i like the eve/swg way of mining/making things (with still keeping it unique of corse)
1: I servey the land for ore, find a nice spot in a cave or sumtin
2:grab ur tool, whether that be a pick axe, or a shovel or w/e (the better the tool the faster you mine per sec.)
3:once u gather ur ore (different ore will have different wieght) carry it back to ur little set up (it must have a anvil and a u must equip a hammer and tongs)a good idea would be to use a donkey or a pack animal of somekind, for realy big jobs u might have to hire some ppl (wich i think a caravan full of ore would be nice for a bandit raid or sumtin

~ )
4:select wich thing to make(based on wut u stuff u know how to make, u can learn it by watching other ppl make it or by reading books \\ the laerning will be on a percentage kinda value, like u watch a guy make something u get 30% learned, the next time u watch him make the same thing u might have 60% learned, books will be 1 shot kindaa stuff but would be more rare, for harder items it will take longer to learn)
5:once u make it u can tinker with it, adding more points to stuff like, magic resistance, ect. (u have more points to spend on tinkering based on ur smithing lvl) but there is a chance that \'tinkering\' can fail, of corse, depending on ur skills
(this will make for some diversed items, u can sell it like\"steel armor, all magic resistant, non fighter spec\" i think this would be quite interesting)