VS-Mining

We have Interesting Mining & Extraction installed, as well as Interesting Ore Gen.

This is a pretty hefty overhaul to mining in Vintage Story.

You will need a muck bag. The hide muck bag can be crafted from four medium pelts and some rope.

(picture of hide muck bag recipe)

Your initial copper investment should be in a pick. A hammer is not required yet, and a prospecting pick isn't so vital. Pick up surface nuggets and pan sand until you have your initial 100 units of copper, then cast a pick head in the usual way using a clayformed crucible and charcoal in the firepit.

While you're gathering copper and exploring the world, make sure to check any boulders you run across.

(Picture of a boulder)

If you find ore on a boulder, there is an ore vein of that type below. Veins in Interesting Ore Gen are HUGE compared to vanilla, and they also generate differently. Check the mod page for more details. Be sure to mine either only stone or only ore, don't mix the mucks. Mine one or the other, then shovel all the muck into your bag before mining the other. This will keep your processing more efficient.

Stone muck can just be dumped in a tailings pile. Ctrl + 1-4 (Whichever bag slot is your muck bag) then shift right-click onto the ground to dump its contents.

For ore muck, you'll need a sluice. A primitive sluice can be made with sticks and dirt. It should be placed so water flows over the top, with room at the end for muck accumulation.

(Picture of sluice)

Dump your ore muck just as you did the stone muck, but this time dump it on top of the sluice block. The water flowing over the top will slowly push the muck downstream, but the ore will concentrate in the sluice. Once it's done, block the water flow, then right-click the sluice with your shovel to bring the concentrated muck up out of the sluice.

To turn the ore muck into usable metal, you need a smeltery.

(Picture of smeltery)

First create a smeltery door from light mud brick. Place two light mud brick blocks on top of one another and place the door on top of them. Shift right-click the door and fill in all the white ghost blocks with light mud brick. There are three tiers of smeltery, and continuing to shift right-click the door will cycle through their ghost images. See Interesting Mining & Extraction mod page for more info.

Create a small smelting pot from clay, it does not need to be fired. Place the pot into the smeltery.

Shift right-click your concentrated muck into the pot through the door.

Make sure to add one layer of charcoal per four layers of muck in the smelting pot. This will give a 5% yield bonus.

Add enough charcoal in front of the pot to burn for at least 9 in-game hours. The smeltery takes one hour to heat up, then 8 hours to cook, then another hour to cool.

Once cool, your pig can be removed from the pot and melted/alloyed as regular metal in a crucible.

I will add more to this as I progress.