With the introduction of the mining chest more and more sell-shops have started using this new way of storage which enables the mine owner to switch between different mines without the need to rebuild their sell-shop (An example would be if u want to switch from a V mine to a Z mine you will need to add a lot more emerald chest and cut down the amount of lapis chest). This new flexibility has prompted me to question the optimal choice of mine, considering the newfound ability to switch between them with ease. To answer this question, I decided to compare the efficiency of two most popular mine of choices in p-mine (Mine V and Mine X). Mine V contains 45% lapis ore, 35% emerald ore, and 20% diamond ore, while Mine X contains 25% lapis ore, 45% emerald ore, and 30% diamond ore. To compare the efficiency of the two mines, I calculated the expected value of the ores per block mined, assuming that each ore can be sold for $1 per ore (to make the math easier since it doesn't matter how much the ore actually cost as long as u sell to a sell shop). For both mines, I assumed that the ores were being mined without any Fortune enchantment on the pickaxe. For Mine V: 45% of the blocks mined will be lapis ore, which can drop 2-5 lapis lazuli per block, on average 3.5 lapis lazuli per block. 35% of the blocks mined will be emerald ore, which drops 1 emerald per block. 20% of the blocks mined will be diamond ore, which drops 1 diamond per block. So the expected value of the ores per block mined in Mine V without Fortune enchantment is: (0.45 * 3.5 * $1) + (0.35 * $1) + (0.2 * $1) = $1.925 For Mine X: 25% of the blocks mined will be lapis ore, which can drop 2-5 lapis lazuli per block, on average 3.5 lapis lazuli per block. 45% of the blocks mined will be emerald ore, which drops 1 emerald per block. 30% of the blocks mined will be diamond ore, which drops 1 diamond per block. So the expected value of the ores per block mined in Mine X without Fortune enchantment is: (0.25 * 3.5 * $1) + (0.45 * $1) + (0.3 * $1) = $1.825 However, I also considered the impact of using a pickaxe with Fortune enchantment on the expected value of the ores per block mined. Assuming a Fortune level of 10, I recalculated the expected value of the ores per block mined for each mine. For Mine V: 45% of the blocks mined will be lapis ore, which can drop up to 24 lapis lazuli per block with Fortune 10, on average 10.5 lapis lazuli per block. 35% of the blocks mined will be emerald ore, which can drop up to 10 emeralds per block with Fortune 10, on average 4.2 emeralds per block. 20% of the blocks mined will be diamond ore, which can drop up to 10 diamonds per block with Fortune 10, on average 4.2 diamonds per block. So the expected value of the ores per block mined in Mine V with Fortune 10 is: (0.45 * 10.5 * $1) + (0.35 * 4.2 * $1) + (0.2 * 4.2 * $1) = $4.245 For Mine X: 25% of the blocks mined will be lapis ore, which can drop up to 24 lapis lazuli per block with Fortune 10, on average 10.5 lapis lazuli per block. 45% of the blocks mined will be emerald ore, which can drop up to 10 emeralds per block with Fortune 10, on average 4.2 emeralds per block. 30% of the blocks mined will be diamond ore, which can drop up to 10 diamonds per block with Fortune 10, on average 4.2 diamonds per block. So the expected value of the ores per block mined in Mine X with Fortune 10 is: (0.25 * 10.5 * $1) + (0.45 * 4.2 * $1) + (0.3 * 4.2 * $1) = $4.17 TLDR ; V > X and with this logic V would be the best mine in the game
