Asteroids and ore

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Notes: More completely adding Pochven ore, adding A0/border ores, and 15% bonus ore variants

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Last edited: 11 January 2024

Asteroids are large irregular chunks of rock that can be found in many places throughout New Eden. When mined, asteroids yield ore which, when refined, produces minerals of various types that serve as the basic building blocks of almost every craftable item.

Where to find asteroids

An asteroid belt. The ship in the middle is sitting at the warp-in point.

Asteroid belt geometry

Asteroid belts

Virtually every star system in EVE (with the notable exception of Jita) has at least one asteroid belt. Most star systems have several -- up to more than a dozen in some cases. These belts are listed on the overview and the right-click menu, and can have two kinds of geometry: one is a rough semicircle of asteroids, approximately 50 km in diameter, the other being asteroids dispersed over a spherical volume with a radius of about 70 km. A ship warping to an asteroid belt's beacon (through the right-click menu or the overview) will warp to the center of the asteroids. Note that mining lasers have an (unboosted) range of only 10-15 km, so in order to mine asteroids a ship has to fly closer to the belt after warping in. If you want to save on travel time, you can warp to mining bookmarks instead.

A given belt will have a mixture of asteroids containing different ores. The mixture and size of the asteroids (i.e. how much ore each asteroid contains) is determined by the system's location in the EVE universe and its security status (see asteroid distribution below). Each asteroid belt contains a finite number of asteroids (which disappear once fully mined), but the asteroids respawn after downtime if there are no asteroids left. The website Dotlan has maps showing the number of belts per system.

Deadspace pockets

Mineable asteroids can also spawn in deadspace pockets, such as the ones created for missions. Unlike asteroid belts, these are not organized into a set shape. Some are composed of dense clumps of asteroids, while others are scattered fields. For a list of which missions' deadspace pockets contain asteroids, see Mission mining or EVE-survival.

Cosmic anomalies

Lastly, one of the two kinds of cosmic anomaly contains asteroids (the others contains hostile rats). The asteroids in cosmic anomalies tend to be a little larger and contain rarer ore than the normal asteroid belts in a star system. However, unlike asteroid belts, once all the asteroids in the anomaly have been mined, the anomaly disappears after broadcasting a short message in Local. As with all cosmic anomalies, new anomalies spawn semi-randomly.

Note that in many locations you will find decorative asteroids, which cannot be mined or otherwise interacted with. These will have colorful names such as "Snake-shaped Asteroid".

There are different types of asteroid cosmic anomalies, named by what kinds of ores are contained within. Each type comes in three variants (small, average, and large) - the "larger" the anomaly, the more asteroids (and hence the more ore) it contains. A "Small Kernite and Omber Deposit" therefore contains a small number of Kernite and Omber asteroids, while a "Large Bistot Deposit" contains a large number of Bistot asteroids. Ore anomalies will contain all three variants of the ores they contain.

The following chart illustrates the makeup of cosmic anomalies. "Small", "Average" and "Large" are defined above:

High security space

See also: High-sec

• Veldspar

Low security space

See also: Low-sec

• Gneiss (small • average • large)
• Dark Ochre and Gneiss (small • average • large)
• Crokite, Dark Ochre and Gneiss (small • average • large)
• Spodumain, Crokite and Dark Ochre (small • average • large)
• Hedbergite (Small, Average, Large)
• Hemorphite (Small, Average, Large)

Null security space

See also: Null-sec

• Bistot (small • average • large)
• Arkonor and Bistot (small • average • large)
• Mercoxit, Arkonor and Bistot (small • average • large)
• Dark Ochre (Small, Average, Large)
• Gneiss (Small, Average, Large)
• Kernite (Small, Average, Large)
• Spodumain (Small, Average, Large)

Wormholes

Arkonor, Bistot, Gneiss, Kernite, Omber, and Pyroxeres deposits may be found in wormholes.

Pochven

With the creation of Pochven, new ore types were added to the game which can only be found in these areas. Bezdnacine, Rakovene, and Talassonite are the new ores, while Spodumain and Mercoxit can also be found there, with Mercoxit only spawning in home systems.

Ore Prospecting Arrays

In player-owned sovereign nullsec, it is possible to deploy Ore Prospecting Arrays, a deployable sovereignty structure which, when deployed in a system, periodically generates asteroid clusters of various sizes at set intervals.

All sizes of asteroid clusters are capable of spawning regardless of system security status, and all clusters of a given size contain the same volume of ore, but asteroid clusters in lower security levels will spawn the more valuable ore variants with greater frequency. With the exception of Small Asteroid Clusters (which lack Mercoxit), all clusters contain varying amounts of all nullsec ore types: Arkonor, Bistot, Crokite, Dark Ochre, Gneiss, Spodumain, and Mercoxit.

