Mining and you

[Ranualf]

Having done a fair bit of mining since the new updates, I thought i`d put down a few thoughts/ ideas

Mining is basically a "spare time filler", when you don't want to do trading/ combat. Its fairly quite, and you usually do not see any enemy ships / fed police when your out there mining.
There is something satisfying about blasting rocks out of the void and making a healthy profit from it at the same time.
Of course there exceptions to this, if you decide to be brave and drop into a "populated" RES, as in High, Med, Low.

What are the benefits of the populated RES?
There is a greater abundance of the "rare" ores, such as gold, silver, palladium etc...
As you are in a asteroid field, as opposed to a belt, there are loads of rocks for you to point your lasers at, which in turn makes it  quicker to fill up your cargo hold.

Are there any drawbacks of populated RES?
There is all that ore just lying there to be blasted out of the rock, and the pirates know it!
If you drop into a RES, the level of the RES will dictate the level of skill required to kill the pirates, Low, Med, High.

What this means in the game is you can easily drop into an ordinary RES, and not be too bothered about being attacked by pirates. Yes they "may" appear, but the level of the pirate is very low - as in mostly harmless, etc. But if you drop into a populated RES, the level of it will dictate the level of pirates, and numbers also. Thus the higher the level of the RES, the harder the pirates are, and the size of their wings also.

What ship do i need to go mining?
There are now quite a few ships out there, which means you can have a vast degree of freedom when outfitting your ship.
I would state for the record, that you amount of disposable cash will dictate the type of mining ship you can get. Basically the more cash you have, the better mining ship you will have.
You can spend a LOT of cash on your desired mining ship, but you can also spend a "reasonable" amount. I know this, i have tried several configurations out and field tested them.
The basic rule of thumb is, you need a ship with "cobra like slots" or better, this will usually rule out small ships.  Meduim or larger will give you a lot of scope and freedom to mine with. But they will cost a LOT more.

Is there any money to be made from mining?
The short answer is yes there is, but...
The but is being at the right place at the right time. As you can pick up a mission from the station, asking you to find 1,2 4 tons of palladium, or Osmium, for which they will typically offer 10-14 times the base price for the mineral/ ore! Thus 1 ton of palladium usually sells for 10-14k, and they will offer you 100-140k for it! Now a smart man would use thrudd and fly out and buy it, and return making a huge killing, as well as some trade profit (you can always drag back extra palladium). This in turn may populate another palladium request.

The caveat in this is Osmium and Painite. These two ores can only be sourced at a RES.
Thus if you get a request to find 1,2 4 tons of these, it means you have to go mining. Bare in mind Osmium sells for 7k, and Painite for 33k per ton. Thus any request for these means that the payoff is going to be HUGE!
Examples of what they want
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxMxwl6KtsP3c2tZZV9YVE4xTzg/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxMxwl6KtsP3QVBSNmtlMDdXSHM/view?usp=sharing

I will state that the following examples are BASE MODELS and that there is a huge amount of variables to work with. As such, it will be down to personal preference, availability of spare funds and your combat ability which will determine exactly what you stick onto the ship.

Basic entry miner This little starter will set you back 160k
http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=70V,H7y,2-3m3m3m2C2C2C3c,05U0aa7OW5Py

Modest cobra miner This one will set you back just over 1 million creds.
http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=702,5Rr5RrH7yH7y,2-6u6u6u5K5K5K6k,0720727Re0Yi03w5PU

DBE miner This beastie will set you back 2.6 Million, and to be honest the cobra is the better choice, and much cheaper.
http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=70i,5TPH9WH9W,2-6u6u8S5K6u5K8I,0720720aQ7Q45Pe

Type 6 miner 2.25 million for a unarmed collector.
http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=70W,H7yH7y,2-5A6u6u3m5K3m6k,08c08c0725Sm7Pc0Yi03w
I would not usually recommend that you use a cargo ship as a miner, due to their inability to fight off the easiest opponent, without getting beat up. But if you take along a friend, then things become much easier.

Federal Drops ship miner This beast will set you back a serious amount of creds(25 million), and think twice about if you really need to! But its damn tough and can take care of its self easily vs vipers, cobras and eagles. Only similar or larger ships give it any hassle, such as pythons with friends or the Anaconda...
http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=704,mpWH9WH9W5TQ5CE5Rs,2-A0A08S8SA06u6k,0AA08c08c7RA0a65Sw03w

As you can see, the price range is pretty hefty in order to get a decent mining ship. But if you start out with a Cobra, and work at it, you can  make a huge return on your investment, if you get the request to find the ore.

Basic rules of your mining ship
1. You need a mining laser (DOH!).
2. The bigger the mining laser, the more power it needs- pay attention to this. As your ship may quickly deplete its weapons capacitor, making the laser ineffective.
3. You can have 2+ mining lasers on your ship, but look at rule 2.
4. You need a refinery, to convert the ore into minerals.
5. The larger (class) of the refinery and the rating of it will dictate the number of "bins" that the refinery has. Up to a class 4A refinery, which has 10 mins (max available).
6. Rule 5 means the bigger class and rating of your refinery will dictate the price, up to about 4.5million creds for a 4A!
7. You can only have one refinery, so no cheating by getting 2 low class ones.
8. Collection drones are optional, but they save a VAST amount of time(Recommended).
9. Think of some weapons for your ship, assume that they are all out to get you, you won't be far wrong...
10. If you have weapons, obey rule 2, as your weapons and mining laser(s) all consume power.
11. You need to assign fire groups to your mining laser(s) and collector / prospector drones.
12. Limpets- If you have a limpet controller, you are going to need some ammo for it.  DO NOT fill up your entire cargo with them, leave at least 10+ tons empty, the larger your ship the more space you may need, so double this if your in a drop ship or larger. For my mining python (204 tons) i usually take 160 tons of limpets.


