Equivalent Exchange is kind of a dead mod these days, though most of it's functions have been duplicated by Project E.
Buildcraft is the mod that had the first quarry that would build a framework and dig a hole, but it can go all the way up to a 64x64 block hole. And Computercraft allowed you to make turtle robots that could carve out any size hole you wanted, but also had other things they could do, such as building a house, or dancing. (Yes, it's as funny as it sounds.)
The best entry point, if you're unfamiliar with Minecraft modding, is Direwolf20's various packs. He plays one pack, and does an entire Let's Play Season usually 100 episodes or more starting with explaining how the mods work to arriving at the end doing incredibly complex things. The pack from Minecraft 1.7.10 is the most recent one containing Buildcraft, because the mod faced a complete re-write between that version of MC and 1.12. The 1.12 pack, which he's currently playing now, doesn't contain Buildcraft, because it's still in an early unfinished state.
An alternative I'd suggest is Space Astronomy 1 for 1.7.10, which contains most of that as well as a 'Hardcore' Questing Mod book that's not so much hard core as it is a guide for newer players on what to do and where to go. But it's also got enough freedom to it that if you get to a thing by another route it's not going to break the game.
