You need to know the location of the minerals. Or you better hope the war didn't kill all the people who do know the location of, say rutile and ilmenite deposi

You need to know the location of the minerals. Or you better hope the war didn't kill all the people who do know the location of, say rutile and ilmenite deposits. Then there's the matter of getting enough people down into the mines to get enough out. Historically this was done via slavery, but those ancient civilizations first needed to acquire giant, mean, ugly armies in order to get the slaves. Where do you find a few hundred thousand unarmed people to enslave after a nuclear war? Actually, first you would have to find a few hundred thousand armed people and convince them to join your army to enslave all the other people. And you would have to have quite a bit of luck. If you didn't, one, or maybe even a group, of the few hundred thousand soldiers you found to be in your army might figure out that they can just kill you and it will be their army. The ancient way was hard. The entire process would not be as easy as many believe.