Mining

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It ain't no trick to get rich quick
If you dig with a shovel or a pick
In a mine, where a million diamonds shine.

Honest Day's Work

Mining is the profession of extracting ore from asteroids, ice from ice fields and gas from gas clouds. These materials can then be refined into minerals, ice products and Gas Cloud/boosters. These refined substances are used in the production and maintenance of all player created items and structures in EVE, such as ships and modules. It is one of the few professions immediately available to beginning players and most EVE industrialists started their careers by mining. Mining is perhaps the second most economically safe profession in EVE, save Planetary Interaction, in highsec systems. Losing mining ships and/or being podded is uncommon and minerals are always in demand. Mining can be accomplished by finding an asteroid site, or belt in a system and mining its asteroids with mining lasers.

To quickly get into mining, all Eve University members are encouraged to take advantage, at no cost, of the mining loaner fleet program. The University will provide the skillbook for you! All miners are encouraged to join the E-Uni Mining Ops mailing list and you will receive an email when a fleet commander has organized a mining op. Many miners in EVE University have come together and organized the Amarr Mining Campus where newer players are taught the basics of solo and fleet mining. It is highly encouraged that newer players interested in mining contact an AMC officer. All E-UNI members are invited and the campus has been active since March 2012. Also, ask about the campus specific mailing list when you arrive at the location.

Advantages of Mining Over Other Professions

  • low entry cost - The dedicated mining frigate Venture is provided free as a mission reward from Career Agent - Industry mission 2. The dedicated skill, Mining Frigate, for commanding the Venture requires only 15 minutes of training time.
  • relatively low risk - It is usually very safe to mine only in highsec.
  • 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.

Disadvantages of Mining Over Other Professions

  • skill intensive - despite the low entry cost, it takes a lot of training time to become an efficient miner.
  • nontransferable skills - mining skills are useful only for mining.
  • questionable fun factor - the amount fun involved in mining is usually very low for most people. People in EVE tend to find more fun in blowing up ships or being blown up.
  • income ceiling - it is highly improbable to earn much more than 10m per hour as a high sec miner while other professions can be much more lucrative.

Prospecting

Efficiency

Before mining, it is best advised that players determine what is the most profitable way to mine. This involves determining what asteroids to mine, where to find these asteroids, which ships (and skills) are best suited and optimized to mine and (in most cases) how best to haul the ore to a refining station and then to the market. All miners should attempt to maximize their efficiency (and therefore their profitability) which is typically measured by the amount of m3 mined in a cycle of a mining laser. For example Veldspar is the most common and cheapest ore in EVE and has a volume of .1m3, Scordite is the next most common ore but has a volume of .15m3. Therefore, for every cycle, 3/2 more Veldspar is mined than Scordite. To be more profitable Scordite's market price must be in turn 3/2 greater than Veldspar. Since the market is player driven ore and mineral prices are ever changing, hence miners should always check the market for the most efficient ore/mineral to mine for.

A good site that will help you determine the most profitable ores is Grismar's Ore Chart. Look up the market prices of the minerals from your console, and input them in the top row. Hit Apply, and you'll see which ore will give you the most ISK per m3. There are a few sites that will do this for you - This IGB site for example. This page explains how to use the second site. Remember to doublecheck the prices that any automated tools give you - they will often use regional averages to determine mineral prices, and if you plan to sell your goods at a specific station or hub then your priorities might come out differently.

Asteroids

Glow roid grid.jpg

Asteroid belts can be found in most systems either on the overview window or by right clicking and using the Asteroid Belt section(Ombey's 2D Maps contains information on the number of asteroid belts in a system). Each asteroid belt has several properties: what asteroids compose the asteroid belt, what asteroids are present and the overall quantity and quality of the asteroids. In empire space there are six asteroids: Veldspar, Scordite, Pyroxeres, Plagioclase, Omber and Kernite. However only a subset of these six asteroids can be found any system depending on which faction controls the region. Low-sec and 0.0 space each have their own respective set of asteroids (which is compounded, so low-sec space contains all the empire space asteroids and 0.0 space contains both empire and low-sec asteroids). Keep in mind that asteroids only spawn after downtime so there will be belts that are devoid of a certain asteroid (or any asteroid in some cases) because other miners have already mined it out.

