Age old queston on looting plane of minerals.

Sorry, it's difficult to understand your poor English.

The frequency of valuable stones on the Plane of Minerals is entirely up to you. Some areas may be mostly marble, or copper-bearing ores like azurite; pretty, valuable, but not gemstone. It all depends on how easy you want it to be for players to be able to loot the place. In general it's obvious that looting the Plane of Minerals should be hard. Otherwise gold and gems would not be valuable in places with easy access to the Plane.

If a place does have easy access to lots of gold, diamonds, rubies, and the like, then they may simply not regard such materials as precious. Instead, they may highly value jewels which don't appear on the Plane of Mineral: biologically-sourced rarities such as pearl, coral, and amber.

Unfortunately, I know of no 3x sources thus far that delve far into mining. In fact, there are only two resources I have identified thus far-- Races of the Dragon, which delves LIGHTLY into Profession: Mining, which is helpful a bit (but contains no charts for frequency or anything like that, and mostly just involves digging into the earth/rock and modifiers for soil type), and Quintessential Dwarf by Mongoose Publishing, which actually goes a bit more in-depth (it has charts on mining events and some other stuff, but it's 3.0 instead of 3.5, and it doesn't contain much for mineral frequency or anything like that. It's also entirely separate from Races of the Dragon meaning that the rules aren't entirely compatible with one another, and in fact I believe Quintessential Dwarf turned it into a separate Knowledge Skill.).

Using Races of the Dragon, you have to bear in mind that the Quasielemental Plane of Mineral is described as being predominantly 'crystal', so quartz is likely to be the predominant mineral in most areas (-10 modifier to Profession: Miner checks). In other areas, it's mostly obsidian, which also gives a -10 modifier.

I have no idea if there are any 1E or 2E canonical resources that contain D100 charts for mining. Maybe Rip knows.
I suppose such charts for mineral (and the prime) could be made, but what you end up with could vary widely on how technical you want to get. I'll do a quick search and see if any fan-works are online.
...
Admittedly, I'm having a difficult time finding much, but then I didn't do much searching, either. If anyone knows of any 3x (or even Pathfinder, or hell just 2E) mining tables and expanded rules, it would be Ripvanwormer.

My statement from my previous post remains however: the Quasielemental Plane of Mineral consists almost entirely of metamorphic and igneous minerals, with very little sedimentary mineral. What you find on mineral seems to be determined partly by subjective value-- e.g. precious metals and silicates (silicates are generally crystalline in structure-- quartz/chalcedony/jasper is silicone oxide, and there's also topaz, olivine, garnet, beryl, zircon, jadeite, opal *not all opal occurs from fossils*, labradorite, plagioclase feldspars, etc. A few exceptions are spinel, which is an oxide of aluminum and magnesium, chrysoberyl which is an oxide of beryllium and aluminum, corundum which is an oxide of aluminum, and diamond which is native carbon) predominate, and there's likely to be a lot of marble as well, even though marble is a sedimentary rock (not a mineral, but a rock) formed primarily out of calcite For that reason, I imagine that marble would be found primarily near the sub-region between Mineral and Ooze. Turquoise is likely to be found to some degree, but it's a phosphate, while malachite/azurite are carbonates of copper.
Among the metals likely to be found in abundance, I'm sure there's plenty of iron, though it's likely to be found closer to Magma. More common metallic elements would be copper, silver, gold, mithril, and mercury *highly valuable in Imperial China* along with the platinum series.

Even the Paraelemental plane of Ooze would not be without its value. It's likely that this plane would be invaluable for those involved in steamworks, esp. in Core Ooze, as the pressure there is likely to create quite a bit of fossil fuels.

The type of fossil fuel varies depending on the organisms it originated from. From wikipedia:

Petroleum and natural gas are formed by the anaerobic decomposition of remains of organisms including phytoplankton and zooplankton that settled to the sea (or lake) bottom in large quantities under anoxic conditions, millions of years ago. Over geological time, this organic matter, mixed with mud, got buried under heavy layers of sediment. The resulting high levels of heat and pressure caused the organic matter to chemically alter, first into a waxy material known as kerogen which is found in oil shales, and then with more heat into liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons in a process known as catagenesis.
Terrestrial plants, on the other hand, tend to form coal and methane. Many of the coal fields date to the Carboniferous period of Earth's history. Terrestrial plants also form type III kerogen, a source of natural gas.

