Guys, any tips on how do i find Lead/Manganese?
I tried to mine at their spawn heights, i mined so hard, that i even found a dungeon. But no luck.
Currently i running Arcane Bore, to somewhat automate mining process, but no Lead/Maganese found yet.
Here's my trick, found Manganese deposit on first day using it. I built a NanoSuit armor and a Mining Laser and an OV Scanner. Then I laid out a grid on my JourneyMap, mentally, to go dig down every 3rd chunk. I selected a location where 4 chunks come together, such as coordinate (304,304). From that location I went 3 chunks in each direction N, S, E and W and dug my next hole.
I put my Mining Laser into Mining Mode and point it straight down and fire. I won't drop down into lava or a chasm because of the jetpack. If I see it's okay, I can drop down and fire the laser again. I dig down to elevation 20, but I stop at elevation 50, 35 and 20 to check the OV Scanner for ore deposits. If I find an ore deposit, I mark it with a Journeymap waypoint. Then I fly up out of the hole and put a dirt block at the top so nobody can fall down and die.
I found a Grossular Ore deposit, with Spessartine, Pyrolusite and Tantalite Ores (mostly all Manganese) within hours of beginning my grid mapping process. I'm still looking for a Scheelite vein in this manner, which is also Manganese but Tungsten as well (needed for the highest tier GT Boiler and Fluid Pipe). I have no doubt this method will find a vein of it for me, it is incredibly quick now for me to map the ores in a large area.
Edit: The whole key to this method is to make the HV Autoclave II as your first HV machine... with the ability to make IC2 Energy Crystals, you can now make the NanoSuit and Mining Laser. The NanoSuit has recipe errors which are quite possibly already fixed (I'm not running the latest modpack version yet). If you encounter recipe errors you will have to resolve them in creative mode or with the help of your server operator.
Edit #2: I did find 4 Manganese ingots in a Village chest during early-game exploration, which eventually allowed me to make my first 36 Stainless Steel ingots without actually finding Manganese. The HV Autoclave II does require Stainless Steel to make it, so my mapping technique does require a bit of early-game luck I suppose. Regardless, this technique is amazingly fast compared to my old method of laddering up each hole, which was painfully slow in comparison. I too was struggling to find the Mang.