So, leave the "type" as an option?  if you want to just go dig up a spot to see what's there, you have to /mine for each type.  If your specifically looking for gold and ore is no concern, then you type "/mine gold".

I posted in the newbie forum how I had a hard time getting the NPC to talk.  I think it would be beneficial to add "mumblings" to the NPCs or something  they ask you to do if you miss a quest or something.  For instance:
In the tutorial block you have to talk to people in a certain order.  You don't know this if you talk to the last person first.  There's no "back hint" conversation on the NPC.  It would be really helpful to add what I call mumblings.

You can already have the NPC say "Hey you, I can teach you how to ___."  Why not have them say "I wish soandso would hurry up with that book he promised me." Of course, this wouldn't be all the time or the chat would get filled with garble.

Another way to do this is to determine if the player is fumbling to get the right words and have the NPC shoo you off saying, "Hey, can you do me a favor and get a dozen rat fur for me?"

In the tutorial, back hinting would help tremendously.  When (for instance in my case) you ask the crafter about blacksmithing they should say, "I can't teach you right now.  ___ still hasn't brought over the shipment of ore I need.  Maybe you can get it?"  The same goes for the fighter.  "I see you don't have a weapon.  Head on back to ___ and have her show you how to make one."