The substance I’m mining is corrosive to the equipment necessary to bring it to the surface. In the analogy, the substance would be emotion and the equipment would be whatever processes are responsible for bringing emotion to the surface and showcasing it. The equipment could be mediums: writing, recording, producing, and their respective mechanics. The equipment could also be the mental faculties responsible for streamlining the presentation of emotion: discipline, time management, organization. Emotion detrimental to time management, mental clarity, which are all tools necessary to bring emotion to the surface and harness it’s power.
In the way oil might ruin a rig if it leaked into the wrong place, yet is a necessary component of the machine itself, and at once the resource we’re after, so is the case with emotion and art. This is a kernel of an idea that feels salient in the process of Creation, especially artistically.
One must keep the equipment clean, so the process of mining the resource can be streamlined most effectively. One must maintain the tools so more of the resource can be brought to the surface, presented, sold, and consumed.