User blog comment:Gundam Legilis/Environmental Issues in RWBY/@comment-9090085-20150403210308/@comment-9090085-20150404072736

I didn't mean to imply that Aura was used as a direct power source; Just that it is integral to much of Remnants technology as a "catalyst" for Dust. Think something like sending a "spark" of your Aura to start the ignition.

Even "locked" Aura is just a mater of degrees, going back to Broken Blade, the general populace doesn't have the magical strength to operate anything much bigger then a coffee maker, press gun, or over-sized motorcycle; only mages have the strength to operate the 30+ foot tall Golems. In a similar way, few people can use raw Dust(safely), but just about anyone can use Dust bullets.

The evidence for the SDC having only one quarry is circumstantial, but it's there: In vol.1 The Shining Beacon, Weiss says: "This is Dust - mined and purified from the Schnee quarry!"

The, as in singular. Not even "the Schnee quarry in Atlas", just "the Schnee quarry".

This doesn't rule out there being other, smaller quarrys; or even the possibility of Dust forming naturally all over the world. But the implication seems to be that the Schnee Dust Company, an organization with a veritable monopoly on Dust, possesses only a single quarry.