Tutorial:Automated Miners

This article is part of the Feed The Beast Wiki's Tutorials section.

Automated Miners are machines that are added by mods that allow Players to mine resources with little to no interaction after the initial set up. These are usually connected to an Ore Processing Facility to increase Ingot yield or increase automation. Most Automated Miners work well in large, flat areas such as deserts as it involves less digging to set-up.

Redpower 2

Frame machines can be constructed to mine giant areas at once in combination with Block Breakers. A more efficient version uses Buildcraft Mining Wells and Thermal Expansion Tesseracts controlled by ComputerCraft Turtles and Computers.

Mekanism

Mekanism offers the Digital Miner, a wonderful way to extract the resources the Player seeks without disturbing the World. A Technologically advanced piece of equipment that teleports the resources that are preprogrammed into memory, and even refill the gaps left using any over abundant materials. The Digital Miner has the ability to mine above itself, making it the ideal machine for Nether mining. Set-up is very easy and convenient, no digging involved, and could be done on any terrain. Using a Land Mark powered with a Redstone Torch as a guide to relocate, makes it easy to cover all areas.

BuildCraft

Buildcraft provides two Automated Miners. The Mining Well and the Quarry. Both machines use Buildcraft energy.

The Mining Well digs a tunnel straight down and stops once it reaches bedrock or lava. This is not very useful as the player would only get ores by chance and ore veins would be missed.

The Quarry is much more expensive but mines up to 64x64 blocks. The default Quarry size is 9x9. To extend this range, the player must first place 3 Land Marks to create a rectangle with dimensions up to 64x64. Deserts are good locations for Quarries even more so as deserts may also contain pools of Oil which can be refined into Fuel to power the Quarry. The player must right click on one of the Landmarks to activate them. Landmarks powered by a redstone signal will emit laser guides that help with creating the desired rectangle. Then, place the Quarry next to one of the lines created by the activated Landmarks and then provide power to it. It will create a frame that will pass through blocks. The quarry will destroy any blocks contained within the frame. Note that these blocks are destroyed, not mined. Then, it will build the frame. Once the frame is complete, it will extend a mining arm and will mine every block that is below the defined area. It will output to adjacent Buildcraft Pipes. If it encounters lava, it will mine around it. It will stop when it has reached bedrock. The player may then use a pickaxe to retrieve the Quarry block and place it in a new location. The frame for the Quarry will remain behind.

The Quarry is very expensive to create, will produce much cobblestone, but mines the largest area. Once it is placed and powered with combustion engines, the player will not need to return to the Quarry for a long time. However, it will create large, ugly holes in the environment.

The visibility of the holes can somewhat be avoided by placing the quarry in an ocean.

IndustrialCraft²

IndustrialCraft2 has the Miner to mine for ores. To operate, the Miner requires:

• A drill (Mining Drill for EU efficiency or Diamond Drill for speed and obsidian)
• A scanner (OD Scanner for a 5x5 mining area or OV Scanner for a 9x9 area)
• Mining Pipes
• And EU at up to 32EU/tick

These items, with the exception of EU, can be returned once the play is done mining.

There are also blocks that may be placed next to the Miner to help it. The Miner will not be able to drill through liquids so a player may wish to place a Pump next to the Miner. When the Miner encounters liquids, the Pump will extract the liquid as if the liquid was right underneath it. Ores will be ejected into the world from the Miner but if a chest is placed next to it, the ores will be placed directly in the chest. The same is true for the Pump so a double chest would be wise.

Once the required resources are provided, the Miner will begin to drill downward and will place one Mining Pipe below it for every block drilled downward. When the scanner that has been provided detects an ore, it will mine towards that ore. It will continue in this manner until the Miner has ran out of Mining Pipe or it has reached bedrock. When the Miner is done, the player may replace the Mining Pipes in the GUI with a common block such as cobblestone. Then the player may remove the drill and the Miner will retract the pipes and replace them with the block provided. The pipes will be returned to the adjacent chest. Once all the pipes have been retrieved, he/she is free to pack up the setup and move it to a new location. It is recommended that the player mark where the Miner was placed with a torch or similar object and then move enough distance so that when placed in a new location, the Miner will not mine the same area or leave un-mined areas.

This Automated Miner produces minimal cobblestone, doesn't leave large holes, and is very fast. Because of its speed, it will require the player to move it more often. Powering it is difficult as cables leading from the players base would create much energy loss. It is recommended that the player use a BatBox and 2 cables to power the Miner and Pump. The BatBox can be charged fairly easily by transporting BatPacks, or better yet Lithium Batpacks, to it manually. A Lithium Batpack should be enough to power the Miner until it has reached bedrock. Note that it is possible for the Miner to get "caught" on a natural cobblestone generator. It will continue to mine cobblestone from the generator as fast as it is produced. The Miner may also become "caught" on objects that it can not mine such as beehives. It will not use any energy and shall appear as if it has hit bedrock.