Mining Ships

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As a pilot, new to Eve Online, there is an overwhelming choice of ships and modules to cater for every possibility, and as miners we have been given a series of ships that give us an edge. This section is going to take a look at the Frigate and Cruiser ships that haven been given a mining roll bonus, as well as the modules that you might want to invest in. It is recommended that before you choose a ship, you read about the basics of mining as it gives a good overview as to what asteroids are and how we exploit them.

In general any ship that has a free turret and high power slot available is capable of becoming a mining ship. Caldari ships typically make good mining ships because of their CPU capacities but each race has a frigate and cruiser with mining bonuses. Typically, players will receive their first mining frigate upon completion of the tutorial missions.

Mining Frigate

Ships that have a mining role bonus are very important. This makes any of the 'mining' frigates a good starting ship as the pilot will receive a cargo hold bonus, yield bonus and a permanent reduction in capacitor use. Mining lasers have a large CPU requirement but a low power requirement; but the layout of the 'mining' frigates makes it easy to fit two Miner II lasers with modest skills. The real issue with these frigates is the very small cargo holds even with the bonus. To deal with the small cargo hold issue check out the following links Jet Can Mining, Combo Jet Can Mining or GSC Mining. Also when fitted for maximum mining the ships have no tank; so mining in 1.0 - 0.9 space is recommended.

Bonuses:

• 5% bonus to cargo capacity
• 20% bonus to mining laser yield per skill level
• -60% mining laser capacitor use

Ships:

• Amarr: Tormentor
• Caldari: Bantam
• Gallente: Navitas
• Minmatar Burst

Mining Cruisers

When ready to move up from mining frigates the next step could be a mining cruiser. Each of these ships comes with a mining bonus either to their lasers or drone yield. While the Amarr and Gallente ships get a bonus to mining drone yield this is offset by the small cargo capacity and travel time penalty of using mining drones. The Caldari and Minmatar mining cruisers are a better choice over all, but require Electronics Level V and a Co-Processor I or two to fit an array of Miner II lasers.

Amarr: Arbitrator

• 10% bonus to drone mining yield per skill level
• 345m3 cargo
• 150m3 drone capacity - 50 Mbit/sec

Caldari: Osprey

• 20% bonus to mining laser yield per skill level
• 485m3 cargo
• 20m3 drone capacity - 20 Mbit/sec

Gallente: Vexor

• 10% bonus to drone mining yield per skill level
• 480m3 cargo
• 100m3 drone capacity - 75 Mbit/sec

Minmatar: Scythe

• 20% bonus to mining laser yield per skill level
• 440m3 cargo
• 5m3 drone capacity - 5 Mbit/sec

Mining In An Industrial

A mistake that many beginning miners make is thinking that since industrial ships have such enormous cargo bays, they'll save time by mining with their hauler. The Industrial ship may have a large cargo bay, but due to the lack of mining bonuses and slots to fit lasers, mining yield is greatly reduced overall. There are much more effective ways to involve an industrial and improve your ISK/hour ratio. For more information, see either Jet Can Mining, Combo Jet Can Mining or GSC Mining.

Whats next then?

If you have found that you have the time and patience to get serious about mining, then you'll want to look into Mining Barges. These ships leave mining cruisers in the dust. In fact if you are thinking of using your character for mining / production / invention, then bypassing mining cruisers and going straight from frigates to barges is a good idea.