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While playing Factorio, I began to realize that I was running out of nearby ores, and that I would have to go very far into alien territory just to get a few measly patches of iron and copper. However, thanks to the new nuclear reactors, I had a huge excess of power. You could hit two birds with one stone using a mining method :

Fracking

In real life, Fracking is a method of mining that involves drilling a very deep hole, pumping gritty water into it, and then sucking it back out, along with whatever else. While this method of mining is currently only used for obtaining natural gases, I'm sure that it could be used for obtaining ores as well.

It would start with obtaining the Fracking research, which could be obtaining after researching the Mining Productivity 12 technology, which would make sure that the player has at least automated High-Tech Science. When researched, it would unlock the recipes for the Hydraulic Fracturing Drill and Fracking Fluid, along with the Iron Ore, Copper Ore, Uranium, Stone, and Crude Oil "Processing Techniques".

To start with fracking, simply craft a Fracking Drill with 1000 Steel, 500 Concrete, 100 Processing Units, and 50 Pumps. You can then place it anywhere you want. Now let's move on to Fracking Fluid.

100 Fracking Fluid could be created at a chemical plant with 100 Water, 50 Sulphuric Acid, and 10 Iron Ore. (a gritty, dissolving fluid) To function, a Fracking Drill would require 20 Fracking Fluid per second to function, along with a TON of energy (to power the pumps). Once your Fracking Drill is supplied with lots of power and Fracking Fluid, you can choose for it to produce Iron Ore, Copper Ore, Uranium Ore, Stone, or Oil. (with various rates mentioned below)

Theoretically, this would probably work similar to regular fracking, but with much more corrosive substances. You could probably decide what ores you got by modifying the depth of your drill due to the varying densities of iron, copper and uranium.

Fracking for crude oil would work the same way as any of the other ores, instead of an ore output, the Fracking Drill would have a pipe output.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uti2niW2BRA - Here's a basic explanation of how hydraulic fracking works in real life.

I've avoided listing quite a few of the stats, as I just wanted to give a general idea of how this would work. Here's some basic information on the stuff I didn't want to write while explaining how this would work.

Fracking Drills would :
- Be able to produce iron/copper ore at a rate of 1 ore per second.
- Be able to produce stone at a rate of 2 ore per second
- Be able to produce uranium at a rate of 0.2 ore per second.
- Be able to produce crude oil at a rate of 10 per second
- Never "run dry" of resources.
- Require 15 MW of power per second.
- Appear as a 5x5 structure that visually extends 8 blocks upwards.
- Have 5 slots for modules. (lots of room to experiment)
- Have their own efficiency research tree.

If you think that I need to change or add something, please let me know! Anyways, thanks for reading!

I think the numbers need looking at. If you need 20 hydraulic fluid per second to produce 1 iron ore per second, and 20 hydraulic fluid needs 2 iron ore per second, this is a net loss.

Quarry mod is a little bit similar to this.
https://mods.factorio.com/mods/FuzzCat927/quarry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJQoRCItK2Y

It needs a lot of energy and costs some resources to make but especially in the end game this might be a little too cheap, borderline cheatish.
But with some adjustment, this could be good way to do this. I do prefer this to the constant mining expansion hurdle.

Alternatively, if you fancy a complex and very expensive way to make a small amount of resources out of water, electricity and large space requirement, you can try my borderline insane setup with bobs/angels/factorissimo
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=40317&p=238911

Ideally, I would like if there was a solution that was something between the requirements and complexity of above two solutions.

Patashu wrote:I think the numbers need looking at. If you need 20 hydraulic fluid per second to produce 1 iron ore per second, and 20 hydraulic fluid needs 2 iron ore per second, this is a net loss.

Yeah, I probably should have done a bit more number checking. I'll make the drills produce more ore and use less fluid, and the fluid cost less ore.

If I were designing this, and the hopeful end result was an ore, I'd have ingredients that don't include ores at all.
I suppose it depends how expensive you want to make it, but I'd simply go with water, perhaps a little lubricant, and maybe the acid.
Lets not forget that sulfuric acid itself costs iron to produce.

Here´s my related idea: viewtopic.php?f=33&t=49295

I hope someone would do this. If not, I might even try to learn to do it myself. I will search help on modding forums eventually.