Posted Image

Your small hole in the ground won’t need a mill for example

For small scale operations, I suggest building a rail line to a larger site for ore processing or even another (larger) mine.

A terrafirma craft mine mill acts as your sorting and processing building. These buildings take the tedium of moving and sorting ores for you while you work deep underground.

For servers, people could gain employment at larger mines that have mills as technicians and servicemen.

A standard mill consists of an unloading bay, a sorting room, a “meltdown†room and a “cooler†storage room.

Ore carts will drive over unloaders, which will dump there materials into chests. The chests are pumped out and the contance is sorted. The sorted materials are sent to different bloomaries or a haul train for offsite transport. Materials removed from the bloomeries are moved to another storage room for cooling.

Waste rock and gem stones should be stored in a train for later use or disposal.

Along with a mill it is recommended that you construct a bunk house and head office. As a mine expands so will the small village around it creating a town for servers :)

Here are some pictures of modern mine mills and some from the last century. google "mine mills" and you will get alot of interesting ideas

Posted Image

Economies in Terra Firma craft

Industries that coexist with mining (mostly for servers)

Hello all

Sorry for the long wait for this one my work took a lot out of my spare time (including Minecraft)

This section will give you some basic ideas on how to base your server world’s economy, though this could be useful in other areas.

Single Industry camps

Small towns that rely on other towns to bring in food and equipment and produce a single (or several) base resources like lumber and ores. These towns thrive as long as there resource continues to exist.

Logging camps could thrive off of timber and charcoal production.

Mining camps would flourish so long as minerals were being mined close by.

These towns will die out over time as there resources dwindle and new villages and camps will take their place in new locations.

Industrial heartlands

All countries on a server should have an industrial center where the raw goods produced from towns and villages are converted into consumer goods. Massive amounts of charcoal and lignite would be needed to run smelter operations, metals would need to be alloyed and tools would need to be mass produced.

Specific guilds of workers would form and would require housing and lands along with the regular work force. Homes and accommodation would need to be constructed along with adequate entertainment.

Your economic preference

I really can not describe the perfect economic system, though in my opinion a socialist democracy with a figure head monarchy would be my best bet. You will need to figure out your own system of government because I am not an authority on this.

Sustainable growth

Make sure you do not over extend the resources of your particular territory otherwise you may find yourself in an unwanted war. To prevent this, create free trade with other counties or make ultra-low taxes on goods coming from allied nations.

The world of TF craft is not infinite, use your lands wisely.

Noes on ore generation in more resent builds of TFcraft

While I have some spare time I must note that mineral generation has changed to something more attune to “seams” rather than veins of ore.

Many of the mining technics that I wrote about before can still be used though hi would suggest making open pit mining more your option for some of the utterly massive bituminous coal seams that I have found.

Seams vs veins

Veins tend to follow faulted or fractured rock layers. This is due to their formation, as super-heated water shots up through the rock and follows the path of least resistance.

Seams of minerals (such as salt peter, rock salts and coals formed over many millions of years, usually in water or marshy environments as the minerals built up in layers on top of each other.

I would note that I rather miss the old ore generation, as it was very similar to that of faulted veins.

a useful note for those who are having trouble detecting ore. search at the margins between bedrock layers, large ore deposits seem to like to spawn there, especially at the mid to deep rock layer.

I will post the next part of my thread in the first post when I have finished it.

what should the next part of this guide be? also please contact me on more ideas to add to the economic section as i wanted to get a rough version out for everyone.

Please post feedback to this thread as it is continuingly evolving :)

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Holy cow. Epic, man. I really liked seeing some of the irl stuff, too. Just the right mix, if you ask me.

In the 'marking out' section, I had a little trouble following. Is this all pro-picking on the surface? And, are the resulting torches supposed to point to something? Or are they indicating where the ore is beneath me?

Thanks again for this thread. Great stuff.

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Holy cow. Epic, man. I really liked seeing some of the irl stuff, too. Just the right mix, if you ask me.

In the 'marking out' section, I had a little trouble following. Is this all pro-picking on the surface? And, are the resulting torches supposed to point to something? Or are they indicating where the ore is beneath me?

Thanks again for this thread. Great stuff.

yes most of the surface grid work has to do with the pro-pick

use the torch grid system when on a fairly flat area.

the torches are used to mark the location that you last detected an ore body.

now that you know that an ore body is within that area you can begin planning out a drill site :)

thanks for the input

(i ll explain how a drill site works later today when i ve finished writing the next section)

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great guide. nice touch with the pic too. It was very helpful and I hopefully many others have Understand it. Ulfengaard, I do believe the mark off section is to show you way the ores has generate underground. The direction is growing, so when You mine the section you know where the most of it is.

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Decided to save reading this until the underground mine sections were finished as well .. Wow !

That is an awesome guide man :) I don't know how much I can use it (I'm a medieval guy myself, so no BC :P) but I don't even care, it's just really interesting !

+1 ! :)

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Decided to save reading this until the underground mine sections were finished as well .. Wow !

That is an awesome guide man :) I don't know how much I can use it (I'm a medieval guy myself, so no BC :P) but I don't even care, it's just really interesting !

+1 ! :)

thanks :)

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Same as with Jed, I don't think I could use any other mods with Tfc, but wow, man, this will really help me with my mining endevours!

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Excellent part 2, man. You're slowly convincing me to try out some technical mods. Still, it feels a little strange to be running redstone wires and whatnot when I'm still banging together rocks to make an axe.

Oh, and aside from their technical value in-game, I'm enjoying just reading these for fun. I'm the survivalist type (as most of us are, here), and so I enjoy seeing how things are done/made from scratch. Thanks again for the thread, Infinus.

