iv been playing a bit along and evrything is going just above average, with my capitol having been put nicely in 4 plain/mountain squares a cow square and some clams (within working range).

at a point in the game my my mine discovers a silver resource (it said something along the lines of finding a resource at 001, my cap). this was very fortunate for me as i had forges build in my largest citys.

now i want to know if theirs a practical use in chasing after the chance of finding hidden minerals (the ones listed when you build a mine) and if it helps to find them if you work the tiles and not just build the mine.

if i put down a city somewhere (before 500BC) and let it work 2-4 hill mine tiles can i expect it to find anything before 500 AD ?

also does difficulty affect the chance of finding minerals?

I generally mine all my hills, and I haven't found any minerals yet. I think it is just a pleasant surprise, not something worth spending any time and effort on. Personally, I wouldn't count on anything showing up before 500 AD because nothing has shown up for me period. Don't know about difficulty impacting things.

There is something like a 0.01% chance of a mine discovering a resource each turn. As far as I know it makes no difference if a tile is worked or not, or even if it is within the usable radius of a city. The odds are so low that you cannot expect anything before 500 AD or even in a full game. In three full games I've had one mine hit gold, and that's it.

I think there may also be a restriction as the computer doesn't allow different resource types to appear directly next to each other. I think mines that are adjacent to other resources can therefore never discover anything.

iv discovered 4 minerals in a city that worked mined hills within its 21 workable squares (world builder test) before AD struck on another test a city worked 4 squares untill AD and it discovered one gold vein.
on another one a city worked 2 squares untill AD and it didn find a thing.

in the 21 square working city it discovered gems and aluminium right to the southeast of it. (1 square away, or 1.5 squares in CivIV math)

0,01% per mine and turn is correct AFAIK, but I'm pretty sure that the mine needs to be worked.It is a nice feature and pleasent surprise, but to rare to count on it.However, I always keep it in mind if I have to decide between windmill or mine on a hill.

It's rare enough that I wouldn't plan around it. In my current game it's almost 1900AD and I have yet to ever see a single mine "discover" a new type of ore. I'm playing on a Huge map and have control of almost half of the land area now with a mine on every single hill.

According to Sirian you have to actually work the sqaure for it to happen. I have had two things pop in a total of about 5 games. One game I popped coal (I think, could be wrong) and the one I am currently playing was gold.

i discovered a new silver vein, makes my forges happy. got a city of 19 pop full with health and happyness running at 52 great scientist points a turn :king: , though someone addopted emancipation... ill have to drop caste system.

though i didnt discover as many minerals as i had expected as i had atleast 7 mines worked on average/turn (at 1776 AD now, epic speed/huge terran map)

so far minerals tend to appear at least once a game and so far, only minerals that i dont have yet.:king:

do you fokes discover any minerals you didnt have yet or also ones you already hooked up?

If you don't have iron, you better start picking... Not like you're going to get it any time soon, but you got no choice... Aluminum also...

i discovered a new silver vein, makes my forges happy. got a city of 19 pop full with health and happyness running at 52 great scientist points a turn :king: , though someone addopted emancipation... ill have to drop caste system.

though i didnt discover as many minerals as i had expected as i had atleast 7 mines worked on average/turn (at 1776 AD now, epic speed/huge terran map)

so far minerals tend to appear at least once a game and so far, only minerals that i dont have yet.:king:

do you fokes discover any minerals you didnt have yet or also ones you already hooked up?

the same thing happened to me the other day! A silver popped right next to my capital. :D But that's only once in 20+ hours of CIV right now.