Mining: Difference between revisions

[[Image:Miningexample.jpg|thumb|400px|It ain't no trick to get rich quick<br />If you dig with a shovel or a pick<br />In a mine, where a million diamonds shine.]]  

* '''Low entry cost''': The dedicated mining frigate [[Venture]] is provided free as a mission reward from [[Career_Agents#Industry_Agent|Career Agent - Industry mission 2]]. The dedicated skill ({{sk|Mining Frigate}}) for commanding the Venture requires only 15 minutes of training time.

* '''Low level of involvement needed''': In most scenarios, miners only need to be active 5 seconds for every 3 minutes (to target new asteroids) and an extra 1 minute for every 30 minutes (to unload the full cargo of mined ore in station).  

* '''Guaranteed income''': Mining products are always in high demand because ships and structures which were blown up have to be replaced, and replacing ships and structures need materials.

* '''Skill intensive''': Despite the low entry cost, it takes a lot of training time to become an efficient miner.   

{{main|Ore Details}}

[[Image:Glow roid grid.jpg|thumb|right|200px]]  

Hint: Set your overview to "default mining" (click the triangle next to overview -&gt; load -&gt; mining) to see asteroids other than Veldspar. (Note that not all ores and other harvestable items will not be shown by using the default mining set.)  

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| Veldspar  

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{{main|More Mining Maths}}

The majority of miners do not need to use complicated maths. There are usually only 3 or 4 ore types in the asteroid belts in your area and if simply mining for cash it is easy to get a rough idea as to which ore is best by simply mining one ore type until you fill your hold and check the value of the rocks before you empty your hold. Repeat with a different ore type and you will quickly work out which ore type is best to mine in your area.  

{{main|Mining Ships}}

There are three types of ships used in mining: a mining ship, a hauler and a mining support ship.  

The best option for a new miner is to train into the [[Venture]], a dedicated mining frigate (before the [[Eve_Online_Expansions#Retribution|Retribution expansion]], each race had its own mining frigate, but this is no longer the case). The Venture and the necessary skillbook ({{sk|Mining Frigate}}) are given out for free by the Industrial Career agents, and training the necessary skills takes only a few minutes. The Venture is a mini mining barge with a substantial ore hold (which minimises travel to stations to unload ore), very good mining yield and built-in warp core stabilisation (which makes it easier to escape from hostile ships).   

A hauler's purpose is to take the ore that has been mined from a mining ship and transport it back to a refining station or to the market. [[Hauling]] is normally done in an industrial or a freighter.  

| rowspan="3" | '''Mining Barge'''  

| [[Procurer]]  

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| [[Retriever]]  

| '''Industrial Command'''  

| [[Orca]]  

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| '''Capital Industrial'''  

| [[Rorqual]]

|}

{| class=wikitable style="max-width:80%"

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! style="background:#222222" | Ore Hold  

! style="background:#222222" | Mining Cycles  

| 1,315,038

|}

[[File:Hulk.jpg|thumb|The [[Hulk]].]]

There are several methods commonly used in mining, the most basic only requires one account and can be run by very low skilled players while the most advanced will require multiple players all performing separate tasks in order to be effective.  

The most basic way to mine is to fill the cargohold 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, is possible for very low skill levels and is completely theft proof. Its disadvantages are that most cargoholds are very small and you are not profitable during the times you are ferrying the ore from the belt to the station. If cargohold mining, try to find a ship with a larger than average cargohold with multiple low slots which then can be fitted with expanded cargohold modules. Cargohold mining is typically not recommended since the amount of travel time (and thus time not spent mining) is so great. A variant of this method is called AFK mining where a industrial ship is equipped with a single mining laser (as all industrial ships only have one turret slot) and then is used to mine a large asteroid while the player is AFK; some corporations have policies against AFK mining and it should only be attempted in low traffic high sec regions.  

Don't forget when cargohold mining that if you can afford to keep a Giant Secure Container in your hold it effectively adds 900m3 to your capacity if you put your ore directly into it. Every little bit helps! (The GSC takes up 3000m3 in your hold but you can get 3900m3 into it - odd but useful.)

Players can jettison items from their cargohold into space, which results in a cargo container (more commonly called a "jetcan" or just a "can") forming within 2,500m of the ship. This jettisoned container has a volume capacity of 27,500m3. Miners can take advantage of this capacity by transferring the ore in their cargohold into the jetcan. Typically a player will fill a jetcan with ore, and then swap to a ship with a larger cargohold (most often an industrial ship). Its advantages are that you decrease your travel time significantly from the [[Mining#Cargohold_Mining|cargohold mining]] method.  

