Mining missions
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Mining missions are given by Mining agents and require you to mine an asteroid or set of asteroids in a mission pocket - usually until the asteroids are depleted - and bring the ore back to the agent.
Higher level mining missions require you to mine larger amounts of ore:
- Level 1 missions will require mining up to 2,000 m3 of ore,
- Level 2 up to 6,000 m3 of ore,
- Level 3 up to 9,000 m3 of ore or 10,000 m3 of ice,
- Level 4 up to 45,000 m3 of ore, 20,000 m3 of ice or 5,000 m3 gas.
Thus, you can do high level mining missions with a low level ship, but it begins to take more time than it is worth.
Ships and fitting
The same ship that you use for regular mining should work fine for a mining mission:
- Level 1 Venture
- Level 2 Venture or Prospect
- Level 3 Mining Barge
- Level 4 Exhumer
If you have more than one mining ship available, first note the amount of ore required and make sure your ship has the capacity. Once that is settled, a more tanky ship will make NPC attacks less bothersome.
Of course, you do not need a mining ship to do mining missions. Any ship that can mount a mining unit will do, as will any ship that can carry mining drones. However, dedicated mining ships tend to work faster and carry more ore.
If you have room, you may want to carry a Salvage Drone to salvage the wrecks of the pirates that you kill. If you have a very large drone bay, you may want to carry a set of Mining Drones - however, these drones do not add a great deal to your mining capacity, so many miners do not use them at all.
Useful implants that can be purchased with Loyalty Points include mining yield, mining upgrade CPU penalty, ice harvester duration, gas cloud harvester duration, and reprocessing waste improvement.
Combat
There is a risk of combat in mining missions from two different sources.
First, the mission itself may be scripted by CCP to spawn hostile NPCs. These spawns will generally be the same faction, type, and number of hostiles every time the mission is run with little variability; they are typically much weaker than NPCs fought in equal-level Security missions. These spawns should be recorded in the specific mission report for that mining mission.
Second, the use of mining equipment anywhere in a solar system can cause hostile NPCs (belt rats) to spawn; mining in a mission location is not exempted from this. These spawns will be the same faction, type, and number of rats that also spawn in that solar system's asteroid belts and thus will vary depending on region, security level, and whether or not an Incursion is affecting that solar system at the time of mining. Running a level 1 mining mission in 0.9 or 1.0 security (when no Incursion is in effect) is perfectly safe from NPC hostiles, but running that same mission in Null Security could result in a fight with an NPC battleship.
Given the above factors, it is advisable to have some offensive capability (like a set of combat drones) or have a strong enough tank that you can ignore any hostiles that show up and start shooting at you.
Rewards
Most mining missions provide both ISK and loyalty points. Higher level missions result in more of each.
Mining mission ores
Mining missions typically use unique ores. These are always an equivalent of the regular ores.
Note that the unique mission ores are considered their own type of ore by the game, and CANNOT be mined with the ore-specific crystals for their equivalent ore
- Arisite = Gneiss
- Augumene = Pyroxeres
- Banidine = Veldspar
- Geodite = Crokite
- Lyavite = Kernite
- Mercium = Omber
- Oeryl = Dark Ochre
- Pithix = Jaspet
- Polygypsum = Arkonor
Usually, the asteroids you are asked to mine will be entirely used up while gathering ore for the mission. That ore will be taken by the agent to complete the mission.
Regarding the AIR Career Program the Mining mission Special Ores are considered to be their equivalent for the AIR Career ore harvesting missions. Thus this is an easy way to mine Kernite (mine Lyavite instead).
In Vanguard sites a site called the Nation Mining Colony can be found. To complete it, 255 units of Lyavite are needed. Thus, you can generate income by farming (= not completing) missions that require you to mine Lyavite and selling it to Incursion runners. Keep in mind that they are likely to have a good Lyavite stock built up, before you spend time mining it you should have organized a buyer.