Research and Prospecting.
Its all fine and well having a mining ship, but knowing where to go will lead to higher profits.
You can mine in Asteroid belts and in Planetary Rings, both can be seen in the System Map. Look for the following classifications written in their descriptions:
Look on the left side of you System map, and click a planet with rings (rocks be there)and look for the Reserves.
Reserves:   Type:
Pristine (highest contents)   Metallic (best)
Major (good)   Metal-Rich (mixed)
Common (mediocre)   Rocky (Minerals)
Low (low contents)   Ice (nothing)
Depleted (empty)   
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxMxwl6KtsP3a1NHem9oak5FNm8/view?usp=sharing

Where to mine
Asteroid belts- you can find these under your contact and are labeled as "system" Belt cluster 1, 2 ,3 etc.
They will usually contain several rocks, and have a higher than average ores, but there`s not many of them.
Planetary rings, loads of rock but the reserves will dictate the type of minerals you will find- pay attention to this.
Resource Extraction Site (RES) These are a natural habitat for miners, and pirates know that they are there, they want easy money!

Populated RES- High, Med, Low.
As discussed earlier, these offer higher quality materials as rewards and higher risk involved in getting the materials. Be prepared to defend your very life if you go into one of these! Or even better take a friend armed with a KWS, and make some extra bounty!

Bonus level
you can go into the populated RES alone, BUT...
DO NOT go within 20k of the RES Point, this should ensure that you will benefit from the extra resources without the annoying pirates beating on you.
The closer to the RES Point you get, the more combat you will be expected to see.. and other miners.

How to mine
Assuming you have a ship fitted out for mining, then all things are good.
Find your mining spot, go there, and drop out of supercruise.
Once into normal space, depending upon where you are, there may be several, or several hundred rocks floating about.

Deploy hard points and seek the rock you want to shoot at, ensure that your mining laser(s) is assigned a group by itself, and the same for the drones.
I usually make a new fire group up for this (weapon slots have their own group) and assign 1 for drone, 2 for laser.
Approach you rock, and slow down, as if you ram it, it is going to hurt- a LOT. I usually run with 4 pips to shields and 2 to weapons.
Depending upon size of laser (class 1/2) will dictate the range and time required to blast off a chunk of rock.You can see the chunks of rock visually float off (brown targets) and also see them under contacts.

The Mining Laser
The mining laser is in essence a short range beam laser, and as such this requires continuous fire in order to work. Short pulses of the laser just tickle the rock, long beam "strokes" work. This is where rule 2 comes into play.
A small laser usually takes 8 seconds or so of fire to blast off a chunk of ore, class 2 takes about 5 seconds. If you choose to double up lasers, you can blast off loads (10+) in a very short time, but remember that they will decay, and eventually "die".

If you have a small ship, and limited cargo, you HAVE to be picky about what you collect.
Thus, blast off a chunk, and click on it as a target (under contacts) this will tell you the composition of the chunk. It is common for the chunk to contain 2 minerals with a varying degree of content- this is displayed as Cobalt 9.2% Rutile 9%, etc etc. This will give you some idea of whats in the rock.
Small rocks can contain goodies, so don't just avoid them, you may just find Osmium or Painite!

What next?
So you have blasted off a chunk of rock, and are happy with what you have found.
If you don't have a limpet controller on your ship (FOOL), then you are going to have to scoop each bit of ore, one at a time.. this is VERY TIME CONSUMING!
However if you do have a limpet controller, this is what to do...
Remove your target ore, otherwise the limpet will die after 1 collection (i suspect this is a bug, but meh), drop your cargo hatch and then fire off a limpet, this little feller(s) will zoom about and grab anything in range (better class =larger range, and size = no. of active drones). I used a B5 limpet controller on the python, as it has a longer range than the type A, weird but also cheaper.

This will then deposit it into the refinery- and you have to manually accept/ reject the ore(s)
Basically press no.4 (right hand menu) - go to CARGO and your refinery will display what is currently in the hopper- awaiting your orders in the top left box[ ], the hopper can hold 2 types of ore at this point. Any full limpets will simple wait outside your ship until you decide what to do.
You can click it to accept the ore, or Vent- this will dispose of it.

After several collections (depending upon purity of the ore) you will have 1 ton of it put into your cargo hold /CHEER. Just rinse and repeat and make a fairly decent amount of cash. More so if the station want that ore.

This video explains a lot about what to do, and how to do it.
[video=youtube;2tsrXysKGsk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tsrXysKGsk[/video]

What to keep / Dispose
I have made a spreadsheet for you to browse/ keep and this gives all the rough values, and lets you know if its worth keeping or venting your minerals.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxMxwl6KtsP3Rm52Njh2YTRkbTQ/view?usp=sharing

I hope this guide helps you and remember, fly safe- as the pirates WILL be looking for you!

[TeaLeaf]

Excellent post!

[Ranualf]

Excellent post!

Thanks TL

I thought that i'd put down some thoughts about mining, as there is a lot of money to be made from it now.
If a few players went into a pop RES together, then they could make a decent amount off the bounties and ore, and have some fun blasting rock too