swat_raptor

you will have a difficult time finding any any tech related metal
my suggestions,
 
1 get a Tinkers hammer for mining, Preferably made of low grade materials, or nether wood, you will need alot of cheap repair materials, and these materials are cheap and easily renewable. and never replace your hammer, don't lose your hammer, getting level ups require alot of exp and time.if you want your hammer to be made of better materials, replace the parts on your old one 1 peice at a time, this way you keep the exp.
2 use to the hammer to dig a stair case down to bed rock, make turns now and again so that its a spiral staircase and you keep a silverwood tree above you all the way to bedrock, this way taint doesn't grow on your stairs, its sucks dying of taint poison walking back up the stairs
3 keep several pieces of your hammers repair material with you at all time, so that when your hammer breaks you can repair it on the spot.
4 make a pick axe with a high mining level, use this only on hard to mine ores. and will help you get more mileage out of it.
5 mine the ores but get the redstone, all of it, and jam that redstone into your hammer on the tool forge/ tool station, this will speed up mining alot. you can also make travelers gloves and jam them full of redstone and it will give haste to many of your actions , mining included.
6 make a excavator, you will need to dig up alot of sand, for more than expanding your bio dome
7 use the Smeltery but upgrade to a induction smelter when you can and use the Sand plus common ore combination to double your ore but also get rich slag, then you can use the rich slag plus rare/ needed ore to Triple the ingot output of things you really want.
 

you can also smelt down rotten flesh into blood, 5mb per piece so if you have 200 rotten flesh you can convert it to a bucket.   

you should check out the wiki, its has alot of helpful information for beginners,3
http://wiki.technicpack.net/Your_First_Day
 
also read your quest book, read all of it
 

yes withers still should drop division sigils, drop rate should be the standard rate
the only way to get wither skulls is a infusion recipe that you have to do thaumcraft research to unlock, or wither skeletons which can only be spawned by the gaia guardian (you'll have to look up botania mod for that one)
I've tested cursed earth and it does work, is the area have lighting or do you have any chandeliers or magnum torches around, those prevent mod spawning in a wide area
vanilla tools are purposefully disabled

you will have a difficult time finding any any tech related metal
my suggestions,
 
1 get a Tinkers hammer for mining, Preferably made of low grade materials, or nether wood, you will need alot of cheap repair materials, and these materials are cheap and easily renewable. and never replace your hammer, don't lose your hammer, getting level ups require alot of exp and time.if you want your hammer to be made of better materials, replace the parts on your old one 1 peice at a time, this way you keep the exp.
2 use to the hammer to dig a stair case down to bed rock, make turns now and again so that its a spiral staircase and you keep a silverwood tree above you all the way to bedrock, this way taint doesn't grow on your stairs, its sucks dying of taint poison walking back up the stairs
3 keep several pieces of your hammers repair material with you at all time, so that when your hammer breaks you can repair it on the spot.
4 make a pick axe with a high mining level, use this only on hard to mine ores. and will help you get more mileage out of it.
5 mine the ores but get the redstone, all of it, and jam that redstone into your hammer on the tool forge/ tool station, this will speed up mining alot. you can also make travelers gloves and jam them full of redstone and it will give haste to many of your actions , mining included.
6 make a excavator, you will need to dig up alot of sand, for more than expanding your bio dome
7 use the Smeltery but upgrade to a induction smelter when you can and use the Sand plus common ore combination to double your ore but also get rich slag, then you can use the rich slag plus rare/ needed ore to Triple the ingot output of things you really want.