Mining

Mining drills are used to automate the extraction of resources. Drills are the first step to automate manufaction, although most resources have to be smelted in a furnace for further usage.

Mining Speed Formula

Metal and mineral resources have a "mining hardness" rating. The speed at which they produce goes something like this:

(Mining power - Mining hardness) * Speed / Mining Time = production rate (in resource/s)

Mining power and speed are functions of the miner while hardness and time are functions of the metal or mineral.

Drill types

Item	Total raw	Mining power	Mining speed	Max power	Covered area
File:Burner-mining-drill.png Burner mining drill	File:Iron-plate.png 9 5	2.5	0.35	300 W (burner)	2 x 2
File:Electric-mining-drill.png Electric mining drill	File:Iron-plate.png 23 File:Copper-plate.png 4.5	3	0.5	90 W (electric)	5 x 5

Note, that the Burner mining drill covers exactly its size (2x2, and so covered area is also just 2x2), while the Electric mining drill is one tile bigger (size is 3x3, but covered area is 5x5). Place Electric mining drills in the centre of resource-fields as narrow as possible, but at the borders of the field, more loosely to get a more continuous throughput by having more equal resources per miner.

Unlike most other equipment, mining drills will outout the resource directly without the need of inserters.