I don't mean mixed ore patches, I mean ores like in DyWorld where coal can give you coal or sulfer, and stone can give stone and sand.

What happens is the drones dig up the ore, and when they get an item they aren't digging for they throw it on the ground.

Do you have ideas how to solve it?

Well, there are 2 slots in the machine. Can they bring both items back? I’m not sure if There are any mods that give more than 2 ores... that obviously doesn’t scale. (I’m not exactly sure what the second slot in the mining depot is for. )

Can you read the output from the ores? I’m not entirely versed in what’s available to the mods. I think having a single platform that can store multiple ores keeps the most “true to life” concept of the mixed ores in the mods.

Alternative idea:
Can you make drones that can “mine” items in the ground? Maybe even a specific item in the ground? Then I would just set up a second depot next to the first one and have some drones that clean up after the first set.

DyWorld adds sand (5% chance) to stone patches, and sulfur (2.5% chance) to coal patches.

https://github.com/Dysoch/DyWorld/blob/92d104b9dee283e5ee151ab0b8487243b7f30f29/DyWorld/data/core/resources/resources.lua#L312

Guess we could use "https://mods.factorio.com/mod/SchallPickupTower" to pickup the stuff left on the ground as a hack.