Well to soften the blow, I was out mining for days and days to collect verite stones to make stone tables for my greenery.
When an Verite vein depleted it sometimes took me 4 hours to find a new one.
I was down to the last two tables when it suddenly dawned on me to go use Prospector Tools ......
The only excuse I had was that I just returned to game at the time, but despite the fact I have used the tools in the past before I quit, it just did not come to mind till it was too late ...