Mining And Minerals

Mining, what do I need?
If you just started out as a new character you are already fitted for mining thanks to the brand new Civilian Mining Laser fitted to your ship. While this mining laser is far from great, and you will want to get a better one as soon as you can afford it, it will help you start to mine and make that all important isk.

Finding an Asteroid
Start by finding an asteroid, simply right click anywhere in space look for an asteroid belt in the pull down menus that pop up. Select one of them and warp to it. When you arrive you may see some asteroids, or you may not see any at all. If you do not see any select a new belt and go to that one. Many belts are 'striped mined' by organized groups of players and as a result do not exist until they spawn again. When you do find some asteroids look for one you wish to mine and right click on that one and target it. Fly to within 10km from that asteroid and press the icon for you mining laser. You have now begun to mine that asteroid - congratulations. Note that your range from the asteroid does not affect the speed at which you mine, you just need to be within the max range of the laser - and the range of both the miner 1 and the civilian mining laser is 10km.

I'm mining now, what next?
Once your cargo hold has filled you can do a few things,

You can bring back your load of ore to the nearby station - make *sure* that the station you are using has a refining facility. Keep doing this until you have enough ore for either one refine or more (show info on the ore will tell you the number needed). This will take you a few trips in a starter frigate.
You can jettison the ore by right clicking on it and selection jettison, however lets review what 'jettison' means first - To "cast overboard or off: a ship jettisoning wastes". What that means is that once you jettison anything the game no longer recognizes it as yours. You do not own the items you jettison. Any items you jettison will appear in a cargo container floating fairly close to you. You can add and remove ore to this container as long as you are within 1500 meters of it. Be warned that other players can as well, and they rarely add items to your containers. In fact some players have made a profession out of taking items from containers that players jettison. As the game does not see you as the owner of these items you can not do anything to stop them - as you threw it overboard. For more information on 'Ore Stealing' please look at <Why is it so easy to steal ore (from support database)>
Why would you do this with this risk you may wonder? Many players have more that one ship, and by filling a container like this and they swapping to a different ship, one with a much larger cargo hold, you can move the ore back to the station much, much faster.

I have all this ore at the station, what now?
You can either refine the ore into minerals, or you can see the ore directly. Until you acquire a few of the refining skills, which you will have to purchase if you want to, you will most likely earn more isk selling the ore than refining and selling the minerals. This is due to players with high refinery skills buying the ores and refining the ores themselves. Please check the table at the bottom to see what ores refine into what minerals and look at the market for the amount you can get for each mineral and compare it to the income you would receive for selling the ore outright. Using the market effectively requires some basic math skills, and you do want to make the most isk you can now right?

What about 'good' asteroid types?
Good, or rare, asteroid types are found in lower security space. In 0.8 security level space NPC (non-player character) pirates will attempt to stop you from mining. These NPC pirates are easily destroyed however. As the security level decreases lower and lower (to 0.0) the pirates will get harder and downright extreme. In low security space it is extremely dangerous to mine alone - and often fatal. Even groups can have issues in some areas. A 'rough' estimate of how rare the ore is can be seen by its name. Arkonor (A) sells high, and contains some of the rarest minerals, where Veldspar (V) sells low, and contains the most abundant mineral in all of EVE - follow the alphabet. The closer to A the more the ore is worth - roughly.

Now that I have got some isk, what is a good upgrade?
A good upgrade to get early on is a new ship. Each race has a frigate that is cheap, fits two mining lasers, and has a bigger cargo hold; and has a "60% to mining laser capacitor use" bonus as well. This is a good upgrade to start with if you would like to make isk as a miner.

Race Ship

Amarr Tormentor

Caldari Bantam

Gallente Imicus

Minmatar Probe

Also a good idea is to upgrade to a better mining laser as soon as you can, The Miner 1 laser mines 40 units per 60 seconds, vs the 20 with your basic miner - that is a huge 100% mining increase, and you already have the skill needed to use it. You'll mine twice as fast now.

Race	Ship
Amarr	Tormentor
Caldari	Bantam
Gallente	Imicus
Minmatar	Probe

Mining Drones
Mining drones allow you to have remotely operated mining drones. These drones mine for you and return their loads to your cargo. To use a mining drone you need two skills, Drones and Mining Drone Operation. After that all you need are the drones. Drones are not as good as a single mining laser, but they help you mine just a little bit faster, and the more you have the more you can mine in a given period of time. Note that for one drone to be used you need level one in Drones, for two you need level 2 in drones, ect. Using Drones and Drone Interfacing you can control up to ten drones, more if you are using a ship that allows extra drones to be used as a ship bonus.

