> On a more serious note, it's kinda scary to what lengths people will go to continue doing what they've always done, even if it destroys their very homes.

The thing is, in this case, not continuing to do what they've always done would effectively also destroy their homes. The mine is the town, and ceasing production to save the existing town site would just result in a lot of empty buildings once ~60% of the population has to move elsewhere for work, and the remainder follow because they were only there to support the miner population.