Mines

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Mines extract minerals from the planet. As you mine, you decrease the concentration of minerals under the surface, adding them to the supply on the surface and making them available for immediate use. You never run out of minerals on a planet, you just decrease the concentration until it reaches 1, when it becomes difficult to extract more than tiny amounts from each mine each year.

Your home, or starting world mineral concentration never drops below 30%. This world will still retain this advantage, regardless of who comes to occupy it.

Use the Scanner or Command pane to select a planet you own. Look at the Mineral Content Graph in the Selection Summary pane. Each mineral is represented by a colored bar. The bright color shows how much of the mineral is on the surface and ready to use; the dark color shows the quantity to be mined that year. The diamond shows the current mineral concentration, from 0 to 200.

Left-click on any of the bars to display an estimate of the amount the current number of mines will extract in the coming year.

Mining production is also displayed in the Minerals on Hand tile when you are commanding a planet. This tile also shows you the current number of mines and factories and the maximum number of mines and factories the current population can operate. Left-click on the mines and the factories values for additional details.

You can build mines on any planet you inhabit or use robot miners on uninhabited planets.

Calculating the Rate of Reduction

The number of mine years it will take to reduce the concentration by 1 can be approximated by dividing 12,500 by the current mineral concentration. Mine years is one mine per year: if you are operating 50 mines per year on a planet, that equates to 50 mine years.

The decrease in concentration is solely related to the number of mines you have and the number of years they've been in operation. For two players with the same number of mines operating over the same number of years, the decrease in concentration will be the same for each.

Mineral Concentration and Player Efficiency

The rate of concentration reduction is not related to mining efficiency--the player who is more efficient at extraction will mine more minerals. When the concentration reaches 1 on your planet and an opponent's planet, the player who has the more mines but is not as efficient can do as well as a very efficient player who is operating fewer mines.

To learn how many colonists you need to operate a mine and how efficient the mine is at extraction, choose the View (Race) menu item, and turn to page 5 of the View Race dialog.

Alternate Reality Races and Mining

Races based on the Alternate Reality primary trait mine their own planets using remote mining technology only. Read more about them.

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Mining

Auto-building