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Introduction
This work is supposed to be the most comprehensive guide about mining in EvE Online as possible. Of
course it's not complete, and my written English is not as good as I think it to be :) but it's information
which is valauble, not the language :) So, here you go...
After finishing the tutorial, you will have a small amount of ISK to start your life in EvE universe. You will
need work to make your wallet thick. There are many paths you can choose, both legal and illegal. One of
the safest way to get rich is mining. It's not that fun as killing pirates, but a bit of planning and knowledge
can make it a good way to make big ISK.
The Ships
Starting out, you have a ship with poor quality weapons and basic mining laser. It's not enough to get you
out of trouble or make large amounts of cash either. You should upgrade your ship and its modules as fast
as possible.
First of all, get a decent mining vessel. Skill up for your race Frigates and pick up the one with the biggest
cargohold. For Gallente suitable mining frigate is Imicus. Now buy two mining lasers. Keep in mind, that
you also need to train Mining as this increases your mining yield and enables you to use more advanced
equipment.
Now you can go and do some mining. After you made some ISK, you should consider Can-Mining. You need
to skill up Frigates to level III, so you can train Industrials. These are big transport ships, which can easily
haul large amounts of ore. You need about 500.000 ISK to buy an Indy. The best choice for Gallente is
Iteron Mark III (but before you skill up in Industrials, get Itty Mark I). You should also change your frigate
now, as you won't need big cargo hold anymore. Look for bonuses that increase mining yield or reduce
mining laser capacitor use. When playing Gallente, your choice is Navitas (and yes, it's cheaper than
Imicus). Fit it with your Mining Lasers. You should now be able to fit Miner II's. Navitas offers yield bonus
for miners – each level of Gallente Frigates gives you 20% more yield, so if you have Frigs lvl III you will get
3,2 mining lasers output instead of 2 :) But what to do with ore you ask – jettison it! This will make a huge
container (27500 m3; remember that it's valid only 1,5-2 hours), where you can store your freshly mined
ore. This requires some clicking, but this way you won't have to go back to your base every few minutes.
When your can is full, go to your base and switch ship from the frig to indy. Go back to your can (it's good
idea to bookmark it, check bookmarking below) and move the ore from it to your indy's hold. Haul it to the
base and repeat the process if necessary.
Barge Mining requires large amounts of ISK and lot of training, but it can prove profitable. You should train
following skills: Science, Industry, Mining, Astrogeology and Finally Mining Barges. Don't buy Procurer yet,
it's not really worth it. Train for Medium Barge – Retriever. This lumbering beast can full its holds every 3
minutes, so you need to hire a hauler or do can mining as before. Remember that barges are *VERY* slow
and vulnerable. If solo mining (check below) your choice would be few drones for protection – Hobgoblins +
Acolytes or Hammerheads. That will keep you safe enough in most .5 areas.
Remember about Rats – NPC pirates. You will probably be able to handle them in 0.5 areas, but you can't
possibly defeat a cruiser with Mining Barge or a cruiser fitted with mining lasers only. Drones will be a smart
choice.
The Ores
It would be a headache to try and remember all the ores and their values, but as a rule of the thumb it can
be handy and easy to remember that the ores values are in the set in alphabetical order, with a few
exceptions (Spodumain etc.). So basically, as you go lower in the alphabets the ore values decrease as well.
Veldspar and Scordite can virtually be mined in any region. However, Kernite and Pyroxeres is specific to
Amarr/Caldari space. Similarly, Plagioclase and Omber can be mined in Caldari, Gallente and Minmatar
space.
Don't drool over the ore you mine. As a matter of fact, some ores are more valuable than others, but time is
more valuable than anything else. Besides, if you ever read the news, then you'll have read about 'blood
diamonds' and 'gold rushes,' but never about 'conflict aluminum' or 'blood copper.' At the beginning of the
twentieth century, the world's richest man was Andrew Carnegie, and he built his fortune on iron and steel.
Build yours on speed, thrift, and efficiency!
More information about ores: Ores vs Security.
