
Thu Jun 21, 2012 2:59 pm
Dirt and Cobble can be pretty easy/quick to mine. I have been running a pretty extensive cobblemine in the far north to fuel my work at paving roads in the nether.
My favorite technique is to cut a staircase down to bedrock level. Then I will make a long horizontal 2-block tall tunnel in one direction, starting one or two blocks above the bedrock. This is also my diamond-hunting strategy, because it uncovers a maximum of surface area, it just happens to be a convenient side-effect that also generates a ton of cobblestone.
I bring plenty of wood for pickaxes and torches (and I find more than enough coal for a vast supply of torches) and since my passages are simple and narrow, it is nice and easy to keep them well-lit and creeper-free.
If I break into a cave or a mineshaft, I usually don't bother exploring it unless I am hungry for iron. It is easy to just build a door or a wall and leave off the exploration for another day.
If I break into lava, I just plug the hole with a cobblestone or two (or glass if I have it) and then I back up a bit and tunnel in a different direction.
I very frequently mine cobblestone using cobblestone picks. I know this is slightly slower, but I like being able to hoard my diamonds and iron, especially when I am after such a pickaxe-intensive resource as cobblestone.
As for dirt mining, make 6 or 7 stone shovels, and go to town on a patch of topsoil that you don't care about. Sometimes when I want dirt, but I don't want to wreck the landscape, I will dig down to the division between the topsoil and the smoothstone, and strip the bottom 2-3 block layer. This leaves the surface untouched-- of course if anybody ever gets creeper-blasted over one of my hidden topsoil mines, the crater could open it up, but I think that would be more cool and surprising than annoying. I might even leave a treasure box in there to reward anybody who stumbled upon it.