Placerin is easier than hard rock stuff.
I still can't run that drill...
It's not the 8 foot drill bit that gets me, it's the 140 pounds of dead weight the drill itself has.
Easy is always a relative term.
Try running a custom 12" suction nozzle under an Alaskan river, working a hooka rig, all day, every day, for a season or two. "Easy" might not be the best description of commercial placer mining.
But, I agree with your point, Hard Rock sucks, just being there sucks, we got MSHA certified and then they wanted to pay us $10./hr to work under ground, even at the face. They were using big jumbos at the working face, and lots of back bolting was required, all the way through.
We laughed at them, and then went out west to fish the Aleutians.
Imagine that! $10./hr to work underground. Give me a working deck, and a percentage, any day. Well back in "the day" anyhow.