Mining

Mining is used to extract resources from the world. Mining drills are the first step to automating manufacture, although most resources have to be smelted in a furnace for further usage.

Mining speed formula

The rate at which resources are produced is given by:

Mining speed / Mining time = Production rate (in resource/sec)

To calculate the time needed for one resource-item use this formula:

Mining time / Mining speed = Seconds for one resource item

Mining speed is a function of the miner while mining time is a function of the metal or mineral you are currently mining (you can place a miner over a mixed field).

Mining by hand

When mining by hand, the formula is modified slightly:

(1 + Mining Speed Modifier) * .5 / Mining time = Production rate (in resource/sec)

Progress bar when the player mines by hand.

Expanded description:

 (1 + Force Modifier) * (1 + Character Modifier) * (Character mining speed) / Mining time = Rate

Infinite resources

The output of the unmodified resource is the percentage yield of the tile currently used by the miner.

  Output of unmodified field * ( Number of modules in miner * Bonus from module ) + Output of unmodified field * ( Number of beacons * ( Number of modules * Distribution efficiency ) * Bonus from module + Productivity research bonus + 1 ) = Raw output per second 

   (Raw output per second * Mining speed) / Mining time = Production rate (in resource/sec)

The mining drill or pumpjack will sum the production rate of all tiles below it and show that value in the tooltip.

Drill types

Item	Total raw	Mining speed	Mining power	Covered area	Max health	Pollution
Player	-	0.5	-	1 × 1	250	-
Burner mining drill	9 5	0.25	150 kW (burner)	2 × 2	150	12/m
Electric mining drill	23 4.5	0.5	90 kW (electric)	5 × 5	300	10/m
Big mining drill	200 43 54.5 20 10 20	2.5	300kW (electric)	13x13	300	40/m

Note, that the Burner mining drill covers exactly its size (2×2, the covered area is also 2×2), while the Electric mining drill is one tile bigger (size is 3×3, but covered area is 5×5), and the Big mining drill is two tiles bigger than the electric mining drill (size is 5x5, and area covered is 13x13).

Mining drills can only be placed on resources.

Output

Resource		Burner M. Drill	Electric M. Drill	Big M. Drill
		Speed: 0.25	Speed: 0.5	Speed: 2.5
Scrap	Time: 0.5	0.5/s	1/s	5/s
Iron	Time: 1	0.25/s	0.5/s	2.5/s
Copper	Time: 1	0.25/s	0.5/s	2.5/s
Coal	Time: 1	0.25/s	0.5/s	2.5/s
Stone	Time: 1	0.25/s	0.5/s	2.5/s
Calcite	Time: 1	0.25/s	0.5/s	2.5/s
Uranium	Time: 2		0.25/s	1.25/s
Tungsten	Time: 5			0.5/s

Note: While the Big Mining Drill is listed as having only 50% resource drain, this is not the same thing as productivity, and does not increase the effective output speed of the miner. Productivity creates extra ore products for every "real" ore mined from the patch, whereas resource drain reduction (at the 50% level that normal quality Big Mining Drills have) means that only every other "real" ore that is mined actually depletes the patch. That is to say, where the Big Mining Drill mines scrap at 5/s, it reduces the richness of the scrap patch beneath it by 2.5/s.

The above figures are modified by mining productivity technology, which adds to any bonus from productivity modules. Productivity itself multiplies directly with the resource drain reduction effect of the Big Mining Drill. For example, a patch worth 1M ore is worth 2M ore at 100% productivity, and if normal Big Mining Drills are used, that patch is instead worth 4M ore. Legendary Big Mining Drills instead have a resource drain of 8%, so that 1M patch would instead be worth 25M ore.

Unlike most other equipment, mining drills will output resources directly without the need of inserters. This includes transport belts, chests, other mining drills, furnaces, assembling machines, etc.

• 

  Burner drill to chest

• 

  Burner drill to furnace

• 

  Burner drill to burner drill