*Note: With the addition of the [[Venture]] aswell as the change to mining barges and exhumers, all specialized mining ships now have ore holds, ranging from 5.000 m3 ([[Venture]]) to 35.000 m3 ([[Mackinaw]]), making this a much less common mining technique.

The Giant Secure Container method of mining lets you solo mine into secure containers that have been anchored and password protected. You can then pick up or have a friend pick up the ore later on. You will need the following:  

Something that often gets completely missed by rookies is that a Giant Secure Container is larger on the inside than it is on the outside - by 900m3. They are often used in industrial ships to give a bit of a bonus to cargo capacity, although the transported items need to be easily splittable to take full advantage. Ore and/or minerals fit these criteria nicely.

It is possible to have two accounts on one computer. (If you have multiple monitors, EVEMover is a useful program to manage multiple EVE instances.) One of these can be used as a maxed-out miner, and the second as a hauler. Even new accounts can do this productively. For example, one account could, in two or three weeks, be set up to use a Caldari Osprey with Miner IIs and some Mining Foreman skill. The other, in the same time, could be set up to fly a Badger Mark II (or similar Industrial) and fit a Miner II as well as haul the stuff back to base whenever it is full. This greatly improves the efficiency of mining (4x Miner IIs help a little, but no downtime for hauling helps a lot).  

See the [[Creating an Alt Hauler]] guide for information on creating a hauler alt quickly and easily. Alternatively, see [[Creating an Alt Miner]] for information on how to create an alt to fly the best mining ship in the game quickly and easily.

[[File:Orca.jpg|thumb|The [[Orca]].]]

Of the professions in Eve, mining and production are most impacted by the player’s efficiency. For miners, it’s all about mining. Time spent hauling, killing rats, moving cans or dealing with ore thieves, can flippers and other flavors of griefers is time not spent making little rocks out of big ‘roids. Anything that can be done to eliminate or minimize the impact of all of those other factors means more little rocks in the hold, which means a fatter wallet.  

Our theoretical op has miners, haulers, damage dealers and salvagers; a fairly broad slice of the possible professions in Eve! Mining ops are generally more relaxed than combat fleet ops, co-operative mission running or 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, it lets the ‘teaching’ move beyond mining to cover a myriad of subjects.  

The simplest Mining Fleet would be the equivalent of a [[Mission Fleet (Spider)|Spider]] for Missions, in that each Miner does his/her own thing while being supplied a fleet booster which will increase everyone's yield (boosters only work within the same system). These fleets are generally a join and leave as you want situation with no extra services provided. To be nice it is generally suggested you avoid mining the same target another Fleet member is working on. You may ask them about it and if they decide to give it up they will probably let you have it to yourself. There is usually no central belt for everyone to be working on at once, but it can be a majestic sight to see a fleet of barges/exhumers emptying a belt efficiently.  

The method is the same as with jetcan mining except that players will work in combo, meaning one member will solely mine while the other solely hauls. This method is very efficient (it can be less profitable if you need to pay for the haul) and it is much harder.  

The next type of Fleet is more structured. A standard mining fleet in high security space generally includes a mix of mining barges, exhumers, and haulers (industrials). The miners will work on a belt constantly and jet can what they obtain. The haulers will ferry the resources from space to a station. This makes for increased proficiency as the mining lasers never need to stop, unless you need to switch belts. Fleet boosters are usually present here as well, and an Orca may be used instead of a jetcan.  

For more detailed information on Mining Operations see: [[Mining Op]].

If you are running an op with multiple miners there is probably a whole host of different mining ships, each with its different yields based on the mining lasers, the mining crystals in them, ship bonuses, character skills, etc. Moreover, you will also probably have a hauler and even someone providing mining efficiency bonuses. The simplest way to split the ISK return from an op is to track the times a player mined for, and then distribute the ISK in proportion to time spent mining. However, this might discourage larger ships from joining ops, so it is up to the fleet commander to decide how they wish to split the profits.&nbsp; [http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Scrapyard%27s_Mining_Op_Worksheet This spreadsheet] is one method by which the fleet commander can weight shares by actual contribution.  

Whichever way you choose, keep in mind that the most important to make sure of is that the method of splitting the ISK is agreed upon by the fleet before the mining op starts.

*[[Ice Mining]]  

*[http://eve.grismar.net/ore/ Grismar - ore chart]

*[http://greedygoblin.blogspot.com/p/why-was-i-ganked.html greedygoblin - mining safety tips from a ganker]

[[Category:Guides]] [[Category:Industry]] [[Category:Mining]]