Mineral deposit.
The easiest to mine are shallow deposits.
The vast majority of the world's mining industry occurs on the Earth's surface, digging layer by layer, simple and easy. The most preferred, of course, are open-pit mines.
No need to even peel the skin.
Just consume directly.
Thus,
The scope of human mining,
From a planetary perspective,
Is like a basketball wrapped in plastic wrap, averaging out to be less than the thickness of the wrap. Even though some are deeper, they are very small in scale.
High cost.
Difficult transportation.
Only high-value ores might be mined at depths of over a kilometer; currently, there are less than a hundred such mines globally.
The world's deepest mine,
Is a gold mine located in South Africa.
Over 3,000 meters; South Africa has nine more mines over 3,000 meters, making a total of ten, while globally there are only twelve over that depth.
To sum up,
Apart from South Africa,
