yea i always thought it was the mining skill that collected clay aswell..

|E we already know how lazy this game is... nothing we can really do about it.

aniways just get the skill (best to get all just incase you dunno what skill goes to what mining spot). higher it lvls more stuff you are likely to get. my miner in scorpio has lvl 20+ collection and mining (i can't remember but i know its around there somehwhere) and when he collects i usually get 3 or 5 drops at a time. XD so its good. the higher the better.