Latest changes to the game mechanics killed metal industry, which is a significant and key portion of the game. I wish there would be some way and I have just suggestions:
* bringing back the spiraling; at least in some capacity. Ever roll back old system, or allow to mine out randomly ore piece(s) of very high quality (for example, x10 of local node; let it be even a rare event).
* adding alloys (smelting) and their recipes discovered by experimentation; added few other metals
* amount curious from metals should be much larger, compared to the rest materials