Depends on the scale of “going down”. Many mines are in the mountains and the material has to be brought down to lower elevations. The mine entry may be lower than the nearest pass but still a lot higher than the destination of the ore.
Great game, really nice visuals and nice (very trippy) soundtrack. I tried to be a “good” cult leader, trying to ressurect everybody that “died” (most got sacrificed before they could die of old age), but some people should stay dead. And mourning and sadness is just another reason to put everybody on shrooms again
An open pit at an elevation of 1.5km still means the bottom of the pit could be 1km higher than the place the ore is processed at