I am actually working on a project right now of rebuilding the gems treasure table from the DMG, using several sources (Wikipedia, Volo's Guide to All Things Magical, and Magic Item Compendium, mainly). I plan to create the rules for prospecting a mine and the like, by combining Races of the Dragon, 2E Dwarves Handbook, and the Quintessential Dwarf from Mongoose Publishing (which has its own rules on mining-- I think it has rules on prospecting).

I also plan to add several unique gems to the list, some Forgotten Realms terms for some gems, and some other unique ones unlikely to be found outside of Planescape-- such as Fire Ruby (a type of corundum *aluminum oxide* with a diamond-like and opal-like play of color/iridescence due to trace amounts of fyrite, a special material from Dragon 347, and according to my own fanon, is the mineral used to give Efreeti brass and bronze their fire-resistant properties/high melting point. Not to be confused with hard fire from Dragon 347, which is merely a silicate/quartz of fyrite that cannot survive if removed from fire-dominant inner planes.), "gem grade blue ice" (as well as other gem grades of eternal ice-- I am still working on the properties of the different colors), brightice encased in a thin layer of eternal ice (allows it to survive non-freezing environments), gem-grade Golden Ice (see Book of Exalted Deeds-- I presume this is the same substance as Frystalline, the special material.), "Baatorian Emerald" (actually gem-grade nesosilicate/orthosilicate of baatorian green steel ore), "Blood Gem" (gem-grade nesosilicate/orthosilicate *silicon tetraoxide* of abyssal blood iron; also known as "Abyss Ruby"), Crystal Coral (strange coral in Elemental Water/Quasielemental Mineral subregions that grows in an angular crystalline habit), Icy Coral (similar to Crystal Coral, but is found in the subregions between Water and Ice-- must be coated in eternal ice or else it melts in warm temps), life pearls (nacreous minerals of hypercondensed positive energy), and Gehennian Blood Diamond (Gehennian diamonds colored red from trace impurities/amounts of Gehennian Morghuth Iron)

Any gems from the Planescape setting that I missed?

Once I do that, I'll get to Quasielemental Plane of Mineral tables, though I have a bad habit of making things too complicated, thus, I'll probably have separate tables for the different subregions of Mineral (for instance, metamorphic rocks would be more common in Core Mineral, igneous rocks of course more common in Fire-dominant subregions, and sedimentary minerals more common near the Ooze sub-region. The Gemfields/Ioun, the absolute best area, would be pure gem oxides, silicates, and native elements such as pure copper ore. Of course, the downside is that it's also the most heavily guarded. Also, I'm thinking of making a sort of "trap" ioun stone for the gemfields which acts as an interplanar homing beacon)

I cannot do that.

In the minerals plane, you are going to run into things considered valuable on most slices of the prime all the time. It is only a question of how valuable any deposit is, not whether you encounter a deposit. Deposits are everywhere.

Any non-native disturbance of the substances of the plane automatically draws the attention of the inhabitants. A negotiation, flight, or battle will follow.

I would imagine that there could easily be ways to bribe the inhabitants into allowing mining, either with mineral delicacies from the prime or by performing services such as defeating enemy elementals. Making friends with mineral plane natives should be beyond difficult as lifeforms on the prime are just so different. It should take scores of positive encounters before anything above neutral status is achieved.

Any trip to the minerals plane should probably go through two or three portals at least, and there should be portal guardians on each portal, in each direction, on each trip. If there aren't guardians there the first few times, regular usage will draw them. There should also be random encounters and peripheral entanglements along the way. The riddles and/or battles would pile up on top of each other. There may be diamonds, rubies, and adamantite ore sitting about for the taking, but the PCs are going to pay to get it.

If they are successful in establishing a regular route, especially if they make more money in sales than was spent on the expedition, it is going to be imitated or followed for theft.

I would think that expeditions into the deeper elemental planar areas would best be infrequent and reserved for finding exceptional materials that are simply not available otherwise.

Still working on the unabridged list-- getting there. In the meantime, I feel there's something I need to note to everyone here:

THERE IS NO REASON TO WRITE UP STATS FOR TITANIUM.
Why? Because mithril is practically identical as far as physical properties (seriously, go take a look for yourselves-- both weigh HALF that of steel, are very durable, and deflect rather than conduct heat, electricity, and cold.)
Technology-only civilizations with access to titanium would merely have mithril given the name of titanium. The pricing and stats would also be the same.

