Originally posted by Honorable_D:

Ores/ingots are Valheim's primary means of progression, so the devs don't want mining to be a trivial matter. Filling up inventory and just portaling right back to base to unload and then portaling right back to the ore vein would be braindead easy.

It also ties nicely into the ship sailing mechanic by making sailing an important thing you do throughout the whole game.

Although i can't entirely disagree, for me and i'm sure others we'd rather be playing and progressing not grinding the whole time, I think that's the issue I mainly have is the tedious grind involved in it. Had metals and ores come from actual fighting creatures I think i'd have more fun doing it. I'm ok with grinding chains and iron scraps because their is more fighting and exploration involved. As it is now ore deposits aren't hard to find but the transport of these items is a pita. I've use portals to teleport metals back and for to my main base and i'm still in Iron Age, it's more a matter of how quickly you choose to progress, i'm not really using it to get a lightning speed jump thru progression, just faster than endless grinding.