Small Asteroid Cluster • Medium Asteroid Cluster • Large Asteroid Cluster • Enormous Asteroid Cluster • Colossal Asteroid Cluster

Respawn cooldown to all Asteroid Cluster anomalies scales based on the size of the anomaly:

• 20 minutes for the Small Asteroid Cluster
• 1 hour for the Medium Asteroid Cluster
• 2 hours for the Large Asteroid Cluster
• 4 hours for the Enormous Asteroid Cluster
• 5 hours for the Colossal Asteroid Cluster

Asteroid distribution

An asteroid belt, as seen on the overview. Note the belt's warp-in point (marked with an inverted triangle), as well as the variety of different asteroid types (all labelled according to what kind of ore they contain).

For the distribution of ice asteroids, see Ice distribution.

The EVE universe can be divided into four quarters:

• The Amarr quarter (includes systems held by the Amarr, Ammatar, Khanid, Blood Raiders, and Sansha's Nation)
• The Caldari quarter (includes systems held by the Caldari and Guristas)
• The Gallente quarter (includes systems held by the Gallente and Serpentis)
• The Minmatar quarter (includes systems held by the Minmatar and Angel Cartel)

Each of these four quarters has its own set of asteroid types. Additionally, systems with different security rating have different asteroid types.

Ore locations

System security rating	Quarter
█ High Sec 1.0 to 0.5	Veldspar Scordite Pyroxeres	Veldspar Scordite Pyroxeres Plagioclase	Veldspar Scordite Plagioclase	Veldspar Scordite Plagioclase
█ Low Sec 0.4 to 0.0	Pyroxeres Kernite Jaspet Hemorphite	Kernite Pyroxeres Hedbergite	Omber Jaspet Hemorphite	Kernite Omber Hedbergite
█ Null Sec less than 0.0	Veldspar Pyroxeres Kernite Arkonor Bistot Mercoxit Spodumain	Veldspar Pyroxeres Kernite Bistot Mercoxit Spodumain	Veldspar Arkonor Bistot Mercoxit	Veldspar Kernite Arkonor Bistot Mercoxit Spodumain

█ Null Sec & Wormhole with A0 star 0.5 High-Low border systems	Ducinium Eifyrium Mordunium Ytirium
█ Pochven	Talassonite Rakovene Bezdnacine

Arkonor, Bistot, Gneiss, Kernite, Omber, and Pyroxeres deposits may be found in wormholes.

For more detailed information on ore locations: https://ore.cerlestes.de/ore

In general, the rarer the ore, the higher its volume per unit (e.g. one unit of Veldspar has a volume of 0.1 m³, whereas one unit of Arkonor has a volume of 16 m³). Since mining lasers mine a given volume of ore per minute, it takes longer to mine the rarer ore types. Additionally, each ore reprocesses into a different set of minerals. For details, see Reprocessing.

Note that mining Mercoxit requires the Deep Core Mining skill as well as special mining modules (Deep Core Miners or Deep Core Strip Miners). All other ore types can be mined with all types of ore mining lasers or strip miners.

A long, long time ago...
The Resource Distribution update on December 17, 2019 removed Veldspar and Spodumain from Null Sec Asteroid belts, and reduced the value of the largest Ore Prospecting Anomalies. It is as of yet unclear if the removed ore types were replaced with others at different security levels and classes. See this dev post for the official announcement, which deliberately came 3 days after the change.

Ore variants

Each asteroid type has three further subtypes that yield more (+5% / +10%) minerals when reprocessed. Otherwise they are identical in every way to their base ore, and are found in the same regions, but in lower quantities. For instance, if an asteroid belt has Omber asteroids, it will also have some Silvery Omber asteroids and a few Golden Omber asteroids. If you get the chance, you should always mine the higher-yield variants before mining the base ore.

Base ore	+5% variant	+10% variant
Veldspar	Concentrated Veldspar	Dense Veldspar
Scordite	Condensed Scordite	Massive Scordite
Pyroxeres	Solid Pyroxeres	Viscous Pyroxeres
Plagioclase	Azure Plagioclase	Rich Plagioclase
Omber	Silvery Omber	Golden Omber
Kernite	Luminous Kernite	Fiery Kernite
Jaspet	Pure Jaspet	Pristine Jaspet
Hemorphite	Vivid Hemorphite	Radiant Hemorphite
Hedbergite	Vitric Hedbergite	Glazed Hedbergite
Gneiss	Iridescent Gneiss	Prismatic Gneiss
Dark Ochre	Onyx Ochre	Obsidian Ochre
Crokite	Sharp Crokite	Crystalline Crokite
Spodumain	Bright Spodumain	Gleaming Spodumain
Arkonor	Crimson Arkonor	Prime Arkonor
Bistot	Triclinic Bistot	Monoclinic Bistot
Mercoxit	Magma Mercoxit	Vitreous Mercoxit

A long, long time ago...

