Smelting vs Mining?

[Shurp]

Which is faster, smelting slag steel or mining compacted steel?

I ask because I've just finished my first year but I haven't gotten around to researching electric smelting yet.  I have lots of turrets that have blown up leaving slag chunks all around.  I also have a good supply of compacted steel I haven't yet mined reasonably close by.  So I am trying to decide whether I should focus on researching smelting or beer brewing as my next priority.

I know that slag smelting yields 10 steel and mining yields 35, but I don't know how long each takes (on average) so I don't know which is the more efficient process.

[defensestar]

Smelting takes a crap ton of time but if your miners are busy burrowing you into your cave then smelting may be your best choice.
Mining is "always" more productive than smelting as long as it is a reasonable distance away

[MikeLemmer]

Smelting takes longer and produces less steel than mining, but it's good for when you start running out of steel veins (or if you just need to get rid of some scrap).

[TuttiFrutti159]

I'd recommend you to mine, since smelting takes 1. a lot of electricity and 2. more time.

As long as you have compacted steel in close range, you should be focussing on that.

[Shurp]

That was my impression, yes, but are there any hard figures on how long the smelting job takes compared to the mining job?

Or said another way, how low would your mining skill have to be (0? 1? 2?) for smelting to produce more steel than mining?

[MikeLemmer]

That was my impression, yes, but are there any hard figures on how long the smelting job takes compared to the mining job?

Or said another way, how low would your mining skill have to be (0? 1? 2?) for smelting to produce more steel than mining?

I think your Mining skill only affects the speed at which you mine, not how much each tile of compacted steel produces.

[Shurp]

I think your Mining skill only affects the speed at which you mine, not how much each tile of compacted steel produces.

Yes, but if it takes me 40 units of time to mine 35 steel vs 10 units of time to smelt 10 steel then smelting is more efficient.

So for a proper comparison I need the base time to smelt vs the base time to mine.  Then I can look at character stats to find the penalty for a low mining skill and calculate when bad miners should smelt instead.

[mcgnarman]

I've always preferred smelting later game, as veins become farther away or non existent. Plus it raises your crafting skill and there are far more things to craft later game so id want higher skills in that.

I always set up a stone cutting and smelting/machinery room extremely close to my dumping pile. That is also close proximity to my main storage. It's usually a secondary "base" with its own power as well.

[Neccarus]

I think you should also take into consideration all of the possible hauling time for smelting. You would be hauling things from potentially across the map where with mining it should be a rather large clump of metal in one spot. I would look at smelting as more of a way to recycle when you start running low on steel.

[Mehni]

You are completely neglecting the hauling aspect of it. A smelter has to fetch 10 steel worth of slag chunk, before he can even start smelting it. A miner can pick up 75 steel on their way back.

Mining is far more efficient than smelting.

My level 20 miner mined 3 tiles of steel, while my lvl 20 crafter smelted 2 chunks that were beside him. 105 steel vs 20 steel. This is very easily tested and verified in dev mode.

[sadpickle]

So I guess the question is, is mining or drilling more effective? I haven't even touched the drilling tech. The tech tree got so huge in these last two Alphas, I'm not sure I'll ever get to it.

[Serenity]

Mining is supposed to be the best way. Smelting or drilling are for when you've mined out all deposits or at least the easily reachable ones.

[Spinkick]

Shouldnt mining be the process where you produce ore, that is then smelted to the product you need? I always chuckle how mining right now is a guy pulling fully useable material from the earth.

Although, I guess its "compacted". Is it assumed civilization has come and gone in our rimworld and we are just pulling out old, already refined metal/plasteel/etc?

[MikeLemmer]

Shouldnt mining be the process where you produce ore, that is then smelted to the product you need? I always chuckle how mining right now is a guy pulling fully useable material from the earth.

Although, I guess its "compacted". Is it assumed civilization has come and gone in our rimworld and we are just pulling out old, already refined metal/plasteel/etc?

Given the Compacted Machinery, I'd say yes.

Although it's an Alpha, so who knows? He might add actual smelting in the future.

[night777]

Rich veins of metals like Gold actually existed across the Earth's surface before mankind mined them all. Nowadays many mines dig deep into the earth (deep drilling make more sense now?) and pull up large hauls of crap, which are then washed with water and sifted through. Then oodles of tiny specks of gold are melted and combined into larger hunks or bars.

So it isn't that weird for there to be gold veins there for digging at on a Rimworld. Steel is a product of an industrial process but oh well.