Moon mining

Background and History

The Lifeblood expansion was released on October 24, 2017, and brought with it substantial changes to the process of moon mining. Previously moon mining was completed using player-owned starbases, but the Lifeblood expansion introduced a new class of Upwell structures called refineries, which if anchored in 0.5 space or below near a moon mining beacon can use a Standup Moon Drill to extract a chunk of the moon for mining.

Moon Scanning

Note: This section uses images and scan results taken prior to the moon mineral distribution changes in March 2020, which removed regular ores from moons.

Moons may be scanned with survey probes along with a survey probe launcher.

Moon scans return details on the average output of a moon, and allow would-be moon miners to understand what the value of the moon might be so that the best available moon can be selected. An example of a moon scan result is shown below.

Moon scanning is different than probe scanning from exploration, in two critical ways. First, Survey probes are consumed when they are launched, and cannot be recalled to the ship. Second, the ship must be pointed directly at the target moon when the probe is launched. If the ship is not facing the moon when a survey probe is launched, the probe may 'miss' the moon and return no results. The probe is still consumed when this happens.

Equipment

Survey Probes

There are three types of Survey probes. They differ in skill requirement, size, and the "maximum flight time" which is the measure used for how long it will take to return data. The data returned by each type of probe will always be the same, so the primary considerations are how many a ship can carry (if probing a system with lots of moons, or many systems) and how long it takes to get the results.

Survey Probe Type	Skill Requirement	Volume	Flight Time
Quest Survey Probe I	Survey III, Astrometrics III	5 m3	1200s (20 minutes)
Discovery Survey Probe I	Survey III, Astrometrics III	10 m3	300s (5 minutes)
Gaze Survey Probe I	Survey V, Astrometrics V	5 m3	150s (2.5 minutes)

There is no T2 Survey probe, although the Gaze Survey Probe is restricted to Omega-only.

Survey Probe Launchers

The Survey Probe Launcher fits in a high slot, but does not require a turret or launcher hardpoint. This allows it to be used on a wide variety of hulls. Unlike the probes themselves, there is a T2 variant of the launcher, which grants a 10% reduction to the probe's scan time. Only one survey probe launcher of either variant can be fitted to a ship at a time.

Performing the Activity

Survey Probes must be launched directly at the target moon, from within 100,000km of it. This means you must physically align your ship to the moon, as the probe is launched in a straight line along your path of travel. Once in range and aligned, cycle the Survey Probe Launcher to launch a probe. It does not auto-repeat, but it will auto-reload if emptied and additional probes are available in the cargohold.

Upon launching a probe, a new window will be displayed showing the remaining time for the probe to return its results. The ship must stay in-system and undocked until the results are sent back from the probe, and the results will appear in the bottom half of the same window. The window will keep these results until the user logs out of the game, even if they move to another system. Individual results can be cleared by right clicking on the moon name and selecting Delete.

The probe results window does not allow copying to clipboard via typical keyboard commands such as Ctrl+C, however there is a "Copy to Clipboard" button which will copy the entire list of probe results into a tab-delimited format that can easily be pasted into another program:

Moon Moon Product Quantity Ore TypeID SolarSystemID PlanetID MoonID Mesybier II - Moon 1 Glossy Scordite 0.300030559301 46687 30004975 40315069 40315070 Immaculate Jaspet 0.328855156898 46682 30004975 40315069 40315070 Pellucid Crokite 0.287893354893 46677 30004975 40315069 40315070 Sylvite 0.083220936358 45491 30004975 40315069 40315070 Mesybier V - Moon 1 Dazzling Spodumain 0.397311687469 46688 30004975 40315073 40315074 Immaculate Jaspet 0.412641495466 46682 30004975 40315073 40315074 Sylvite 0.190046817064 45491 30004975 40315073 40315074

The values listed in this export are the Ore name, the Quantity (as a percentage, on a 0-1 scale), the TypeID of the ore, and the ID's for the Solar System, Planet and Moon. Much of this data is redundant, but it makes for good error-checking if the results are to be run through a script or stored in a database.

Converted into a more legible table format:

Moon
	Moon Product	Quantity (%)	Ore TypeID	SolarSystemID	PlanetID	MoonID
Mesybier II - Moon 1
	Glossy Scordite	0.300030559301	46687	30004975	40315069	40315070
	Immaculate Jaspet	0.328855156898	46682	30004975	40315069	40315070
	Pellucid Crokite	0.287893354893	46677	30004975	40315069	40315070
	Sylvite	0.083220936358	45491	30004975	40315069	40315070

There is no known limit to how many probes a player may have active at any given time, only a practical limit on how many one can launch while moving between moons to launch more, before the results start to return and clear their respective probes from the list. There is also no reason to launch additional probes at the same moon - the results are always accurate regardless of the probe type used, and will never change even after moon extractions have begun.