Another important factor is the size of the asteroids in a belt: smaller asteroids will require more laser management and cause more wasted laser cycles. Using a survey scanner to scout belts is highly recommended; the difference between a belt freshly respawned after downtime and one that hasn't been touched in a few days is very noticable. Missions also often yield significant asteroid belts. Keep an eye out for those, and you may reap in more ore than a couple of belts combined.

Hint: Set your overview to "default mining" (click the triangle next to overview -> load -> 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.)

Here is a list of common hisec asteroids and which one offers larger amounts of minerals.

Base Ore Slightly More (+5%) Greatest Concentration (+10%)
Veldspar Concentrated Veldspar Dense Veldspar
Plagioclase Azure Plagioclase Rich Plagioclase
Scordite Condensed Scordite Massive Scordite
Omber Silvery Omber Golden Omber
Pyroxeres Solid Pyroxeres Viscous Pyroxeres
Kernite Luminous Kernite Fiery Kernite

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. If you would rather challenge your brain, then you can read this: More Mining Maths

Ships

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

  • With the arrival of the new Venture mining frigate and the change of the old racial mining frigates to serve as combat ships, the best option for a new miner is to train into the Venture. A new player can fly it with only minutes of training. It's a mini mining barge with a substantial ore hold and about half the potential yield of a mining barge. After a weeks training miners should then step into mining barges, and after training mining barge to V plus some support skills, exhumers.
  • 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. Since the Retribution patch Freighters can access jetcans in space making them a viable alternative for mining setups.
  • Finally, a mining support ship can either come in the form of a security detail against rats and players looking to steal ore or as a ship designed to provide mining efficiency bonuses. The ultimate mining support ships are the Orca and Rorqual, of which only the Orca can enter high-security space and fit through normal stargates.


More details can be found at Mining Ships.


Ship Type Ship Use
Frigate Venture Starting frigate, low yield, tank and ore hold compared to specialized ship. Greater agility and speed. Only ship in the game with a gas harvesting bonus. Takes minimal training
Mining Barge Procurer Specializes in Shield tank.
Retriever Specializes in ore hold capacity.
Covetor Specializes in ore yield.
Exhumer Skiff Specializes in Shield tank.
Mackinaw Specializes in ore hold capacity.
Hulk Specializes in ore yield.
Support Command Ships Can fit gang assist modules and provide security
Industrial Command Orca Bonuses towards gang link modules, has considerable cargo room, can fly in high sec
Capital Industrial Rorqual Capital ship, Bonuses towards gang link modules, can compress ore in cargohold vastly increasing capacity


Ship Ore Hold Mining Cycles Cargohold Hit Points EHP Veldspar/hr (Orca bonus)
Venture 5000 2 50 600 827 520800
Hulk 8,500 1 350 6,000 8,713 1,739,139
Covetor 7,000 1 350 4,500 5,771 1,578,043
Mackinaw 35,000 6 450 8,000 11,625 1,505059
Retriever 27,500 5 450 6,000 7,691 1,433,390
Skiff 15,000 3 350 19,625 29,091 1,380,788
Procurer 12,000 2 350 18,000 23,252 1,315,038

ORE Ships - Post-Inferno 1.2 (August 2012)

Adapted from Release Notes: [1]

Also see the ORE Basic Ship and Skill Guide for recommend ORE Ship Fittings.

Skills

Basic Skills:

  • [[Skills:Resource Processing Mining]]: 5% extra yield per level.
  • Science Astrogeology: 5% extra yield per level.

Specialty Mining Skills:

  • [[Skills:Resource Processing Ice Harvesting]]: Required for Ice Mining. 5% reduction in cycle time per level.
  • [[Skills:Resource Processing Gas Cloud Harvesting]]: Required for Gas Cloud Mining. Allows use of one gas cloud harvester per level.

