Evidence for Etruscan mining is often indirect, since later activity has usually masked or eliminated earlier activity. Work in the Cornia Valley near Populonia has attempted to outline the characteristics of Etruscan mines. Prospecting was probably undertaken by observing outcrops and variations in vegetation and the examination of karst caves. The mining strategy was probably to follow the vein using hands, awls, mallets, and picks and then process the ore in the vicinity of the mine with stone pestles. Some of the chambers in the Temperino mine have been identified as Etruscan in date.
Historical Dictionary of the Etruscans. Simon K. F. Stoddart.