Classic Mining

This is the method that everyone sees when they read or hear of mining. It involves digging tunnels and trenches in the ground, creating enormous networks underground, with rail transportation, barracks, cafeterias, and even libraries.

Miners will usually begin with their favorite item – explosives. They will set these against the face of the mine, and blast a hole perhaps thirty feet deep and sixty feet across. They will then continue blasting until the hole is three hundred meters deep, reaching into the bowels of the land.

The next step is to begin carving tunnels. Cranes will be built on the side, and small wooden platforms will be lowered for the dwarves to create hallways carved around the hole, roughly every ten meters. Staircases and ladders will reach all the way down, and an enormous crane is constructed over the mine, carrying supplies to where they are needed. At this point, the hole has rings of hallways around it all the way down.

Then they begin to build sideways tunnels. Small amounts of explosives are blasted, and the tunnels expand outward from the hole. Ladders are built to the surface, and all of the tunnels are reinforced with whatever wood the miners can afford. Torches are placed everywhere, and tracks are set for carts to barrel into and out of the mines, holding the minerals that the miners find. Inside the mine, the miners have with them packs with sleeping bags, tents, and other necessities, allowing them to sleep in the mine then continue working. Pickaxes, hoes, and hammers are used to break the minerals from the walls.

When the mine is fully depleted of ore, the miners always do the same thing. They use the existing layers of the mine to create underground cities and libraries and homes, and mine farther down. The mines are also quarries, and the stone mined is used to build the minecity upwards, too. Dwarven stone blocks are highly prized by nobles trying to build strong castles, and therefore are shipped out in large amounts to goblin, human, orc, and ogric realms.