Miner

Miner is Player or slave who mostly spent its time in mines or temporarily mine for some fast and small amount of ore for building items.

Mining

A miner (player) can use a Primitive Tool to mine only regular iron ore and minerals. A Sledgehammer however can be used to mine these and High Quality Minerals, High Quality Iron Ore. A Super Sledge can be used to mine any resource vein in any mine includingGold Nuggets, and Uranium Ore.

Alternatively, you can command your slaves to mine for you, and strangely, they don't need any tools for that. This might not work in every mine.

Tactic
Bring a brahmin with you when mining. This will save you from going to your tent/base to unload the materials you just mined. Give everything you mined to the brahmin, and when you are done take the animal to your tent or base and unload whatever its carrying. Alternately, some miners prefer using a dog rather than a brahmin.