The Gold Mine is a type of gold resource building in Napoleon: Total War.
Description[]
Gold mining adds greatly to the wealth of a region, but at a cost in lives and injuries.
No one, however, cares about those, as the greed of men for gold seems to know no limits; even townsfolk uninvolved in the mine feel the benefit of the wealth produced. It is a dirty, dangerous business and the miners risk everything for the sake of the owner's profits.
Historically, profits for owners were the only consideration in mines. Accidents were seen as inevitable and annoying, because they slowed down extraction. Miners were expected to work in terrible conditions, and paid piece rates for their work. Because safety work and shoring up tunnels did not earn money, the tasks were skipped. What point is there in working if you are not going to be paid? Pit props may stop tunnels collapsing, but putting them in is not paid work, and the miners may even be charged for the materials! Owners were quite willing to charge them for candles, tools and gunpowder. They were also willing to pay lower rates to women and children labourers too: women often pull carts to the surface and children need less space and air than adults.
General Information[]
Assuming standard tax rate, gold mines pay for themselves within 10-15 turns (including build time), generating 90-165 gold per turn in addition to +10 town wealth per turn. This makes gold mines the best early game structures to build for the factions lucky enough to have access to them, both in terms of direct region wealth and town wealth growth. Most gold mine building spots in the game already starts with one of these structures, however.
Regions that have gold mines are highly lucrative targets for invasion. While gold mines have large benefits for the regions they are in, they can be upgraded to structures that are both more lucrative and also benefit all regions with a global bonus.
Regions that have gold mines are: Portugal, Spain, Pays d'Oc, Milan, Sardinia, Venetia, Rome, Austria, Silesia, and Hessen.
The Peninsular Campaign[]
In The Peninsular Campaign, gold mines are even more useful: the low starting wealth of most regions make gold mines' town wealth growth very powerful. There are only two gold resource locations, one in Léon and one in Sevilla. The former initially belongs to France and the latter Spain.