Ice harvesting
Ice Mining is the process of mining in ice belts, and then refining it into fuel for Player Owned Structures and Capital Ship Jump Drives.
Special modules are required for ice mining, which produce exactly one unit of raw ice each cycle - except for the Mackinaw, which produces exactly two. Each piece takes up 1,000m3 of cargo space. Increasing mining yield, therefore, is done by reducing the cycle times of the modules.
Advantages of Ice Mining
- Reduced work for the miner.
- Ability be self-sufficient in terms of POS fuels.
- Lower penalty for working without a hauler - longer cycle times mean fewer trips to the station.
- Ice asteroids are huge - very small chance of actually having one pop.
Disadvantages of Ice Mining
- Reduced ISK yield compared to normal mining.
- Smaller demand for ice products
- Increased chances of suicide ganks.
Ice Asteroids
In empire space, there are a few systems in each region that have an ice belt. The nearest one to Aldrat is in Eygfe, and more can be found on maps such as dotlan.
Ice belts are very visually distinctive. Hundreds of kilometers long, each huge asteroid can contain well over 100,000 pieces of ice.
Ice Ore
There are 4 basic types of ice asteroid that match the faction that controls the local space. With perfect ice refine, each type will always produce:
- 50 Heavy Water
- 25 Liquid Ozone
- 1 Strontium Clathrates
as well as one faction-specific isotope:
| 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. As usual, the Retriever is the recommended starting point:
Retriever
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 9:30 minutes.
Improving Cycle Times
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 will give us a base cycle time of 450 seconds.
Tech 2 Modules
The Ice Harvester II is available once Ice Harvesting 5 has been trained, which has a base cycle time of 500 seconds, and 375 seconds after the skill bonus is applied.
Ice Harvesting Upgrades
We can reduce the cycle time even further by using Ice Harvesting Upgrades. These basically work the same as Mining Laser Upgrades, but the bonus reduces cycle time instead of increasing yield. A T1 upgrade gives a 5% bonus with a 10% CPU penalty, and a T2 upgrade gives a 9% bonus with 12.5% penalty. Obviously our ultimate aim is two fill both of the low power slots with these modules for a combined cycle reduction of 18%.
Only a single upgrade can be fitted on a retriever, and if you have access to a hauler it is a good idea to use a cargo expander in the spare lowslot, even if you don't have enough space for another ice block. The reason is that the retriever's base cargo space (2000m3) fits 2 blocks exactly, 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
The Hulk and Mackinaw are the best ice mining ships; choosing between them is a matter of preference and situation.
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 so for every cycle you receive 4 pieces of ice instead of three.
Cargo Space The hulk is capable of holding at least 8 pieces of ice compared to the mackinaw’s 6, so the hulk can stay out longer before having to return to that station if solo mining.
Survivability While most ice mining is done in hisec, suicide gankers often see the AFK nature of ice miners as an advantage. In hulkageddon 3, the systems with most casualties were Nakugard, Oppold and Eygfe: all systems with ice belts. The hulk has an increased chance of surviving a ganker attack then the mackinaw does.
Price Most dedicated miners will own a Hulk for high-yield mining, so frequently the Mackinaw is bought as a second ship dedicated to ice mining, and as such significantly increases purchase costs compared to using the Hulk.
Perfect Ice Mining Requirements
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 4min 20sec
