Mining
Contents
Mining
Mining involves grabbing a ship and a mining beam and extracting valuable ores from asteroids.
You generally use a scanner to identify which ores are in asteroids, get <100m away from the asteroid, and then fire a beam to start mining. When you mine the lower-level ores, you get 'premium' versions of that ore, as opposed to the regular version of the ore that is sold at stations.
The more you mine an asteroid, the hotter it gets. The hotter an asteroid gets, the slower it mines. All asteroids start at 10 degrees Kelvin. Efficiency drops off significantly after 20 or 30 Kelvin. Some miners can go to 200 or 400 Kelvin in certain circumstances and still feel that it was worth it for the profit. After you stop mining, the asteroid cools. Small asteroids heat and cool more quickly than large ones.
As you gain mining licenses, you will have access to better mining beams. Some beams will extract ores with a higher probability, which translates into higher efficiency in terms of time, heat, and money.
As you gain experience, you will learn which ores are valuable, where to find them, and where to sell them. You might even get involved with group mining, involving escorts, scouts, and transports.
List of Mining Scanners
There are only 2 scanners right now.
The Mineral Scanner has a range of 500m, and will activate whenever you 'target' an asteroid. There is no need to 'fire' it, flash the green light, etc. If you are going very fast, it will 'lag', as it only updates itself once every 5 seconds or so.
The Advanced Mineral Scanner is exactly the same as the Mineral Scanner except that it has improved range of 750. It is available only after completing 120 prospecting missions.
List of Mining Beams
Name | License Required | Range(meters) | Rate(kg/second) | Heat(K/s) | Mass(kg) | Specials (ore %) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Small: | ||||||
Mining Beam | 0 | 100 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 500 | None |
Large: | ||||||
Mining Beam | 1 | 100 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 500 | None |
Advanced Mining Beam | 2 | 100 | 1.8 | 0.9 | 500 | None |
Mining Beam Mk II | 2 | 100 | 2.4 | 0.8 | 500 | None |
Xithricite Mining Beam | 3 | 100 | 2.0 | 0.8 | 500 | Xithricite 200% |
Apicene Mining Beam | 3 | 100 | 2.0 | 0.9 | 500 | Apicene 240% |
Magneto Twin Mining Beam | 4 | 100 | 1.8 | 0.6 | 500 | VanAzek 180% Pyronic 180% |
Heliocene Mining Beam | 5 | 100 | 2.0 | 0.9 | 500 | Heliocene 200% |
Pentric Mining Beam | 6 | 100 | 2.4 | 0.9 | 500 | Pentric 200% |
IoPhase Mining Beam | 7 | 75 | 2.2 | 0.95 | 500 | Denic 300% Lanthanic 300% |
DeniPhase Ming Beam | 8 | 75 | 2.4 | 0.95 | 500 | Denic 250% Pentric 240% Lanthanic 240% |
High-Density Mining Beam | ? | 75 | 2.8 | 0.75 | 500 | None |
NB on Heat: A roid will heat up slower or faster depending on the size, a larger roid will heat up slower, the same is true for cooling down.
NB on High-Density Mining Beam: Requires the Master Prospector badge.
List of Ores
(Note: Information on this list will become incorrect as sectors are explored more thoroughly)
Ore Name | Mining Experience Points | Mass per cargo (kg) | Known Asteroid Appearance | Description in Station | Rough price range (credits/crate) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Common, found in almost every sector | |||||
Premium Aquean | 4 | 70 | White Ice, Blue Ice | Dirty ice, mostly H2O with trace chemicals. | low |
Premium Ferric | 6 | 200 | Rock, Blue Ice | Ore composed mostly of iron. | 70-200 |
Premium Carbonic | 5 | 150 | Rock | Ore which is heavy in carbon compounds. | 30-60 |
Premium Silicate | 5 | 150 | Rock, White Ice | Unrefined silicate material. | 20-70 |
Semi-common: (certain sectors of almost every system) | |||||
Premium Ishik | 7 | 150 | White Ice, Blue Ice | A common asteroid composition containing lighter elements and chemical compounds. | 100-500 |
Premium VanAzek | 7 | 250 | Rock | A common asteroid composition containing heavy and radioactive metals. | 100-400 |
Rare: (certain sectors of a few systems ) | |||||
Premium Xithricite | 8 | 300 | Green glowing rock | Ore containing the precious mineral Xithricite | 200-900 |
Denic | 15 | 150 | White Ice | Rare ore found often in young solar systems | 300-1800 |
Lanthanic | 10 | 200 | Sharp Rock, Blue Ice | Ore containing heavy and radioactive metals. | 700-1000 |
Extremely Rare: (often only a few asteroids in a sector) | |||||
Heliocene | 20 | 100 | Light Round Rock, Dark Round Rock, Dark sharp rock | Rare ore formed under intense heat and tidal forces | 400-2400 |
Pentric | 18 | 150 | Medium Tan Rock | A rare asteroid composition of complex chemical material | 400-2200 |
Pyronic | 12 | 250 | White Ice, Light Round Rock, and Dark Round Rock | Rare ore formed in the residue of a star’s collapse | 200-1200 |
Apicene | 14 | 200 | Sharp Dark Rock | A rare asteroid composition formed only at very high temperatures | 500-1500 |