With the right placement and upgrades, an iron mine delivers a sustainable supply of iron for your town. Learn how to build, staff and upgrade your mine, convert ore in the bloomery, and produce weapons in the blacksmith — plus avoid the common pitfalls of placement and resource depletion.
Updated for Major Update #8 (August 27, 2026): mines and many workshops now need maintenance deliveries to keep working, and artisans such as the blacksmith choose what to make through Active Recipes instead of Production Focus.
Quick answer
| What | Answer |
|---|---|
| Mine type to prioritize | Deep mine on a rich deposit |
| Deep mine cost | 50 coin and 10 planks |
| Iron mine placement | On the iron deposit symbol, not close to it |
| Mine worker limit | 4 families |
| Bloomery worker limit | 2 families |
| Blacksmith upgrade cost | 5 coin and 5 planks |
| Side arm recipe | 2 iron slabs |
Place the iron mine on the deposit marker
Correct placement is everything for a working iron mine. Follow these steps to get started:
If you build the mine away from the deposit marker, it will not function and produce no iron.
Upgrade a rich deposit into a deep mine
Upgrading your iron mine is essential for long-term, infinite iron extraction. Only rich deposits marked with a crown symbol can be converted to deep mines. Here’s how to ensure your mine keeps supplying iron:
Upgrade to the deep mine before the original resource is depleted. If you wait and the deposit disappears, you cannot upgrade to a deep mine later.
Keep the iron mine producing
Iron mine output may seem inconsistent, but several indicators can be misleading — and don’t necessarily mean production has stopped.
- Even when the circular resource icon above the mine appears empty (with the orange indicator depleted), the mine can continue producing iron. This is a visual bug or ambiguity 4:20.
- The orange resource icon decreases as iron is extracted, but actual output flow persists until the deposit is completely gone. With a deep mine, the icon may stay empty permanently but will keep working.
- Iron is regularly collected from the mine by warehouse workers and hauled to the storehouse as part of normal resource flow.
- Placement directly over the deposit marker is essential; if the mine is built nearby but not on the marker, production will not start.
If iron output halts but the deposit isn’t depleted, check placement and ensure the building is assigned workers.
Mines now have to be maintained by delivering resources, and a mine that is not maintained can collapse. Placing too many mines close to each other also raises the chance of collapse. If a mine stops or collapses, check its maintenance supply as well as its placement and workers.
Read the iron mine menu
The mine menu displays all relevant information for monitoring iron extraction and storage.
- You can assign up to four families to work the mine. Staffing controls affect how fast the mine produces iron.
- The panel tracked iron production over time. Even with the resource icon empty, production can continue as long as the deposit isn’t depleted or the mine is upgraded to deep mine status.
- Storage is shown as "generic storage"; both output (iron ore) and capacity (e.g., 2/50 slots) are listed.
- When iron is ready, a warehouse worker will collect it and deliver it to the storehouse, keeping production flowing.
Monitor staffing and storage values in the mine menu for early diagnosis of output bottlenecks.
Run the bloomery efficiently
The bloomery is the crucial link between ore extraction and weapons production, converting iron into iron slabs.
Always keep firewood in stock and refuel the bloomery monthly, or slab production will stop.
Unlock the blacksmith workshop and make weapons
The blacksmith workshop is located in a burgage plot level 2 and allows the creation of main offensive weapons from iron slabs and other resources.
Plan your iron slab production to meet weapon recipe requirements — side arms are especially resource demanding.
Artisans no longer use "Production Focus". With Active Recipes you choose the priority in which the blacksmith's goods are produced, and a blacksmith starts with no Active Recipes until you set them, so set the weapons you want before expecting output. The blacksmith's tools now always count as surplus even though it also uses them for its own maintenance. Workshops no longer have a tool cost, because maintenance replaced it, and the Blacksmith workshop's Regional Wealth cost is 25.
Also worth knowing
- Blacksmith stalls can stop working unexpectedly. Even with iron slabs in storage, the blacksmith may halt production — this is not always caused by missing input materials, and may be due to game bugs or staffing issues.
- No local iron means expensive imports. If your region does not have an iron deposit, you must import iron for the bloomery and blacksmith. Imported iron is often too costly to support weapon production early in your campaign.
Frequently asked
Why is my iron mine not working?
The mine has to be placed directly on the deposit marker, not nearby. If it is built too far from the symbol, it will not function properly. The deposit must also be a rich deposit if you want to upgrade it into a deep mine.
Can you keep getting iron forever?
A deep mine on a rich deposit keeps producing iron indefinitely. A normal mine only extracts the deposit until it runs out, and then the resource disappears. Once that happens, upgrading later will not recover it.
How many families can work the bloomery?
The bloomery supports up to two families. It also needs regular firewood refueling, with the building needing to be refueled once per month.
What materials do the blacksmith weapons need?
Side arms need two iron slabs each. Spears need one iron slab and one plank, and pole arms need one iron slab and one plank.
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