Mining: Difference between revisions

{{Industry Links}}

* '''Guaranteed income''': Mining products are always in high demand because ships and structures are constantly being destroyed and replaced, and replacing ships and structures requires materials. Mining in fleets with boosts can earn 15-20 million ISK per hour or more, depending on the resources being harvested.

* Null-sec belts contain ''complex ores'' (Bistot, Arkonor and Spodumain), special ore [[Mining#Mercoxit_mining|Mercoxit]] and additionally Kernite, Pyroxeres and Veldspar.

* [[Empire Border Rare Asteroids]] Spawns in high-sec {{ColorSecurityRating|0.5}} <ref>Patch notes: [https://www.eveonline.com/news/view/patch-notes-version-20-11 Version 20-11] release 2022-12-13.1 > Features & Changes > Science & Industry.</ref> systems bordering a low-sec system. Contains asteroids with {{Co|wheat|Ducinium}}, {{Co|wheat|Eifyrium}}, Jet Ochre, Pellucid Crokite and {{Co|wheat|Ytirium}}.

* [[Nullsec Border Rare Asteroids]] Spawns in null-sec systems bordering a low-sec system. Contains asteroids with {{Co|wheat|Imperial Ducinium}}, {{Co|wheat|Augmented Eifyrium}}, {{Co|wheat|Mordunium}}, Pellucid Crokite and {{Co|wheat|Moonshine Ytirium}}.

* [[Nullsec Blue A0 Rare Asteroids]] Spawns in Blue A0 star systems in null-sec space {{Verify}}. Contains asteroids with {{Co|wheat|Imperial Ducinium}}, {{Co|wheat|Augmented Eifyrium}}, Jet Ochre, {{Co|wheat|Plunder Mordunium}} and {{Co|wheat|Moonshine Ytirium}}.

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. They use unique mission ores which are separate versions of normal ores.

The basic mechanics of mining are very simple: Fit your ship with a [[ORE Basic Ship and Skill Overview#Fitting strategies and mining modules|mining module]], approach and [[targeting|target]] an asteroid, and activate your mining module. At the ''end'' of each cycle (usually between 1 and 3 minutes, depending on the module used), the ore mined is automatically deposited in your ship's cargo or mining hold. The mining module will then automatically continue mining until either your cargo/mining hold is full, or the asteroid has been "mined out" (all the available ore in that asteroid has been mined and it disappears). Make sure that you keep the asteroid within range of your mining module (usually by stopping your ship, or orbiting the asteroid) - if you are too far away, the mining module will finish its current cycle regardless, but you will receive no ore.

Once your cargo or mining hold is full, bring the ore you have mined to a station (either fly there yourself or transfer the ore to another player's ship to fly back (see [[Mining#Solo mining|solo mining]] and [[Mining#Cooperative mining|cooperative mining]] for more details)), then return to the asteroids and continue mining!

All computations with income from mining are typically done in (ISK per m³). The reason for this is that all mining modules mine a certain volume of ore/ice/gas in a given time. For example, a beginner miner in a Venture with, say, 200m³/min yield would mine 2000 units of Veldspar per minute, as volume of 1 unit is 0.1m³, or, for example, 100 units of Jaspet per minute, as volume of 1 unit is 2m³. Therefore it makes sense to compare not prices per unit, but prices per m³.  

Since the market is player-driven, ore and mineral prices are ever-changing, hence miners should always check the market for the most efficient ore/mineral to mine for. Websites like [https://ore.cerlestes.de/index.html Cerlestes ore table] can look up the current market prices for ores and minerals, and give you a recommendation on which ores are the most profitable. Remember to double-check the prices that any automated tools give you - they will often use regional averages to determine mineral prices; if you plan to sell your goods at a specific station or hub then your priorities might come out differently. Lastly, most expensive types of ore are typically assotiated with most dangerous [[Asteroids and ore#Asteroid distribution|parts of New Eden]] so you might want to limit yourself to safer areas.

Once you have chosen a type of ore, you will want to maximize the mining yield over time. This involves choosing what [[Mining Ships|ship]] to mine in, what [[ORE Basic Ship and Skill Overview#Fitting strategies and mining modules|modules]] to fit to it, and what [[Mining#Skills|skills]] to train; see those links for more details.  

Mercoxit mining has one other notable feature: when you mine a Mercoxit asteroid, it will randomly release a cloud of toxic gas which will damage your ship if you're caught in it. Fortunately, the cloud only forms within 5&nbsp;km of the asteroid, so keep your ship further away to escape any damage (note that this precludes you from using the basic Deep Core Mining Laser I module, as it has a maximum range of only 5&nbsp;km). Additionally, you can train {{sk|Deep Core Mining|icon=yes}}, which reduces the chance of a cloud forming by 10% per skill level - in other words, at {{sk|Deep Core Mining|V}}, only half the amount of clouds will spawn when you mine Mercoxit.

After a week's training, a budding miner should have the necessary skills to fly a mining barge, which have more than double the mining yield of a Venture, as well as even larger mining holds and/or a stronger tank. These ships are also more expensive (15-40M ISK, plus modules), but given that a Venture can mine about 500-700k ISK worth of ore per full mining hold, this money is soon earned. There are three different mining barges, each with a different focus (see table below).

|- style="background:#222222"

| '''Frigate'''

These skills are the bread and butter of any miner and should be trained up to level IV reasonably quickly (primarily for the increased mining yield, but {{sk|Mining|IV}} in particular is a prerequisite to many other mining-related skills). However, note that these skills only increase the yield for ore mining!

