Asteroids and ore

This page should be updated due to game changes.
Reason: Need additional table information for border/A0 and Pochven asteroids.

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.

Cosmic anomalies

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 several variants (small, medium, 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. Different types may have different number of variants. Smaller anomalies tend to contain only base ore variety and larger ones contain all three variaties (base, +5% and +10%).

Highsec does not have ore anomalies, the exceptions being border ores (see further) and Asteroid Belt Remnants anomaly in new players spawn areas which contain Veldspar. Lowsec, NPC nullsec, Sovereign nullsec, Wormhole space and Triglavian space all have different types of anomalies.

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.

Ore locations

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.

Ores in belts

Highsec and lowsec

System security rating	Quarter
System security rating
█ High Sec 1.0 to 0.5	Veldspar Scordite
█ High Sec 0.9 to 0.5	Pyroxeres	Pyroxeres ≤ 0.7: also Plagioclase	Plagioclase	Plagioclase
█ Low Sec 0.4 to 0.1	Pyroxeres Kernite Jaspet	Kernite Pyroxeres	Omber Jaspet	Kernite Omber
█ Low Sec 0.2 to 0.1	Hemorphite	Hedbergite	Hemorphite	Hedbergite

Ores in null security space

Null security space is not as clearly defined as high security due to being player owned. Instead it is easiest to classify it by Security Class, which is most easily viewed via sites like Dotlan by using the Security Class filter on a map. We will ignore the security class number, using only the letter, as it seems this is exactly what is important.

The following table shows the security class letter used for null security regions:

Class Letter	Region	Pirates type
F	Detorid, Cache, Insmother, Impass, Feythabolis, Tenerifis, Omist	Angel Cartel
G	Stain, Esoteria, Querious, Paragon Soul, Delve, Period Basis	Blood Raiders and Sansha
H	Vale of the Silent, Tribute, Venal, Geminate, Deklein, Tenal, Branch	Guristas
I	Wicked Creek, Scalding Pass, Great Wildlands, Curse, Catch, Immensea, Providence	Angel Cartel
J	Pure Blind, Syndicate, Fade, Cloud Ring, Outer Ring, Fountain	Serpentis and Guristas (Pure Blind)
K	Cobalt Edge, Perrigen Falls, Malpais, Oasa, Kalevala Expanse, Outer Passage, Etherium Reach, The Spire	Drones

Security class F-J follow simple rules defined in the following table. Note that for many regions some security levels do not exist leading to missing some ores, for example in Curse all systems are between 0.0 and -0.3 which according to this table leads to no ore belts at all.

System true sec	Security Class
System true sec	F	G	H	I	J
≤ 0.0:	-	Kernite	Pyroxeres	-	Pyroxeres
≤ -0.4:	-	Pyroxeres	-	-	-
≤ -0.5:	Bistot	-	Kernite	-	Bistot
≤ -0.6:	Arkonor	Bistot	-	-	-
≤ -0.7:	Pyroxeres	-	-	Arkonor	-
≤ -0.8:	Mercoxit
≤ -0.9:	-	-	Bistot	Kernite	Arkonor

Note that there seem to be some additional exceptions that do not show ingame through Agency window, but are present in belts. For example, -1.0 system MVUO-F in Period Basis seems to have Arkonor in belts in addition to four other ores predicted by this table.^[Verify]

Dronelands regions (class K) all contain Arkonor, Bistot and Mercoxit, but the security level at which each ore starts differs from region to region. Moreover, even inside of a region contents of belts differ a lot between systems which hints that there is some other rule used here. The general rule seems to be that the further from Empire, the less ores are present. For example, in Etherium Reach, close to Empire, Bistot starts from 0.0, Arkonor starts from -0.2 and Mercoxit starts from -0.5 (though not in all -0.5 systems). On the other hand, in Cobalt Edge Bistot starts from -0.6, Arkonor from -0.7 and Mercoxit from -0.8.

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.

Ore anomalies

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

High security space

See also: High-sec

Highsec does not have ore anomalies, the exceptions being border ores (see further) and Asteroid Belt Remnants anomaly in new players spawn areas which contain Veldspar.

Low security space

See also: Low-sec

Jaspet (medium)
Gneiss (small • average • large)
Dark Ochre and Gneiss (small • average • large)
Crokite and Dark Ochre (small • average • large)
Crokite, Dark Ochre and Gneiss (small • average • large)
Hedbergite, Hemorphite and Jaspet (small • average • large)

Null security space

See also: Null-sec

Bistot (small • average • large)
Arkonor and Bistot (small • medium • average • large)
Mercoxit (small • average • large)

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.

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.

█ Pochven	Talassonite Rakovene Bezdnacine

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. All clusters contain varying amounts of all Arkonor and Bistot, additionally different clusters provide access to Mercoxit, Pyroxeres, Omber, Kernite, Crokite.

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:

1 hour for the Small Asteroid Cluster
2 hours for the Medium Asteroid Cluster
3 hours for the Large Asteroid Cluster
4 hours for the Enormous Asteroid Cluster
5 hours for the Colossal Asteroid Cluster

Border ores

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

Empire Border Rare Asteroids
Nullsec Border Rare Asteroids
Nullsec Blue A0 Rare Asteroids
Wormhole Blue A0 Rare Asteroids^[Verify]

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

Most asteroid types have two extra subtypes that yield more (+5% / +10%) minerals when reprocessed; some of the ores have also a +15% subtype. 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	+15% 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
Ducinium	Noble Ducinium	Royal Ducinium	Imperial Ducinium
Eifyrium	Doped Eifyrium	Boosted Eifyrium	Augmented Eifyrium
Mordunium	Plum Mordunium	Prize Mordunium	Plunder Mordunium
Ytirium	Bootleg Ytirium	Firewater Ytirium	Moonshine Ytirium
Bezdnacine	Abyssal Bezdnacine	Hadal Bezdnacine
Rakovene	Abyssal Rakovene	Hadal Rakovene
Talassonite	Abyssal Talassonite	Hadal Talassonite

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

Main article: Minerals

Main article: Reprocessing

The main goal of asteroid mining is to obtain ore that may be reprocessed into minerals: Tritanium, Pyerite, Mexallon, Isogen, Nocxium, Zydrine, Megacyte and Morphite. The amounts of particular mineral highly differ between different ores, leading to some ores being in high demand and having high market value and some ores being borderline worthless.