Ice harvesting
Ice mining is different to standard asteroid mining as only mining barges and exhumers are capable of fitting the required equipment, and the refined products are not used for manufacture, but for the standard operation of Player Owned Structures (POS) as well as Capital Ship Jump Drives.
Ice mining equipment also differs to asteroid mining modules, as the yield is a fixed parameter depending on the ships being used. All capable ships will mine one piece of ice per cycle, except for the mackinaw which has a 100% bonus, so instead 2 pieces of ice will be mined per cycle.
Ice Asteroids
In empire space ice asteroid belts are found at fixed locations, to find them use this free map [1] Eygfe is an example of a system with an ice asteroid belt. Each asteroid can contain well over 100,000 pieces of ice and each piece takes up 1,000m3 of cargo space.
Ice Ore
There are 4 basic types of ice asteroid that are aligned to the faction that controls the local space, with perfect ice refine each will always produce;
- 50 Heavy Water
- 25 Liquid Ozone
- 1 Strontium Clathrates
as well as ice specific isotopes
| Amarr - Clear Icicle | Caldari - White Glaze | Gallente - Blue Ice | Minmatar - Glacial Mass | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Isotope | Helium | Nitrogen | Oxygen | Hydrogen |
Basic Ice Mining Requirements
Ice Harvesting modules can only be fit on Mining Barges or Exhumers. Since the procurer is all but useless apart from being cute, the minimum ship to mine ice is in is a retriever
Retriever
The following allows for a Mining Barge to be used:
Ice Harvester
The minimum additional skill requirement to use a basic Ice Harvester is;
This skill set will result in 1 Piece of Ice per Ice Harvester with a cycle time of 10mins, this is the lowest ice yield rate possible.
Improving Cycle Times
To improve the amount of ice we can harvest, we have to reduce the cycle time from the rather long 600 seconds.
Skills
Continuing to learn the Ice Harvesting skill will decrease the cycle time by 5% per level for a grand total of 25% reduced cycle time which give us a cycle time of 450 seconds
Tech 2 Modules
By reaching Ice Harvester Level 5, we can now fit the Ice Harvester II which has a base cycle time of 500 seconds, we then apply the 25% bonus and with a week of training we have reduced the cycle time down to 375 seconds a great 37.5% improvement
Ice Harvesting Upgrades
We can reduce the cycle time even further by using Ice Harvesting Upgrades, they act the in the same way as Mining Laser Upgrades, except the bonus applies to ice ore. With a tech 1 module we can improve our cycle time by 5% with a 10% cpu penalty and for a tech 2 module we can improve our cycle time by 9% with a 12.5% cpu penalty. Obviously our ultimate aim is two fill both of the low power slots with these modules for a massive cycle reduction of 18%
With the fitting levels of a retriever at most only one upgrade can be fit, if you have access to a hauler it is a good idea to use a cargo expander in spare slot. The reason is quite simple, a retriever has a basic cargo space of 2,000m3. This fits exactly 2 pieces of ice, so when your cargo hold fills, one of the harvesters will turn off. If you have a bit of extra space this wont happen and you can continue uninterrupted.
Hulk or Mackinaw
One of the most controversial questions when Ice mining, is what ship should be used. The answer is always the Mackinaw or the Hulk and below we will outline the benefits of each as honestly, which to choose is a personal decision.
Ice Output This is an easy one to answer, the Mackinaw produces more ice per minute then the hulk can. This is down to the fact that it has a 100% yield bonus and for every cycle you receive 4 pieces of ice instead of one.
Cargo Space The hulk is capable of holding 8 pieces of ice compared to the mackinaw’s 6, and with module expansions and rigging, it is obvious that the hulk can stay out longer before having to return to that station to drop off the ice. However it does take longer to mine.
Survivability There are more then enough high sec systems with ice belts, and Eygfe is one such system close to Aldrat. Thusly on a safety standpoint it is not necessary to move into dangerous low-sec space. However there is still the issue of suicide gang attacks (gankers) Ice belts can be targeted due to the belief that many ice miners are afk and are thusly easy targets. The hulk does have an increased chance of surviving a ganker attack then the mackinaw does.
Price Many experienced players will point out that any one wanting to be a miner will have to buy a Hulk at some point to maximize there profits. This means that frequently the Mackinaw is bought as a second ship, dedicated to ice mining, as such significantly increases purchase costs.
The big question – Is Ice mining actually for me?
Yet again another question without a correct answer. There are many reasons for and against Ice Mining, but there are some important facts that need to be said. Ice has a limited use compared to asteroids. Minerals from asteroids are used throughout eve, basically everything out there is made out of minerals where as ice products are only used in Player Owned Structures and certain ships with jump drive capability. It is perhaps considered easier to ice mine, as the cycle times are significantly longer then asteroid mining modules, and ice asteroids are so massive, that it would take a large fleet of ships to mine all of the ice, as such it is very difficult for the ice asteroid to run out. Many miners will tell you the frustration at mining an asteroid with hardly next to nothing in it and loosing cycle time because they haven’t got the attention to focus on there scanners. This is perhaps where Ice Mining does come into its own, and many miners have been known to hit the asteroid belt while there for example studying. The final big issue is well, that ice is big! Just one block takes up 1000m3 of space. So an unmodified Hulk can only fit 8 pieces, not much really. Many professional ice miners will have a second account to act as a hauler to move the ice and leave the miner in place.
Perfect Ice Mining Requirements
To get the absolutely perfect ice harvesting settup this is what you are going to need.
Mackinaw skills:
Ice Harvester II module:
2 x Ice Mining Upgrades
This skill set will result in 2 pieces of Ice per Ice harvester with a cycle time of 4 mins 20sec