Moon Ore Extraction

Once a moon has been identified as a good candidate, a refinery is anchored near the moon mining beacon and then the refinery must be equipped with a moon mining drill service module. The moon mining drill can then be activated to extract a chunk of the moon over a period of 6 to 56 days, slowly pulling the chunk closer to the refinery. The length of extraction is directly related to the amount which will be extracted, calculated with 20.000 m³ per hour of preparation. After the extraction period has passed, the refinery owner has a period of time to detonate the moon ore chunk into a mineable asteroid field with moon-specific ores. If the chunk is not detonated manually, it will automatically detonate after approximately three hours, modifiable with rigs.

Moon Ore Mining

Once a moon chunk has been extracted using a Refinery, it exists as an asteroid field which contains special moon-specific ores. After extraction, the mining is performed using the same mining equipment and processes used for asteroid Mining. Mining crystals are available for each class of moon ore to improve efficiency of Tech 2 mining lasers, provided the player trains the appropriate moon ore reprocessing skill.

Ore Types

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 provided both regular asteroid ores (but in a variant that gave a bonus 15% yield, a variant that was only available from moons) as well as moon-specific ores as mentioned elsewhere in this article. After the change, all asteroid type ores were completely removed from moons, and the refining yield of moon ores was adjusted to only give moon goo, with R4 (Ubiquitous) ore still providing Pyerite or Mexallon as well - all other normal minerals were removed.

Moon-specific Ore

In addition to the classic minerals that other ores provide, some materials required for T2 construction can only be found in moon ores. Like the normal asteroid ores, moon ores also have basic, improved, and excellent quality types. However, moon ore quality more strongly affects the reprocessed minerals received. The improved ores yield a 15% bonus, while the excellent ores provide a 100% bonus on minerals received through reprocessing.

There are 5 classes of moon ore, as shown in the table below. All classes are available in low and null-sec systems, but High sec and Wormhole systems may only have R4 (Ubiquitous) ores.

	Ubiquitous	Common	Uncommon	Rare	Exceptional
	R4	R8	R16	R32	R64
High Sec	✔
Low Sec	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Null Sec	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Wormhole	✔

Moon-specific ores are often of mixed quality, with the same moon pull containing both regular and improved quality of the same ore. However there is a chance that, at the time of detonating a moon chunk to create the asteroid field, that there will be a bright blue flash - this has come to be known as a "jackpot" and indicates that the moon ores for that particular extraction will all be of the excellent quality instead.

Moon Ore Refining

The following tables show the minerals and special materials present in 1000  m³ of each moon ore. Values are for the basic ore. Any decimal values from the improved ores (+15%) are rounded up to the next whole number.

32px Ubiquitous (R4) Moon Ore Yield (per 1000 m³)

Moon Ore	R4 Minerals	Normal Minerals
		Pyerite	Mexallon
Bitumens	65 Hydrocarbons	6000	400
Coesite	65 Silicates	2000	400
Sylvite	65 Evaporite Deposits	4000	400
Zeolites	65 Atmospheric Gases	8000	400

Common (R8) Moon Ore Yield (per 1000 m³)

Moon Ore	R8 Minerals
Cobaltite	40 Cobalt
Euxenite	40 Scandium
Scheelite	40 Tungsten
Titanite	40 Titanium

32px Uncommon (R16) Moon Ore Yield (per 1000 m³)

Moon Ore	R16 Minerals	R4 Minerals
Chromite	40 Chromium	10 Hydrocarbons
Otavite	40 Cadmium	10 Atmospheric Gases
Sperrylite	40 Platinum	10 Evaporite Deposits
Vanadinite	40 Vanadium	10 Silicates

32px Rare (R32) Moon Ore Yield (per 1000 m³)

Moon Ore	R32 Minerals	R8 Minerals	R4 Minerals
Carnotite	50 Technetium	10 Cobalt	15 Atmospheric Gases
Cinnabar	50 Mercury	10 Tungsten	15 Evaporite Deposits
Pollucite	50 Caesium	10 Scandium	15 Hydrocarbons
Zircon	50 Hafnium	10 Titanium	15 Silicates

32px Exceptional (R64) Moon Ore Yield (per 1000 m³)

Moon Ore	R64 Minerals	R16 Minerals	R8 Minerals	R4 Minerals
Loparite	22 Promethium	10 Platinum	20 Scandium	20 Hydrocarbons
Monazite	22 Neodymium	10 Chromium	20 Tungsten	20 Evaporite Deposits
Xenotime	22 Dysprosium	10 Vanadium	20 Cobalt	20 Atmospheric Gases
Ytterbite	22 Thulium	10 Cadmium	20 Titanium	20 Silicates