Found another thing that might need to be looked at:
Was searching through these ore-deposits from Immersive Engineering (which determines which ore you can get out of which chunk when you're lucky to find the deposite for the excavator) and found out that the Platinum-deposit also generates Iridium-Ore.
So technically you could get iridium before going to the moon. Not sure if that can be changed in a config and the excavator is of course alot of RNG (finding the chunk which has exactly this deposit then feeding it alot of power to get 12.5% chance to get iridium ore), but I thought I should mention it here since i thought that iridum really was meant "Moon only" for progression.
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And one question concerning apatite-ore:
Do giant veins of this spawn, too or are they more like the thaumcraft-ores which spawns normally?
Asking since I only found a very very little vein so far and when you plan forestry farms you need a bit of apatite to let the farms run, because of the fertilizer.
So in case apatite is a very rare ore it might be good having an second way to get the fertilizer. Of course less efficient like when using forestry ways.
Can you explain more how the excavator works and how you found out about the Platinum & Iridium? I don't actually know how it all works (apart from build it, feed it power, and bingo, you get ores). That could be a bit of an issue, although if you can build one of those, power it and find the right ore, that's almost an achievement as getting to the moon!
Apatite generates as normal, at higher elevations. But I've added a different way of making forestry fertilizer which requires a bit more setup but is completely renewable.
Update:
Fixed the AgriCraft Alum Nugget drop
Electrode Rods can now be additionally crafted in the Lathe
Lava Fabricator from MFR repurposed as an early game lava generator. It's more RF expensive to run compared to the Magma Crucible + Cobble recipe.
Additional Recipe for Forestry Fertilizer
New textures for Rutile (didn't like version 1!) and Yellorium ore (looks green, not yellow now)
Railcraft has designed putting it's tools into the blast furnace as a lossy craft. Usually 1 or 2 ingots less then it cost to craft. That's why the shovel cannot be put in the blast furnace.