Mining, if possible...

[Veridius]

So I tried this game a little while ago, and found it to my liking, (We attempt to do this sort of thing IRL. A hatchet, wool blanket and sheet of canvas is all we need, the longest we lasted before we had to come home was 8 days. You'd be surprised how good Rabbit and Grouse taste when you're hungry.) and recruited my brother. We decided, after creating a small camp, that we wanted to head as far north as possible. We marched and boated north until we stopped seeing settlements, and created a small camp for ourselves. Our camp has since grown into a nice little farmstead. Currently growing flax and hunting rabbits and so fourth. I was quite proud of our achievements.

However there is a new burr in my saddle if you will. I neglected to, when we chose our spot, look for mines. There are none near us, and I was wondering if you can create your own. There are variations in the altitude, (those dirt walls) where one would find a mine. Can I dig my own mine there? Or does there need to be a cave already in which I am supposed to mine?

On an unrelated note; On our trek north we encountered a kind explorer while we were both boating. He sat and chatted with me for a while, and I asked him for some advice. He also gave me a map he had made which was very useful. I promised to come south and visit him once we had established ourselves, but at the time I was unaware how far north we would eventually travel. Chances are slim I will make it that far south again in the near future, so I would like to extend thanks to him if he's reading.

Sorry for the long post, any help would be greatly appreciated, be it good or bad news.

[KoE]

Short version: No.

Long version:
You can only get metal from a pre-determined mine point. You'll need the Prospecting skill to determine if there's a mine nearby (I don't know if you know this already or not, so I'm just throwing it out there in case you don't). It tells you if there's metal in something like the 1000x1000 tile area around you (expressed as a percentage where 100% = the mine point). (for comparison, your minimap is 125x125 I believe). If you're willing to hump across the land, you might get lucky and find one, but you'll likely want to relocate to it once you do.

[SlamBliss]

At this point in the game it seems that most of the mines are occupied. In the area a few friends and I ended up some russians controlled all of the mines. They were charging ridiculous prices for trades. We thought we had found an abandoned one because the walls were crumbling. Five of us died.