Concealed Mines

Concealed mining refers to any mining operation not sanctioned by a regional authority, or an operation which is state-sanctioned but in violation of international law. The scale of concealed mines may vary from domestic open pit mines to commercial underground mines run by non-governmental organisations which may or may not have connections to legitimate authorities.
The most common material mined by concealed mines is iron due to its high commercial demand, abundance of deposits and difficulty obtaining legal permits for extraction. Over three quarters of concealed mines have iron as their major product. Silicon, titanium and rare earth metals make up ninety percent of the remainder of concealed mines. Concealed stone and clay mines exist, but as permits for mining these materials are easier to obtain according to international law, the vast majority of stone and clay quarries are legal.
A major challenge of any illegal mining operation is concealment of both the mine, infrastructure for processing, and waste material. While magical concealment may be used, this is extremely energy intensive and usually only applied to small portions of the mining operation, for example any furnaces used for extracting pure metals from ore. Open pit mines are typically covered by packed earth roofs on which gardens may be planted; however this typically creates a characteristic "bulge" in the land which may be used to identify the presence of a concealed mine. Covered open pit mines were the most common form of mine in Tasceri; topographical mapping was used extensively by Pa'an Chil to identify and shut down illegal operations across the region. In these domestic scale mines, furnaces and waste disposal are typically highly decentralised, which reduces efficiency but aids concealment. A single mine may provide ore for dozens of family-run furnaces over a wide area. Regions rich in bog iron typically allow its use in domestic smelting, but the prohibitive cost of applying for permits and difficulty obtaining the necessary proof that extraction conforms to legal requirements means that the majority of mines remain concealed.
Larger mines often conceal their operations by combining illegal mines with legitimate activity such as energy production or legal quarrying. In recent years companies applying for permits for stone or clay mining in areas rich in iron or other metal ores have been subject to more rigorous auditing and scrutiny, although some regions now encourage mining areas rich in multiple resources in order to maximise output while minimising ecological impact. A legal mine which produces more raw material than is officially documenting, trading the excess on extra-legal markets, is also considered a concealed mine.
Waste material may be concealed by burying in nearby natural caves or used to infill spent regions of the mine. Slag is sometimes sold for use as a building material in the local area; other side products - such as ammonia, phenol, crenols and toluene - are typically passed into chemical production industries. Reports suggest that virtually all large scale chemical manufacturers obtain at least some of their feedstocks from concealed mines.
Some mines reduce waste by refining the ore underground using mages to directly extract pure metal from veins of ore rather than operating furnaces, although this is an extremely strenuous use of magic known to cause chronic tissue damage in just a few years. Due to the illegal nature of magic-run mines, mages are rarely adequately compensated for this dangerous work.