Group Mining
Interact with other players is the beauty of an MMORPG. Mining is a job you can do in groups as well. A well
planned party can in fact make it a more than worthwhile effort if they stick to their tasks.
To mine in groups, the first thing has to assigning roles to individuals. The player attributes matter a lot in
this so the better miners should always be mining instead of hauling the ores to the stations. While the
military minded individuals can add a lot of security to your group's profits.
For security, it is important that the guard's ship is well equipped to handle pirates and NPCs alike. And while
there is nothing else to do, the guard should always give a helping hand in the mining to max the yield!
Using mining drones is a very good idea.
for error. It's very useful to have at least 3 warp stabs on board, and some nanofiber structure, too (it
increases overall ship agility). ECM's are not recommended, because you'll probably get caught by 10 – 15
player groups, so it would be of no use. When travelling through low sec it's also recommended to mask
your signature. How would you do this? By putting offline/unfitting all unnecessary modules, mainly
weapons, because they make your signature a lot biggger and lock-on time on your ship is thereby shorter.
Always try travelling in bigger groups, as this will make your opponents think twice before engaging you.
Bookmarks or so called instajumps might come in handy.
Miners should fly at least cruisers or battlecruisers, as they have much better defenses than Mining
Barges, with only slightly less mining yield. Of course you can Barge Mine in 0.0, but you have to consider
the fact that you probably will loose your ship. Best choice are Miner II's and Deep Core Miners. Mining
Drones will increase yield, too. Hope lies with Exhumers (Tech II Mining Barges), as they have very good
defenses (various armor resistances, twice as much armor and shields), unfortunately they are not yet
wide-available.
Haulers should fly Blockade Runners (tech II industrials). Avoid flying tech I indys to 0.0, because they are
very slow and vulnerable. You can also check „Group Mining” above.
A Tip or Two
• The Planning- Use Bookmarks
After checking for potential pirate threats, pick an asteroid and plan your mining the Ninja style. Appear and
disappear in the mining region through Bookmarks. This way the NPC rats, and any potential pirates will
have a hard time catching up with you, even if they do find out that you exist!
The idea is to bookmark your asteroid so that the next time you jump back, you should be roughly 15km
away from where you want to go. Simply, set your ship camera so it is looking behind you, straight at the
jump point. Start moving toward your asteroid. Go past your asteroid and keep going until you are 15km
away from it, and 30km from the station, in a straight line of sight. Once you are there, bookmark the spot.
You do this to save loads of time during your mining runs, as jumping from the gate will always dump you
15km before your bookmark.
Last, but not least, try to set a bookmark as close to the station as possible in order to save time on the
return trip. A distance of about 8km should do. Okay! Do a test-run to make sure it all works as it should,
and adjust your bookmarks if necessary. Time to mine!
Solo Mining
Solo mining is basically doing all your work by yourself. Though you get all the profits from your job but
consequently you mine less ores and there is no one around to help you out in trouble.
Having said that, if planned well, the solo mining can be just as profitable if you set your bookmarks well
and warp in and out of the mining zone without letting any pirates keep track of your activities.
The basic thing a solo miner should remember is never to draw attention. It's a sure way to attract trouble.
If there are pirate ships around get out of the area before they get close, the scanner can be slow to show
the pirate ship so give yourself a margin of at least 30 km to make a safe escape.
Advanced Mining
A newbie would pass the chance to get to more valuable ores in the low security areas, at least until he has
a better ship and PvP equipment to face the ever raging pirates without being podded too often.
But the advanced miners, with better ships and skills to boast, don't usually die wondering. If there is profit
to be had, it's very likely that they'll go for it. However, even for daredevils, advanced mining in low security
areas is a sport that requires much planning and guts.
Drone mining
In the world of EvE there are various drones, which make life easier. Of course, mining drones are available,
too. Training your Drones skill is essential, as this lets you use more drones. You should consider training
Drones to level V and Mining drones. Five mining drones have similar output as Miner II.