Alright, I'm placing it here since it's related (don't want to clutter up the board with an entire topic on it), but one of my projects is to detail the different types (colors) of eternal ice, but I need input on what red and black ice should do.

The rundown on what I plan to have:

Black: ???? (probably something associated with quasielemental salt or negative energy? Or maybe cold-wrought iron?)
Blue: (Frostburn) melts and reforms like iron
Bort: impure blackish/brown-- similar properties to white, but brittle and melts more easily. Generally used as an abrasive.
Clear: best form; combines traits of green + ???
Glass: Artificial clear eternal ice. A manufactured product used like glass, but a bit more durable. Much cheaper than real eternal ice.
Golden: Not a true form of eternal ice; this is actually frystalline (see Book of Exalted Deeds) and does not occur naturally on the inner planes.
Green: Properties as deep crystal
Red: ???
Silver: As alchemical silver
White: no special properties (standard type used for cold boxes and the like) This is the type generally used in interplanar trade for cold boxes, which are usually hand-carved.

Blue ice is the only type that can be forged by mortals. The rest must be shaped by mephits, genies, and/or elementals using special occupational spell-like or psi-like abilities.

So, any ideas on what black and red ice should do?
(come to think of it, I think I'm heavily leaning towards black having the properties of cold iron)

There's a Land of Black Ice on the world of Oerth. Its origins are mysterious. The dark ice should melt faster than ordinary ice, but it seems to somehow remain frozen even in conditions when ordinary dark ice wouldn't. It seems to be an unnatural occurrence. The black ice glaciers swallowed up the City of the Gods civilization (made up largely of sentient constructs) about a thousand years ago.

It isn't said to have any unusual effects, other than being perhaps slightly resistant to melting (though it's not said to be impossible to melt, or even that difficult if it were exposed to enough heat).

I used the properties of other things specifically so that characters could bring/purchase equipment that wouldn't suffer the effects of severe cold (-5 penalty vs. sunder attempts except on the borders between the Precipice with Air, which is only -2), particularly in a True Cold area, where no form of supernatural or natural protections *including cold immunity* sans perhaps an "Avoid Planar Effects" cast by an indigenous guide will protect you or your equipment from nasty cold damage (as well as all the other nasty effects of a True Cold region) In other particularly cold areas such as the Chisled Estate (Cryonax's stronghold), the overt cold damage acts like Piercing Cold or Primal Energy to any non-indigenous creature (unless Cryonax himself desires otherwise), meaning that those with cold immunity and their equipment take 1d6 cold damage per round, while those with only cold resistance take the full 2d6 cold damage per round, along with their equipment. It's a lot more difficult to exceed the maximum 30 points of resistance/round on Paralemenetal Ice than it is on Elemental Fire (you're already absorbing 3d6 points of fire per round, and in addition most of the natives inflict more fire damage than Ice natives do cold damage), but all the other difficulties of that plane (slipperiness, areas of true cold, coldflow/coldfire + coldfire ruin, mountains, thin-ice crevasses, thin-ice coldflow rivers, etc. make it no less daunting in the end. And Pelor save you if you run into a 15th or higher level ice paraelemental mage qorrashi genie (in addition to all other horrors, he can cast Summon Coldflow Dragons *Qorrashi equivalent of the 3.5 conversion of the Efreeti Summon Fire Dragons* and have your entire party sans the paladin and monk reeling from cold damage and dying of coldfire ruin-- a disease much like slimy doom except that it slowly turns the victim into paraelemental ice in its purest form.)

Perhaps some ice can only be melted with certain chemicals or very high temeratures and once it reforms, (preferably in a mold) the new shape is incredibly durable.
Blue ice already does what you just said. All other forms of eternal ice, save bort ice, must likewise be subjected to very high temperatures-- blue ice is the only one that melts at the same temperature as iron. The others only melt at far higher temperatures.

Oh, man, I've just spent the last 3-4 days working on a treasure chart for various woods.
The data was mostly compiled from Kaiser's Bazaar C, as well as The Enchiridion of Objects D'Art and Aurora's Whole Realms Catalogue, and the prices recalculated and adjusted based on the pricing for wood products from the 3E Arms & Equipment Guide (basically, I had to decide which woods were common/local, unusual, and exotic and then recalculate the Kaizer's Bazaar prices into that price range. In addition I had to figure out where the Enchiridion woods fit in with that... It took a loooot of work.)
Despite extensive use of the Kaiser's Bazaar C, the chart is still quite different, though those familiar with the supplement will also notice several similarities (many of the woods were repriced in a different order, and also the Kaiser's Bazaar supplements use a different pricing system based on multiplication modifiers to pre-made items rather than additional or base gp per lb of the object) I would have preferred to use all the compiled data from all the treasure items given in accessories and modules from 1E to 3.5 instead, but there simply aren't enough wood items in ALL those books-- altogether I think it only comes out to between 25 to 40 items over a friggin' 40 year period.

