>>610321As someone who makes a living off of mining spring through fall, it entirely depends on the resource and location when it comes to being easy or hard.
There are places where I'm literally picking up hundreds of crystals or corundum off of the top of the mud, out in the open, and places where I'm picking up huge chunks of high quality obsidian and fire agate off of the ground. This obsidian and a couple bins full of it I have in storage were all picked up off the ground, and as for knapping quality it's 9/10, only some South American stuff is better, and has iron deposits which makes it significantly more valueable to jewelers and lapidaries. Lying on the fucking ground, more than I can carry.
There are also places where I'm digging ten feet into the side of the hill, pulling out huge chunks of rock and busting them open to find sub-par materials for the amount of work. It all depends.