Deep Core Mining (DCM)
Deep core mining allows you to fit a DCM laser to your ship. These DCM lasers can mine any ore, but are only truly useful when mining Mercoxite, the rarest or the rare ore types. These asteroids are found only in the farthest edges of the known universe. While mining a mercoxite asteroid the laser gives off a toxic gas near your ship. This gas is harmful to you and your ship. The cloud will drain your shields and eventually destroy your ship if you do not move away and repair as needed. You can not mine a mercoxite asteroid with any other mining laser type. The mercoxite asteroid is the only known source of the mineral morphite, a mineral used in upper level technology construction.

Survey Scanners
Survey scanners require the surveying skill. These mid-slot devices are used to perform a scan on any asteroid within its range and tell you how many units of ore you will be able to mine from that asteroid. You must clear the scanner and scan again to receive updated results.

Processing skills
Currently we know of 16 ore types, for each of these ore types you can train a specific skill unique to that ore type to become a better refiner on that type of ore. Each level or training you complete will decrease the waste by an additional 5% on that mineral type in addition to any other refining skills you may have. As these skills are higher end skills you will have to already have completed refining to level 5, and Refining Efficiency to various levels depending upon which ore processing skill you wish to learn.

Ore And Minerals

Asteroid Tritanium Pyrite Mexallon Isogen Nocxium Zydrine Megacyte Morphite

Mercoxite 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 440

Arkonor 255 0 0 0 0 124 249 0

Bistot 0 127 0 0 0 255 127 0

Crokite 245 0 0 0 245 497 0 0

Spodumain 525 105 0 0 0 0 105 0

Dark Ochre 187 0 0 0 337 187 0 0

Gneiss 128 0 128 257 0 128 0 0

Hedbergite 0 0 0 531 318 0 0 0

Hemorphite 159 0 0 159 318 0 0 0

Jaspet 194 194 388 0 194 0 0 0

Kernite 289 0 579 289 0 0 0 0

Omber 230 92 0 230 0 0 0 0

Plagioclase 192 384 192 0 0 0 0 0

Pyroxeres 633 44 90 0 0 0 0 0

Scordite 624 312 0 0 0 0 0 0

Veldspar 750 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Correct with *no refining skills* on build 1724 - may change in the future

Ore And Minerals
Asteroid	Tritanium	Pyrite	Mexallon	Isogen	Nocxium	Zydrine	Megacyte	Morphite
Mercoxite	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	440
Arkonor	255	0	0	0	0	124	249	0
Bistot	0	127	0	0	0	255	127	0
Crokite	245	0	0	0	245	497	0	0
Spodumain	525	105	0	0	0	0	105	0
Dark Ochre	187	0	0	0	337	187	0	0
Gneiss	128	0	128	257	0	128	0	0
Hedbergite	0	0	0	531	318	0	0	0
Hemorphite	159	0	0	159	318	0	0	0
Jaspet	194	194	388	0	194	0	0	0
Kernite	289	0	579	289	0	0	0	0
Omber	230	92	0	230	0	0	0	0
Plagioclase	192	384	192	0	0	0	0	0
Pyroxeres	633	44	90	0	0	0	0	0
Scordite	624	312	0	0	0	0	0	0
Veldspar	750	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Correct with no refining skills on build 1724 - may change in the future

Mining and related skills

Skill Skill type What it does

Mining Industry Skill for mining asteroids. +5% Bonus to mining yield.

Astrogeology Science Skill at analyzing survey scanner data. 5% Bonus per level to mining laser yield.

Refining Industry Basic refining. -2% refining waste reduction per level.

Refinery Efficiency Industry Better refining. -4% refining waste reduction per level.

ORE TYPE Processing (16 skills) Industry These 16 skills apply to specific ore types (one for each ore), -5% waste per level
Updated: 26 Aug 2004

Skill	Skill type	What it does
Mining and related skills
Mining	Industry	Skill for mining asteroids. +5% Bonus to mining yield.
Astrogeology	Science	Skill at analyzing survey scanner data. 5% Bonus per level to mining laser yield.
Refining	Industry	Basic refining. -2% refining waste reduction per level.
Refinery Efficiency	Industry	Better refining. -4% refining waste reduction per level.
ORE TYPE Processing (16 skills)	Industry	These 16 skills apply to specific ore types (one for each ore), -5% waste per level