Mining

Overview

Mining is the profession of extracting ore from asteroids; these ores can then be refined into minerals which in turn are used in the production of all player created items, such as ships and modules. It is one of the few professions that is immediately available to beginning players and most EVE billionaires started their careers by mining. In its simplest form, mining can be accomplished by finding an asteroid site in a system and mining its asteroids with mining lasers.

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 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.