On 3/30/2020, CCP pushed a previously announced but unscheduled update that changed moon ore distribution across all types of space. Prior to this change, moons could provide asteroid ores with +15% reprocessing yield. These ores are no longer obtainable outside of trading with players. These ores were called; Stable Veldspar, Glossy Scordite, Opulent Pyroxeres, Sparkling Plagioclase, Platinoid Omber, Resplendant Kernite, Immaculate Jaspet, Scintillating Hemorphite, Lustrous Hedbergite, Brilliant Gneiss, Jet Ochre, Pellucid Crokite, Dazzling Spodumain, Flawless Arkonor, Cubic Bistot. There is no Mercoxit +15% variant.

Mineral Composition of Ores

Ore	Vol- ume	Batch size	Mineral from 100%-yield reprocessing
			Tri	Pye	Mex	Iso	Noc	Zyd	Meg	Mor
Veldspar	0.1	100	400	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Concentrated Veldspar (+5%)	0.1	100	420	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Dense Veldspar (+10%)	0.1	100	440	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Scordite	0.15	100	150	90	0	0	0	0	0	0
Condensed Scordite (+5%)	0.15	100	158	95	0	0	0	0	0	0
Massive Scordite (+10%)	0.15	100	165	99	0	0	0	0	0	0
Pyroxeres	0.3	100	0	90	30	0	0	0	0	0
Solid Pyroxeres (+5%)	0.3	100	0	95	30	0	0	0	0	0
Viscous Pyroxeres (+10%)	0.3	100	0	99	33	0	0	0	0	0
Plagioclase	0.35	100	175	0	70	0	0	0	0	0
Azure Plagioclase (+5%)	0.35	100	184	0	74	0	0	0	0	0
Rich Plagioclase (+10%)	0.35	100	193	0	77	0	0	0	0	0
Omber	0.6	100	0	90	0	75	0	0	0	0
Silvery Omber (+5%)	0.6	100	0	95	0	79	0	0	0	0
Golden Omber (+10%)	0.6	100	0	99	0	83	0	0	0	0
Kernite	1.2	100	0	0	60	120	0	0	0	0
Luminous Kernite (+5%)	1.2	100	0	0	63	126	0	0	0	0
Fiery Kernite (+10%)	1.2	100	0	0	66	132	0	0	0	0
Jaspet	2	100	0	0	150	0	50	0	0	0
Pure Jaspet (+5%)	2	100	0	0	158	0	53	0	0	0
Pristine Jaspet (+10%)	2	100	0	0	265	0	55	0	0	0
Hemorphite	3	100	0	0	0	240	90	0	0	0
Vivid Hemorphite (+5%)	3	100	0	0	0	252	95	0	0	0
Radiant Hemorphite (+10%)	3	100	0	0	0	264	99	0	0	0
Hedbergite	3	100	0	450	0	0	120	0	0	0
Vitric Hedbergite (+5%)	3	100	0	473	0	0	126	0	0	0
Glazed Hedbergite (+10%)	3	100	0	495	0	0	132	0	0	0
Gneiss	5	100	0	2000	1500	800	0	0	0	0
Iridescent Gneiss (+5%)	5	100	0	2100	1575	840	0	0	0	0
Prismatic Gneiss (+10%)	5	100	0	2200	1650	880	0	0	0	0
Dark Ochre	8	100	0	0	1360	1200	320	0	0	0
Onyx Ochre (+5%)	8	100	0	0	1428	1260	336	0	0	0
Obsidian Ochre (+10%)	8	100	0	0	1496	1320	352	0	0	0
Crokite	16	100	0	800	2000	0	800	0	0	0
Sharp Crokite (+5%)	16	100	0	840	2100	0	840	0	0	0
Crystalline Crokite (10%)	16	100	0	880	2200	0	880	0	0	0
Spodumain	16	100	48000	0	0	1000	160	80	40	0
Bright Spodumain (+5%)	16	100	50400	0	0	1050	168	84	42	0
Gleaming Spodumain (+10%)	16	100	52800	0	0	1100	176	88	44	0
Bistot	16	100	0	3200	1200	0	0	160	0	0
Triclinic Bistot (+5%)	16	100	0	3360	1260	0	0	168	0	0
Monoclinic Bistot (+10%)	16	100	0	3520	1320	0	0	176	0	0
Arkonor	16	100	0	3200	1200	0	0	0	120	0
Crimson Arkonor (+5%)	16	100	0	3360	1260	0	0	0	126	0
Prime Arkonor (+10%)	16	100	0	3520	1320	0	0	0	132	0
Mercoxit	40	100	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	140
Magma Mercoxit (+5%)	40	100	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	147
Vitreous Mercoxit (+10%)	40	100	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	154
Ore	Vol- ume	Batch size	Tri	Pye	Mex	Iso	Noc	Zyd	Meg	Mor
			Mineral from 100%-yield reprocessing

  1234   Green backgrounds indicate the best value per m3 for that mineral.

External links

• Erlestes ore and mineral tables