Mining

Mining is often the first profession new pilots undertake because you are equipped with a mining laser from the start. It´s also likely that someone is willing to pay you for the fruits of your mining labour.

You can mine ore from asteroids, which can then be sold or reprocessed into minerals. Minerals are the building blocks of everything a pilot needs. You can either use them to produce new items or sell them to others that do.

To start mining you need to warp to an asteroid belt. They can be located within most solar-systems marked with a Triangle. You can also use the contextual menu to locate one by Right-clicking anywhere in space and selecting the Asteroid field sub-menu.

When you find a suitable one, select the warp to sub-menu and select your desired range.

Asteroids come in different sizes and types, each yielding different composition of minerals. The most common of asteroids is Veldspar. It only yields Tritanium when refined, which is the most common mineral.

The security level of a system is a good indicator what asteroids you will find in that system. The highest level security systems will only provide Veldspar but by venturing into more dangerous territory you can quickly find Scordite, Plagioclase and Pyroxeres.

Although the most common asteroids can be found anywhere in New Eden there are some asteroids that are extremely rare and only can be found in 0.0 space. Arkonor the rarest of them all will yield high concentrations of Megacyte the most valuable mineral in existence.

Before you can start mining, make sure you are within range of your laser. By using the Show info option on your mining laser you can see its optimal range. This tells you how close you have to be to the asteroid.

Locate an asteroid and approach it if needed to be within range of your laser then Right-click to bring up the contextual menu on the asteroid and select the Target lock option.

Once you have targeted the asteroid activate the Mining laser. When the cycle of the mining laser completes a stack of ore is placed in your cargo hold automatically.

Different mining lasers and skills will affect the cycle times and the amount of ore you collect each cycle. Through time you can become a very effective miner.

Continue when your cargohold has been filled with ore.

When your cargohold is full you can dock at a station, empty your hold in your hangar and resume mining or reprocess the ore if you have enough.

An advanced way of mining known as Jet-can mining can make you turn profit more quickly.

The process is that you start by jettisoning the ore into a container, open the container through its contextual menu and then drag and drop the ore you mine into the open container.

Once you are finished mining you can use an industrial ship to move the ore back from the asteroid field to the station.

Be aware that a container will only last about 2 hours in the vacuum of space. If the container is destroyed so is the precious ore you mined.

By partnering up with a fellow capsuleer you can make more profit by assuming roles in your mining venture. One acts as the miner while the other transports the mined ore from the container back to the station.

Be aware that some unscrupulous pilots might want to try to steal your precious ore so trust is a factor. For this, it is best to be in a player corporation as that will enable better tools and trust between other pilots.

You can read more about mining here at our wiki