AFK mining
As the abbreviation says: away from keyboard mining. Fit an Industrial (huge cargohold) with mining laser
and there you go. But beware, there may be neither ship nor pod when you get back ;) Secondly, asteroids
get depleted, so when you get back in, let's say, 30 minutes you may have almost empty cargohold, because
asteroid vanished 2 minutes after you started mining it.
Macro mining
One of shadowy techniques, used to make really BIG amounts of money. Some people have written scripts,
that do all the work automatically – locking on asteroids, mining, going back to base, running away from
rats. While it surely is profitable, it's cheating though. CCP puts a lot of work to make EvE economy working,
while this kind of mining results in flooding the market with ore, thus lowering the prices and poisoning
game economy that way.
I haven't used such scripts myself, but people did and got banned by GM's for that. I don't recommend using
macro mining scripts, as this poisons the game economy – and it's cheating of some sort.
Ores vs Security
Ore Info
Veldspar
Scordite
0.7 and below for Caldari space. 0.4 and below in Minmatar space, 0.7 and below for
Amarr space, 0.9 for Gallente
Plagioclase
0.9 (quite rarely), but quite common in most systems in the 0.5-0.8 range. You'll find
more in a 0.5 than you will in a 0.7 system.
Pyroxeres
0.7 and below, mostly found in 0.5, Gallente/Minmatar space has this. Amarr/Caldari
space doesn't.
Omber
Amarr space, 0.7 and below. In Caldari space, only in 0.4 and below, never in 0.5+.
This is why isogen is much more expensive in Caldari space than it is in Amarr...
Kernite
0.4 and below. Not found in low sec in Caldari space though. I'm told that you can find
this in 0.5 systems in Minmatar space, but I haven't looked to confirm this.
Jaspet
Same as Hedbergite. Both of these are fairly common in 0.0 space and can be found in
low sec.
Hemorphite
Ore Info
0.2 is the highest I've seen it in, though you may find it in higher sec than that.
Certainly not any higher than 0.4 though. Yehaba is an example of a 0.2 system with it.
Hedbergite
0.0 only I have seen Arkonor personally in Curse, Outer Ring, Great Wildlands, old Xetic
space.
Arkonor
0.0 only I've seen it in Curse, Outer Ring, GW, Xetic. Pretty sure Fountain has this ore.
Bistot
0.0 only I've seen it in Stain, Outer Ring, Syndicate, Venal, Vale of the Silent, Pure Blind
(tonnes in EC-P8R, 1 jump from safe Empire).
Crokite
0.0 only Seen it in Syndicate (PF-346, for one jump from Empire mining), Outer Ring
Dark Ochre
0.0 only I've seen it in Curse
Gneiss
0.0 only. Saw some in Providence/Catch and some in Curse.
Spodumain
0.0 only, you need special equipment to mine this one (Deep core mining laser)
Mercoxit
Ore name Volume Units Tritanium Pyerite Mexallon Isogen Nocxium Zydrine Megacyte Morphite Base Price ISK / m3
Ice Ore
Ore Name Volume Units Heavy Liquid Strontium Oxygen Nitrogen Helium Hydrogen Base ISK / m3
Water Ozone Clathrates Isotopes Isotopes Isotopes Isotopes Price
Ore Name Volume Units Heavy Liquid Strontium Oxygen Nitrogen Helium Hydrogen Base ISK / m3
Water Ozone Clathrates Isotopes Isotopes Isotopes Isotopes Price
Copyright notes
I, Łukasz Poźniak, am not the author of this entire work. This is merely a compilation of various information
from various sources, so it can be easily read, all in one document. Some parts in this work are my own
(Introduction, The Ships, Mining in low sec areas, Survey Scanner, Drone mining, AFK mining, Macro
mining). More information can be found here:
www.eve-online.com – EvE online website
www.eve-offline.net/ore.dxd – Ore tables
www.davewhite.net/eve/minerals.asp – Ore calculator
www.eve-db.com/articles/mining/advanced/ - About Mining
All trademarks and/or company names used in this document are used with informational purpose only.
This document can be distributed freely, without modification and with this copyright note intact.