Natural resources occur on your island and only need discovering and a building to exploit them. Every resource is finite but as luck would have it there are simple ways to keep them producing infinitely. All resources are permanent and can be rediscovered or repopulated with the appropriate building, buff, or Geologist Search.
Another view
The Map to the right shows the general areas where resources can be found.
Forests[]
Pine Wood Forest
Pine Forests are a natural feature of your Home Island and will need replenishing by Pinewood Foresters as your Pinewood Cutters deforest them for Pinewood. Pine Forests are both handy an annoying as the randomly placed trees stop the building of organized settlements and you should plan ahead to avoid tree stumps messing with your layouts.
Hardwood Forest
These more precious trees function in exactly the same way as Pine Wood but use the Hardwood buildings instead. Hardwood is clustered more around the edges and near water and your processing system should be located accordingly to maximize production.
Rocks[]
Stone
Stone is discovered by a Geologist Search and always occur in mountainous areas (often 2 deposits side by side). The Stone Mason will exploit the deposit for you and a simple repeat of the Geologist Search will reopen the expired deposit in a matter of minutes.
The Mason is placed nice and close to the deposit and 2 Masons side-by-side will mine a deposit twice as fast.
Marble
Works the same as Stone but with the longer (30 minutes) Geologist Marble Search and the Marble Mason to exploit the deposits found.
Most marble comes in clusters with 2 or more side by side. This is very handy as placing 2-3 Marble Masons next to a single deposit means you mine the two deposits faster and when one is emptied they switch and move on to the other.
Metals[]
Copper
Copper, like Stone, is found by a Geologist in hillsides grouped fairly close together. To mine the Copper you need a Copper Mine, placed directly on top, that will collapse once the Copper Ore runs out and the whole mine will require rediscovery with a Geologist Search and a new mine placed on top.
As there are only a maximum of 6 Copper Deposits available you will want to keep on top of them and replace exhausted mines quickly.
Iron
Works the same way as Copper but with an Iron deposit found by your Geologist and an Iron Mine placed atop the deposit to exploit the resource.
Iron is extremely handy and you should mine as much as possible, even if iron weapons quickly become outmoded. Iron is a component of steel and you are going to need a lot of that. Note that some Iron resources have more base amounts to mine than others so try to mine the bigger amounts when they are available.
Gold
Works the same way as Copper and Iron but with a Gold deposit found by your Geologist and a Gold Mine placed atop the deposit to exploit the resource.
Gold is expensive in resources and slow to produce in quantity.
Foods[]
Fish
Fish Stocks are dotted around the coast and require a Fisherman's Hut be placed somewhere near them. The Fisherman will exploit the nearest stock and move to the next until every stock in held sectors are depleted.
To replenish a stock you will need to convert Bread into Fishfood in your Provision House. The created buff will be placed in your Star Menu and it is clicked on and then clicked on the desired Stock. These buffs do stack and you can create a stock of Thousands of Fish.
Meat
Works the same as Fish but using a Hunter to gather the meat and Deer Fragrance, created in the Provision House buffs section, to replenish the stocks.
Wheat*
Wheat, unlike Fish and Meat, is not found naturally on your island. It is grown by building a Wheat Field. Wheat fields are built with a set amount of Wheat (depending on the level of Wheat Field), and are harvested by Farms. Once the Wheat Field is depleted of its Wheat, it is exhausted and must be rebuilt. It is possible to build another Wheat Field directly over top of an exhausted Wheat Field without destroying it first.
Water*
Water is one of the easiest resources to collect. Water is collected from Wells orWatermill. Wells can be placed anywhere on your island. The amount of water available is determined by the level of the Well. Once the Well is depleted of its water, it is exhausted and must be rebuilt. It is possible to build another Well directly over top of an exhausted Well without destroying it first.
*Wheat and Water are not Naturally found resources on the island. They require a building to produce them, but the buildings do not use a Building License, so they can be built as much and as often as needed.