OK, dwarfnoobie here. Been playing for just a few days.

I started a new fort and have been doing 'OK' -- I've got roughly 20 dwarves, numerous farms, breweries, etc. I still suck, though, because my only two miners have died and I can't seem to get more.

I've designated areas to be mined. I've set labors on a number of dwarves to be exclusively "Mining", but nobody ever went to mine. I figured they needed picks, so I built a Metalsmith's forge and queued up some copper picks. Nobody is coming to build them, so I set some people to be metalsmiths/forge operators and yet nobody comes.

Short of waiting for a wave of immigrants or a trader with picks, what can I do to get some miners again?

/noob