How do you mine?

Answer 1

The basic princible of mining is to go to where the deposit of the wanted material is found, dig the material from the deposit with suitable tools and then refine the raw mineral to pure ingots.

So the basics is simple.

It becomes complicated when you add the reality to mining:

Before you can dig on a site, you need to acquire permission to mine the site. Before getting permission, assessing of environmental and safety hazards have to be made. Many times you have to also pay to the owner of the land.

The tools also may require permissions to use, a basic pickax can be used freely, but if you need power tools or big machines, you need permissions (and education to use them). Using explosives need many different permits.

Safety also has to be taken cared of all times. The deeper you go underground, the more dangerous it becomes. Keeping up with safety is expensive.

Refining the raw material means separating the metal from the rock. It depends on the metal we are mining which method to use, but in many cases the refining requires hazardous chemicals.