To mine? Or not to mine?

[Nukuler]

I saw in the Civlopedia that a Holy Site will "improve" a source of Iron. I understand that this means that I will have access to the resource, in the strategic sense. However, I seem to recall (correct me if I'm wrong) that in Civ 4 an "Iron Mine" would provide not only the strategic resource but an additional production bonus as well.

If so, does the same hold true for Civ 5, and does a Holy Site count as a Mine?

 

[FeiLing]

No, great people improvements only add what they add according to their description plus they connect _strategic_ resources. If you instead actually mined the iron you'd get +1 production (+2 after Chemistry) on that tile.

The main point behind connecting strategic resources is that they can spawn under already existing great people improvements, so if it didn't work like this you'd have to destroy that improvement. Luckily you don't have to