In addition to letting you fly the mentioned ships (which only needs level I), training higher ranks of these skills greatly enhance their respective ships. For instance, the Venture gains +5% mining yield per level of the Mining Frigate skill - which is on top of the bonuses provided by {{sk|Mining}} and {{sk|Astrogeology}}! So if you've found a ship you like, train the corresponding spaceship command skill to make it even better.

 

 

When you warp to an asteroid belt, you will land in the middle of a [[Asteroids and ore#Asteroid belts|semicircle of asteroids about 50&nbsp;km in diameter]]. Since the (unboosted) range of mining lasers is only 10&nbsp;km (15&nbsp;km for strip miners), you will then need to fly closer to your target asteroid in order to mine it - and mining ships are not particularly known for their speed. You can cut down on this travel time by using [[bookmarks]], which allow you to warp directly next to an asteroid, and start mining immediately. If you're using [[Drones#Mining Drones|mining drones]], it's particularly important to be close to your target asteroid, as the drones have to otherwise spend a lot of time traveling back and forth between your ship and the asteroid.

 

 

 

 

 

 

====Avoiding threats====

=====Highsec=====

=====Lowsec=====

=====Sovnull=====

=====NPC null=====

=====Wormholes=====

The most basic way to mine is to fill the mining hold of a ship full of ore and then return to a station to drop it off. Its advantages are that it requires only one character, can be done at very low skill levels and is completely theft-proof. Its disadvantage is that the time you spend traveling to and from a station is wasted (i.e. not spent mining) - however, most mining ships (with the notable exception of the [[Covetor]] and the [[Hulk]]) have large enough mining holds that they do not need to return frequently to a station to unload.

As an example: An average-skilled miner flying a [[Venture]] can mine about 250&nbsp;m³/min of ore, which is enough to fill the Venture's mining hold (5000&nbsp;m³) in about 20 minutes. Given that the Venture aligns and warps like a frigate, round trips to a station will take only a minute or two, so very little time is lost. A highly-skilled miner flying a [[Hulk]], on the other hand, can mine about 1600&nbsp;m³/min of ore, which will fill the Hulk's mining hold (11,500&nbsp;m³) in about 7 minutes, requiring frequent return trips to a station (made longer by the slow align time and warp speed of the Hulk).

(Note: Prior to the [[Expansions#Retribution|Retribution expansion]], cargohold mining was very unprofitable, as the cargo holds of non-industrial ships were so small that they filled up too rapidly. However, with the introduction of dedicated mining holds on all mining ships, this is no longer the case.)

Players can jettison items from their holds into space, which results in a cargo container (more commonly called a "[[jetcan]]" or just a "can") forming within 2,500 m of the ship. This jettisoned container has a volume capacity of 55,000&nbsp;{{m3}}. Miners can take advantage of this capacity by transferring the ore in their mining hold into the jetcan. Typically a player will fill a jetcan with ore, and then (once the jetcan is full) swap to a ship with a larger mining/cargo hold (most often an [[hauler]]) and haul the ore to a nearby station.

If you're flying a mining ship with a mining hold that's considerably smaller than a jetcan (such as a [[Venture]] (5,000&nbsp;{{m3}} mining hold) or a [[Covetor]] (9,000&nbsp;{{m3}} mining hold)), this method can increase your efficiency, as you can spend more time mining and less time hauling. As all other mining ships have mining holds which are as large or larger than a jetcan (in addition to the time lost in changing ships and the risk of getting your ore stolen), using jetcans is probably not worth your time. They do, however, come in very handy if you're [[#Dual account mining|mining with two accounts]] or in a [[#Mining fleets|fleet]] (see below).

Note that jetcans only have a lifespan of 2 hours and they are not secure, meaning [[Can flipping|anyone can open and remove items from a jetcan]]. This is a common form of theft and griefing in the game, where a player will "flip" a jetcan either to steal the ore or to induce a fight without [[CONCORD]] intervention. While it's possible to combat this by using secure containers (which can be programmed with a password), the largest of these (the giant secure container, often called a GSC) can only hold 3,900&nbsp;m³ of ore, which is less than the mining hold on even the smallest mining ship (although using them was a commonly-used practice in the past when mining ships had much smaller cargo holds).  

A better alternative to GSCs are [[Mobile structures#Mobile Tractor Unit|mobile tractor units]]. They have nearly as much capacity as a jetcan, are unable to be accessed by random people, and have a decay of 2 days. They also suck in and store any ore a miner might jetcan into a safer place. A mining barge can store 3 MTUs and deploy them for a temporary total of 81,000m³ of extra space. This allows for a large amount of time to be saved from station mining, as a miner instead of having to dock up can just jetcan the ore to be stored for later.

Mining fleets are generally more relaxed than combat fleets, co-operative mission running or [[Combat_sites#DED_rated_complexes|complex clearing]]. Chat and/or [[Mumble]] deal with a wider variety of topics and separating the required tasks to specialists provides everyone time to participate in the conversations. Not only does this atmosphere provide a social element of connection with the other members, but it also lets the "teaching" move beyond mining to cover a myriad of subjects.

* [[Perfect Mining]]: Maximize your mining speed after learning the basics

[[Category:Mining| ]]