[aeternum]

It's often hard to beat bulk mining. When you're already mining a quarter billion tons of iron and 5B tons of coal, you get a decent amount of all other trace(rare-earth) metals as part of that stream.

It's far easier to just collect tungsten as it rolls down your conveyor belt.

[kbelder]

The Minecraft paradigm.

[user____name]

Look, we can't just recreate the mining industry, it would crowd out all others, no more doctors and engineers, the children yearn for the mines!