You can remove any material from the terrain by mining it with your <b>excavators</b> and add material by dumping it with trucks.

Below is an example of how a mining designation starting at surface level is reachable only if it touches the surface. The top designation is reachable as denoted by the yellow color. The bottom starts one level below the surface and is not reachable, denoted by the orange color with red borders.

Creating Ramps

Each designation square can be mined by <b>only one excavator at a time</b>. Be sure that there are enough available designations if you have multiple excavators.

You can see available resources by toggling a resource overlay in the bottom-left corner of the screen.

While dumping designations can be placed anywhere on the island, mining designations must be within an area managed by a {0}. To modify an area, select a mine control tower and click the {1} button. You can customize the area's shape by adding new points to its edges, dragging individual points, or moving the entire area by clicking inside and dragging it.

Mining designations

Designations denote how the terrain will be shaped after mining.

This tool behaves the same as the <b>dumping designating tool</b>. {0} will toggle between <b>flat</b> or <b>ramp</b> designations. Pressing {1} will toggle the ramp direction either <b>up</b> or <b>down</b> when placing beside another designation.

Move the height up or down using {0} and {1} respectively.

Mining designations <b>have to start at or above the terrain</b>, otherwise, they won’t be reachable by your excavators. If an edge of designation is not reachable, a red line is displayed. If there are red lines all around a designated area, that means that it cannot be mined.

Use the {0} key to switch to the <b>ramp</b> mode. Then you can snap to a previous flat designations and extend a ramp from there.

Trucks and excavators must be <b>assigned to a {0}</b> in order for mining to begin. Excavators mine designated terrain while trucks transport the mined materials from the excavators to machines, storages, or any available dumping areas.

To mine the terrain, select the <b>mine designation tool</b> {0} from the bottom toolbar (1), and click and drag on the terrain to designate your mining area (2).

Rotate the ramp direction using {0}.

Excavators mine and load trucks with mixed materials that must be sorted before any further use. To handle this, build an {0} near your mining operation. Make sure the plant doesn't get clogged with excess dirt or rock. Sharing one sorting plant between multiple mining operations can lead to throughput issues, as it may fill up with one type of material and block others. Note: This section does not apply if you disabled the ore sorting mechanic.