Am I right in saying that if I assign 3 workers to a resource card that has a capacity of 3, does that mean the resource on that planet is used up for the rest of the game? Is it only force mining that completely uses up the resource? Would like clarification if possible.

American63 said:

nope

You can assign only limited number of workers to one resource card, this limit is set by displayed number (for example on "2" crystal resource card you can assign only two workers).

At the end of each round you RETURN all workers back to worker pool and you can use them again in new turn (you can use again the same resources)

what you can also do is partialy and completelely deplete any resource card, this way you can assign ONE more worker beyond the limit (each for partialy depletion and complete depletion). If you completely deplete any resource (double used over the limit), that resource card cannot be used until end of the game (you are supposed to use yellow and red cross placed directly on the board. Yellow is for partially and red for complete depletion).

Example: YOu have assigned three workers to 3 Crystal resource card, but you still need 2 more crystals to build a base. If you do not have any other option and you want to do that, you can assign two extra workers to this resources card, which menas you will completely deplete the resource card. In this example you immidiately return all your workers from this resource card to Unavailable Pool, discard the resource card and put Red cross on the resource field, indicating this resource field is depleted until end of the game.

There are some event card which can change this, however this is not connected to this topic. Look at Rules book, it is described pretty clear there or ask here

Many thanks for your help