Make a miner use some fluid and output another fluid would require changing the piping system of the miners by either:eloquentJane wrote:I don't think it's possible without making a new mining machine (which I don't actually oppose, but it'd be some extra coding work). The reason is because the miners currently are designed for a single fluid, and as far as I can tell they work similarly to pipes in that miners will transfer fluid between all fluid connections. In order to have multiple fluids running through miners, you'd have to make significant changes to how the entity works, and it'd probably be simplest to just make an entirely new miner that works like an existing machine designed for multiple fluids (like a refinery).
I think it's a good idea for fluid miners to output waste water, but it'd probably be more work to add in than you may realize.
a) Make one of the 3 sides being the constant output side of the waste fluid
b) Make another output pipe near the output ore connection, that way you preserve the side flow
c) Store the waste inside the drill for when the patch is depleted you hook up a pipe or pump in the ore output to extract the waste of the miner. But since that mechanic works for infinite ores I think it'll never deplete.
d) Make a new machine for it.