A sedimentation machine is an unreplaceable factory for extracting resources out of the soil. Just add water. It is powered by torque and it's a fully automated factory even though you can let your characters bring soil.
But it's more efficient to deliver the soil on belts and water by pipes.
In the beginning, you can use this little hack when you build the Sedimentation machine 1 tile below the automated pump and therefore you don't need any pipes to start.
From the Sedimentation machine you can gather these resources:
* Clay
* Sand
* Stones
* Iron ore
* Copper ore
* Limestone
* Silicon
Set for the factory which resources you want to gather from the soil. Or set 1 desired resource only for export from the factory. Or if you want 'em all, it's good to be prepared for them coming out of the Sedimentation machine by building belts, storages, and pushers that will sort and send all the resources wherever you need.