You need some of the research to be able to play the adventuring story. EX: Lab as there are quest going on with it. You can't just ignore part of the game.
A lot from this update is quite strange. Mine that only gathers one item? Honestly, if you mine for Iron and find gold while doing it, you're not going to discard the gold since you are tasked to mine for iron. Stone is different since mining you actually break the stone to be able to extract the minerals, maybe a stone quarry should be added? Or specific mines since it is rare you find the ores all in one area.
Could have a window like the tax thing to set production priorities and research. Or even a slider to assign population to work in the various areas. More pop, more prod.