Fitting Skills:

  • [[Skills:Electronics CPU Management]]: Increases CPU available, a common bottleneck for fitting lasers and upgrades.
  • [[Skills:Electronics Electronics Upgrades]]: Required for fitting and using co-processors.
  • [[Skills:Resource Processing Mining Upgrades]]: Required for fitting and using Mining Upgrades; 5% reduction in CPU penalty per level.
  • [[Skills:Armor Hull Upgrades]]: Required for fitting and using Expanded Cargoholds [cargohold expanders of minimal utility following Inferno 1.2].
  • [[Skills:Rigging Astronautics Rigging]]: Required for fitting Cargohold Optimization rigs [cargohold rigs of minimal utility following Inferno 1.2].

Tank Skills:

  • [[Skills:Engineering Power Grid Management]]: Increases available powergrid, a common bottleneck for tank modules.
  • [[Skills:Engineering Shield Operation]], [[Skills:Engineering Shield Upgrades]],[[Skills:Engineering Shield Management]]

Drone Skills:

Leadership skills:

Spaceship Command Skills:

Solo Mining

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.

Cargohold Mining

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.)

Jet Can Mining

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 cargohold mining method.

Its disadvantages are that jetcans only have a life span of 2 hours and they are not secure, meaning anyone can open and remove items from a jetcan. This is a common form of theft and griefing in the game where a player will "flip" a jetcan either to steal the ore or to induce a fight without CONCORD intervention. One possible way to combat this is to use secure containers which can be programmed with a password; unfortunately, the largest, the giant secure container (usually called a GSC) can only hold 3,900m3 of ore and thus is considerably less efficient than a jet can.

  • 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 5km3 (Venture) to 35km3 (Mackinaw), making this a much less common mining technique.

GSC Mining

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:

  • Skill Book: Anchoring under corporate category - trained to level one.
  • Secure Containers: Giant Secure container is preferred
  • A system with a sec status of 0.7 or below.
  1. Take a Hauler and the secure containers to where you want to mine. Deploy the container about 5000 meters away from any object.
  2. Important Right click the GSC, anchor it and then set the password'. If you don't do this step your container can be looted and/or will disappear during the next down time.
  3. Mine securely and pick up later. These containers will disappear 30 days after the last use..
  4. Another option how to use GSC is to set up GSC "Nest". Just take your haul 150+ km out of belt, set up GSCs and bookmark their location. Then mine, warp to nest, return and mine again. This remove lost time due to small speeds of mining ships when going to deposit your ore to GSC. Then pick up your ore as usual.

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.

Dual Account Mining

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).

Eventually, one account could move toward an Orca and the other toward a Hulk (or Covetor, etc.). Later, the Orca pilot could also learn Freighters (such as the Charon).

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.

Cooperative Mining

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.

A properly designed and staffed co-operative mining op allows miners to spend their time doing what they do best: mining. It also allows the miners to benefit from mining yield bonuses available only to members of a group. These bonuses can add an additional 10% or more to a miner’s yield. If the miners are mining, then someone has to haul the little rocks to the station. If the op is in lower sec regions, something other than drones may be needed to protect the miners from rats, not to mention thieves and assorted other scoundrels. Those protection activities will result in a second “mining” operation as the wrecks are looted and salvaged for the benefit of the op participants.

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.

Mining Booster Fleets (BYOC)

The simplest Mining Fleet would be the equivalent of a 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.

Combo Jet Can Mining

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.

Mining Fleets

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.

When completing a mining operation, you should consider posting your results here: Past Mining Fleet Results

Periodically, the Uni will undertake a large scale, long duration operation in a system other than Aldrat. These Expeditions are planned and announced several weeks in advance to allow for adjustment of training schedules, acquisition of desired ships and fittings and research/scouting of the target system and surrounding space. Because of the travel involved and the length of planned stay, Expedition locations generally provide opportunities for mission/complex running as well.

The Expedition Boss for a particular expedition will publish the rules for that expedition, including record keeping requirements for any Common Can portions, rules for interaction with locals and what happens to the ore mined.

Such fleets are often run to donate minerals to the University, with the added bonus of attempting to break the record for the previous donation fleet.

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

How To Split The ISK

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.  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.

See Also

External links

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