Sorry, but the count didn't know anything about that mine, right?

No, the Count knows nothing about the mine directly. He would be able to point out the nearest village - which is on the only road to the mine so it's not like you can really miss the place - and suggest that you can probably find better info by asking the peasants there, though.

Is this a hard (metamorphic) rock or soft (sedimentary) rock iron mine?

Guess Felix will find out for us.

Arkady could tell that at a glance; he grew up in a city in mining country. Basically, if it's hard rock it's more likely there's other interesting minerals (so Felix should test for everything). it's a lot less likely with soft rock.

This is probably a good time to remind you that you can spend a Fate point to outright declare something about a scene. (As GM, I get a veto, which will only be used when necessary).

It generally helps if the thing that you are declaring is in some way related to some Aspect, but for suitably minor details that's not strictly necessary. Alternatively, Knowledge-type skills (Science, Mysteries, Academics, and Art) can be used instead of spending Fate points. For example, glancing over the mine, Arkady could use his Academics skill to declare that it's a hard rock mine. Either way, Arkady then thinks it's a hard rock mine, and he gets an Academics roll (against a difficulty that I pick) - if he makes the roll, he thinks so correctly, while is he fails the roll, he will turn out on later inspection to have been mistaken. If he's rolling a skill to make the declaration, he doesn't need to spend a Fate point (though, if he wishes, he may spend points to boost the roll as usual).

Similarly, Felix, on closer investigation of the ores, can use Science to outright declare the presence of other valuable metals that would make this mine worthwhile to exploit, despite the transportation difficulties.

I put in my 2 cents. Let's see if we can have it.

Is the amount of iron dense enough to warrant hiring Elene miners or will we need to go all Terran all the way?

You can hire Elenes to chip out more iron-rich rocks and transport them as you like. But the actual smelting will need to be Terran technology all the way. Elene smelting technology is clearly appallingly primitive in comparison.

How fluent in Elene is Theresa by now? I've been teaching her every word we've spoken since the initial trip into Rendor.

She's, er, a good deal less than brilliant. If she gets separated from you, she knows the words for Fangorn Forest and can probably make herself understood where necessary given time, but the whole word order thing is confusing to her and it'll likely be a few more months before she can hold a decent conversation in Elene.

Quick question; the fellow from the cave was thrown, or threw himself out?

Yeah, that confused me somewhat. Are there more people in the cave that threw him out or no?

After our business at the mine is concluded we should stop by Pandion HQ to tell Vanire about the sister and get those patrols setup like we promised, then head back to Fangorn Forest to help setup a mining party. Felix is itching to do some repair work. I haven't used the Mister Fix-It stunt yet and I want to see how awesome it is.

The man in the cave was thrown out. One can therefore conclude the likely presence of a thrower, and probably more than one.

Silly question, perhaps; but does the mine smell like humans have been living here a while?