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your welcome :)

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I don't know how much I can use it (I'm a medieval guy myself, so no BC :P) but I don't even care, it's just really interesting !

I've been reading De Re Metallica (an old medival mining guide [and still the leading authority on methods about mining and smelting.]) You don't need to worry about modern or medival on the topic of mining, as we haven't really progressed on it since we first started on this planet.

Disclaimer: Before you try to shoot down my statement without researching for yourself, the tools have improved but the methods have not. Yes, I do recommend "De Re Metallica" to be on your reading list somewhere. It was writen in 1555 by Georgius Agricola, published in 1556 post-mortem (when the pictures where finished) and translated in 1950 by Herbert Clark Hoover and his wife&assissant Lou Henry Hoover.

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I've been reading De Re Metallica (an old medival mining guide [and still the leading authority on methods about mining and smelting.]) You don't need to worry about modern or medival on the topic of mining, as we haven't really progressed on it since we first started on this planet.

Disclaimer: Before you try to shoot down my statement without researching for yourself, the tools have improved but the methods have not. Yes, I do recommend "De Re Metallica" to be on your reading list somewhere. It was writen in 1555 by Georgius Agricola, published in 1556 post-mortem (when the pictures where finished) and translated in 1950 by Herbert Clark Hoover and his wife&assissant Lou Henry Hoover.

I wasn't going to try and shoot down your statement because I agree with it :)

The methods really have barely changed since the medieval era, I was referring to Infinius's use of the "Buildcraft" mod and his cart mod as they add in locomotives and other powered systems :)

I have been reading "De Re Metallica" piecemeal as a reference text for some of my suggestions (namely the "Period Appropriate Transport Infrastructure" post I made) :)

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can anyone think of any other industries than the ones below that would emerge with a mining based economy ?

forestry

farming

i had a lot of ideas written down but the document file i was writing got lost :(

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can anyone think of any other industries than the ones below that would emerge with a mining based economy ? forestry farming i had a lot of ideas written down but the document file i was writing got lost :(

Ok here we go: Miners need food and replacement tools this leads to farmers who also need tools, foresters who also need food and tools and smiths which provide mining tools but need food, wood and metal, this leaves you with waste rock which should be recycled for cheaper tools for farmers and foresters, you need masons to work these stones into a usable state, you are bound to find jewels in your mining opperations and they need to be cut by jewelers, the cut gems need to be either stored or shipped and this means a warehouse or wharf needs to be built, your people will want their families to be near and this means houses and schools, they will also want to worship in their own way and this leads to churches or sacred grounds, people naturally get sick and died which means graveyards and apothecaries/hospitals, with this many people they will need leadership aka Mayor and townhall, there is bound to be freeloaders and criminals so a Sherrif will also be needed and he needs a place to secure or deal with his "customers" and you may or may not need walls and soldiers depending on how rich your town becomes and if you have a Lord that takes care of those larger things for you.

Mining

Farming

Forestry

Smithing

Masons

Jewelers

Haulers/Peasants or Dockworkers (if Dockworkers then Shipwrights as well)

Teachers

Clergy

Undertakers

Herbalists/Doctors

Leaders

Lawenforcement (Jail, Executioners Block etc.)

Depending on wealth and size you may need walls, barracks, and soldiers with thier officers

People tend to need each other and the more people you get the more of these basic things you will need. For instance my hometown had 3 policestations and a sherrifs office but where I live now we only have 1 sherrifs office. These are the basics and are needed for most towns

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I wasn't going to try and shoot down your statement because I agree with it :)

Ironically enough the disclaimer wasn't meant for you (as we have spoken before and I know you are very knowledgable on what you post) it was meant for other people who wouldn't like me saying that we haven't really moved forward as it bursts the commonly held ego-bubble that we as a race have about "being the best thing since sliced bread" and having passed our anients in all ways. Which is total fallacy and in my opinion we've gone backwards in many ways. But alas it wasn't meant for you my friend.
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-snip-

Lovely comprehensive list there :) I think the only additional thing I can think of (and this is only if you are being pedantic and talking about the correct period) is that there might be workers who specialise in working any smelting facility (if there is one)

Ironically enough the disclaimer wasn't meant for you (as we have spoken before and I know you are very knowledgable on what you post) it was meant for other people who wouldn't like me saying that we haven't really moved forward as it bursts the commonly held ego-bubble that we as a race have about "being the best thing since sliced bread" and having passed our anients in all ways. Which is total fallacy and in my opinion we've gone backwards in many ways. But alas it wasn't meant for you my friend.

I see :)

I agree with you about the sliced bread comment :P I really think we are too aloof about our past :S

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very good ideas thanks :D

now to speed a couple hours to make the next part

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Thithread seems to have stalled. Why are you not making the next part? D:

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Love the guide!!! really interesting!!:) made me really want to try doing all the buildcraft and railcraft stuff!!

I would rather like to do a mine with BTW but that will sadly be impossible:C

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Thithread seems to have stalled. Why are you not making the next part? D:

i am rather busy at the mo

work has taken some of my free time but i am working on the next part

hopefully i ll have it done by tomarow

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Love the guide!!! really interesting!! :) made me really want to try doing all the buildcraft and railcraft stuff!!

I would rather like to do a mine with BTW but that will sadly be impossible:C

i would like to use BTW as well but stupid incompatibility with every other mod
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i would like to use BTW as well but stupid incompatibility with every other mod

The incompatibility might just go away if we ever get the elusive mod API.

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The incompatibility might just go away if we ever get the elusive mod API.

very true, though i have a feeling BTW is still going to be a headache

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Hey infinus its been a while.... any chance that we can find a continuation of your mining awesomness guide ??

(I am at our mercy great god of mining :P )

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