Perfect mining

Note:

This page was apparently retrieved from EVElopedia, a wiki hosted by CCP that was closed in 2016. While contents have been edited to account for changes to Mining mechanics, its use of first person prose has not been changed from the original import.

The perfect miner is something that many of us wish to attain. Since we spend all day staring at our mining lasers, we have nothing better to do than to research and analyze how we can get a better yield from our mining lasers, or how to mine faster. It really boils down to: "How can I make as much money in the smallest amount of time?"

The perfect ore miner consists of three things. The perfect Hulk pilot, the perfect booster (Orca or Rorqual) pilot, and the perfect refiner. The booster pilot will be able to boost the Hulk pilot to maximum yield, range, and minimum cycle time.

The perfect Hulk pilot

Skills

• Exhumers V (5x)
• Astrogeology V (3x)
• Ore Processing skills at IV (for Tech II mining crystals, if max yield per second is desired)

Is the long skill time for Exhumers V worth it?

If you make 200M ISK per week, a 3% boost will give you an additional 6M ISK per week.

My advice is that it is worth it, but only as the last skill that you will train.

Equipment

• 'Carpo' Mining Laser Upgrade - This is a COSMOS item and can be found for about 950M ISK per module on the market
• For max yield per second:
  • Modulated Strip Miner II
  • Type B II mining crystals
• For max yield with zero waste:
  • ORE Strip Miner - This can be found for about 220M ISK per miner on the market

Firstly, the 'Carpo' Mining Laser Upgrade is a storyline Mining Laser Upgrade that offers a 1% yield bonus over the Tech II variant. Given that Tech II Mining Laser Upgrades often go for under 1M ISK, it would take a significant amount of mining for that difference to be paid off. It is the "perfect" option in terms of yield, but likely not a practical option.

With that aside, beyond a basic setup with Tech II mining laser upgrades and Tech I strip miners, there are two branching upgrade paths that can be done. Which one is the "perfect" option depends on whether one wishes to maximize yield on a per second basis, or to maximize the overall ore amount from mining an ore anomaly or a moon mining pull while doing so as fast as possible.

If max yield is desired, using Modulated Deep Core Strip Miner IIs (for Mercoxit) or Modulated Strip Miner IIs (for other ores) with Type B II mining crystals will provide the most ore yield. A max-skilled Hulk with two Tech II Modulated Strip Miners and three Mining Laser Upgrade IIs alone can pull over 50 m³ per second. Under a perfect Rorqual booster, that increases to 130 m³ per second. This, however, comes at great cost to wasted ore, with the Hulk averaging 32 m³ and 82 m³ per second of wasted ore under unboosted and boosted scenarios with perfect skills, respectively.

Given that the most valuable ores in a field are of limited quantity compared to other items, a "perfect" miner may instead wish to mine as fast as possible with zero waste, to ensure that they can mine as much of the most valuable minerals as they can. In that case, using the faction ORE Strip Miner offers a 33% boost in mining rate compared to Strip Miner Is (800 m³ base yield vs. 600 m³), while also having zero waste. Going back to the example of a perfectly skilled Hulk with three Tech II Mining Laser Upgrades, that Hulk with ORE Strip Miners would be able to pull ~37 m³ per second, and ~97 m³ per second under a perfect Rorqual booster. That is notably less than the Tech II Modulated Strips example above. But when there is a situation like a R64 moon pop, where the ore with R64 materials is worth several times more than the other ores in the moon pop, maximizing how much of that a miner gets through not wasting any of it can result in more value gained, despite the lower yield. That of course also depends on that valuable ore to be cleared even with the lower yield. But given the value of such ores, large groups will typically have no shortage of miners ready to pick it all clean.

Implants

• Hardwiring - Inherent Implants 'Highwall' MX-1005 - This can be found for about 120M ISK on the market
• Michi's Excavation Augmentor - This is a COSMOS item and can be found for about 2.5B ISK on the market. At such a high price it's probably not worth it, but you need it to maximize your yield.

Is the high price for the implants worth it?

• Highwall: If you make 200M ISK per week, a 5% boost will give you an additional 10M ISK per week. At that rate, the implant will pay for itself in 12 weeks or about 3 months.
• Michi: If you make 200M ISK per week, a 5% boost will give you an additional 10M ISK per week. The implant will pay for itself in 210 weeks or a little more than 4 years at that rate.

My advice is only to purchase them if you want perfection or have a lot of ISK to burn. The Michi doesn't seem very feasible to me.

The Perfect Booster Pilot

In order to maximize the mining mining laser range, and minimize the mining laser cycle time for a mining fleet, you need to have a perfect booster pilot in either an Orca for high security space, or a Rorqual for other areas of space. Whether using a Rorqual is necessarily safe or reasonable isn't a question that can easily be answered in a guide page like this one. As far as the guide is concerned, though, it provides the strongest mining bursts outside of highsec (where it can not be fielded), and so it is the "perfect" option for yield in that sense.

Skills

• Leadership V (1x)
• Mining Director V (5x)
• Industrial Command Ships V (8x) (for the Orca, in high security space)
• Capital Industrial Ships V (12x) (for the Rorqual, in other areas of space)
• Cybernetics V (3x)
• For the Orca, in High Security Space:
  • Industrial Command Ships V (8x)
  • Industrial Reconfiguration V (4x)
• For the Rorqual, in other areas of space:
  • Industrial Command Ships IV (8x) (prerequisite for Capital Industrial Ships)
  • Capital Industrial Ships V (12x)
  • Capital Industrial Reconfiguration V (8x)

Equipment

For maximum yield, a perfect booster requires a Tech II Industrial Core (Large for Orca, Capital for Rorqual) and a Tech II Mining Foreman Burst (see Command Bursts) loaded with the Mining Laser Optimization Charge. This charge reduces the cycle time of mining lasers by a base of 15%. Ship bonuses, skills (see Skills), and a mindlink (see Implants) can increase this reduction greatly, up to a maximum of 46.5% cycle time reduction for an Orca, or 61.5% cycle reduction time for a Rorqual. These reductions correspond with a 86.9% increase and 159.7% increase, respectively, in ore mining yield.

Two more Mining Foreman Burst IIs can be used to load the other two Mining Foreman Burst Charges: Mining Laser Field Enhancement Charge to increase range, and Mining Equipment Preservation Charge to reduce mining crystal damage (if they are being used). These don't directly improve yield, but longer range means less moving potentially has to be done, improving efficiency, and reducing crystal damage lowers input costs.

Implants

• Mining Foreman Mindlink - This is available on the market for about 50M ISK. It provides a +25% bonus to Mining Foreman Burst effect strength and duration.
  • This amounts to increasing an Orca's maximum mining cycle time reduction with Mining Laser Optimization Charge from 37.2% to 46.5%, and a Rorqual's from 49.2% to 61.5%. This increases the amount mined by 17.4% and 34.5%, respectively.

Is the price worth it?

If you make 200M ISK per week, the increased boost of ~17.5% (Orca) will give you an additional 35M ISK per week which will pay for itself in about 2 weeks.