How to find a mine

[VowOfSilence]

wiki says the range for prospecting is 1000 tiles... how many minimaps is that?
is the range and chance of finding a mine always the same, regardless of stats and Q of rustroot extract?

[Pansy]

Quality doesn't seem to matter with rustroot and rustroot elixer. When you prospect you may get a pop up that says "Tin 15% of usable". This means that you are 850 tiles away from the spot where the mine may be placed. The percentage is a result of the distance not the rustroot q or your mining skill. The metal is pure chance. The spots were generated when the map was generated which is why they are finite in number.

You know how marshes or mountains or heaths make big blobs on the map? Assuming you are looking at an average to medium one of these blobs, if you prospect a little way from the blob you will get readings from as far away as some distance beyond the type of terrain. For example where I prospected beside a mountain as soon as I saw the mountain territory I got 65% of usable and found the mine in the mountain but just a very few tiles from the far edge. Some of the mega terrains like a set of heaths bisected by rivers would probably cover rather more than 1000 tiles.

I know you asked in minimaps, but I don't do minimaps or tiles, my estimation isn't good enough. I know the mountain I described is several minimaps in size but couldn't tell you if it was three or seven. I can't tell you in walking time either, what with lag, cliffs and sudden stops to get murdered by a boar... but hopefully the description I gave will give you an idea.