This talk about hidden or infinite ores made me think. In RL people first found coal, iron and copper on the surface. Then they started to dig big pits to mine it and later underground mines. Wouldn't it make sense to start with the simple burner mining drills just scrapping the surface and exhaust...

this should be included in the game, I dont see a reason why a pole should be an exception and be irreplaceable with the higher tier

I second this. The cars slot containing the machine gun is waiting for the flamethrower to be available as a replacement....