I still have a few more woods to figure out, such as sassafras, and the woods table will be of only limited use to those who don't have Kalamar Goods & Gear. So far I've modelled it after European settings, though I'll need to modify the prices for a Sigilian or interplanar settings (right now the Australasian woods are listed with unusual to exotic prices, for instance. In a Planewalker setting, the common woods from each region would be priced as local woods)
Another note: Unlike the other treasure tables, when I finally do get this mammoth online, the woods lists and tables will not be die roll tables, because there are far too many variables involved. Instead, general prices will be given alongside a list of woods by region *e.g. E. European, Indus & Himalayan, Sub Saharan African, etc.) with a die table for local, unusual, or exotic lumber. The first two lists can then be used by the DM to create a custom treasure chart, using whichever woods he wants-- maybe he wants to use them all or maybe he only wants to use the really familiar ones such as flame maple, ebony, teak, cedar, myrtlewood, mahogany, black walnut, cherrywood, and rosewood.

I still haven't finished the gems table either ;_; Ugh I don't want to go through more of that... Though I'm coming along nicely with the metal art objects chart (compiled with additional calculated items from Arms & Equipment 3E, Kalamar Goods & Gear, Defenders of the Faith, Aurora's Whole Realms Catalogue, and from the compiled treasure data gathered from 40 years worth of modules and supplements-- it's meant to be used in the same way as the jewelry table from Arms & Equipment in that it's a minimum pricing guideline that you can add gems to)

Then after that it'll be time for more work on the animal & monster spoils >_< including a shells table...

Another note about the gems table if I haven't mentioned it already: though minerals are not living things, geologists often treat them as if they were. Hence, you will see them refer to a mineral as a 'species'. As such, every mineral has an internationally recognized 'species' name within the western world. With a few exceptions (such as calamine and pearl), the names given in the gems table is the species name, with other common names given in the glossary section.

The shells table, when I have it finished, will also have a list of scientific/species names for DM reference.
The extensive reference tables my document will have are meant primarily for DMs to research information and images-- in some cases common names overlap between different species which may have very different values or properties, so the scientific or species name is far more useful for searching resource material, especially since the average DM isn't going to recognize the majority of items in each category given. When finished, the treasure chart should have the following sections:

--Gems (plus blacksmithing and gemcutting have each been split into two skills for realism-- blacksmithing + whitesmithing and gemcutting + lapidary respectively. I haven't worked it out yet, but characters with sufficient skill ranks in both forms of the craft can take a feat to henceforth combine skill ranks. This rule of course is optional and you may only want it for NPCs.)
Table: Common Gems, Only (includes only common and uncommon gems, from red corundum *ruby* to benitoite)
Table: Full Gems (extensive table including gems you've never even heard of)
--Art Objects
Table: Jewelry (reprinting of the chart from Arms & Equipment, with many new types of jewelry added as well as a chart for brass/costume jewelry. Will not be a die table. Note that the prices given are the bare minimum for jewelry of that type.)
Table: Jewelry, Full (as above, but involves a lettered and indexed chart using various raw materials, such as mithril, crystal, and blue ice. This will not be a die table.)
Table: 4d4sp/1gp avg stones (for brass/costume jewelry) *Trollface.jpg*
Table: Art Objects (compilation of silver, gold, pewter, and crystal art objects from many sources, along with many new ones, such as silver box and ivory card deck. As with the jewelry table, prices given are simply the minimum.)
Table: Custom Art Objects (e.g. silver comb w. 100 gp gems)
Table: Gems for Art Objects (includes stones not used in gem or lapidary work, such as argillite, soapstone, and marble, and excludes gems that are never carved or cut, such as rhodinite)
--Ingots/Trade Bars
--Woods
--Animal and Monster Spoils (this probably won't be a die chart)
--Shells
--Misc Trade Items (includes textiles per sq. yd bolt, scented plant resins, attars, and scented oils per oz. This may or may not be a die chart.)