Mining in EVE Online is paramount to New Eden's economy. Mining provides the raw materials (ores, ice, moon minerals) needed to build nearly everything in the game, from Tech 1 modules to Tech 2 Battleships and Titans. Not all space in EVE Online has the same materials that can be mined, and therefore, some players may need to mine in different regions/locations to get the materials they are looking for. The market also works to source any leftover materials players would need to start manufacturing a certain module/ship.
Changes in mining activity affect mineral supply in real-time, which in turn affects ship prices; therefore, it can not be overstated enough how important mining is to EVE Online. Mineral-rich regions have driven large alliances and coalitions to major conflicts, where only one alliance would come out of the conflict intact. This activity is not exclusive to low/null security space, and Mining is a great entry point for players just taking their first steps in EVE Online, be it with a venture mining frigate or a more advanced Hulk Exhumer.
Basics:
Mining is the activity of extracting raw ore from asteroids spread out across New Eden. These asteroids can spawn in Asteroid belts around New Eden and in sites such as Cosmic Anomalies/Signatures. Once obtained, these raw ores can be refined into minerals that can then be used directly for manufacturing most items/ships in New Eden.
Players who enjoy Mining and/or are trying it for the first time are encouraged to go to the ship tree menu, selecting the faction ORE and observing all of the mining ships that can be accessed in New Eden there. While players can fit Miners to ships that have turret hard points, these ORE ships have bonuses to mining yield and cycle times, while also having a special mining hold that allows them to store more ore than a regular combat ship fit with Miners.
Once in the menu, players will be able to see the Venture as the first starting ship, which is a great starting ship to get acquainted with the playstyle. If a player finds the mining content useful, he can then start training towards mining barges, exhumers, and expedition frigates. It is also very useful to show information on the ship, head over to skills, and there they can find the mastery certificates and train towards those for better yields, better defenses, better ship fittings, and general skills that will prove useful to your mining vessel.
Mining Frigates: Use Miner I/II for mining asteroids and Gas Harvester I/II or Gas Cloud Scoop I/II for mining Gas Clouds
Expedition Frigates: Use Miner I/II for mining asteroids, Gas Cloud Scoop I/II for mining Gas Clouds, and Ice Mining Laster I/II for mining Ice
Mining Barges/Exhumers: Use Strip Miner I/II for mining asteroids, Gas Cloud Harvester I/II for mining Gas Clouds, and Ice Harvester I/II for mining Ice
Barges/Exhumers can also fit Modulated Deep Core Strip Miner I/II to be able to deep core ore such as Mercoxit (With a corresponding mining crystal fitted into the miner)
Industrial Command Ships: Can mine exclusively with drones, but are mostly used to give bonuses to the mining fleet they are in command of. They can also fit Industrial Core Modules that allow their fleet mates to compress the ore they have mined, and in turn, allow the ships to carry much more ore in a compressed state rather than carrying it raw. While having their Industrial Core Module active, players also have to activate their compressor to allow fleet mates to compress their raw ore.
The bonuses the command ships can provide:
Mining Equipment Preservation Charge I: Mining Crystal volatility bonus
Mining Laser Field Enhancement Charge I: Mining/Mining Survey Chipset range bonus
Mining Laser Optimization Charge I: Duration and capacitor-use bonus
Mining Laser Efficiency Charge I: Increased mining crit yield and chance
Useful modules/drones for Mining:
Mining Hard points: Miner I/II, Strip Miners, as covered earlier.
Mining Upgrades: Mining Laser Upgrade I/II and other variants. Fitting these modules in your low slots will boost your Mining Amount/Yield, but at the cost of your ship's CPU.
Mining Survey Chipset: Mining Survey Chipset I/II, once you land in a belt/anomaly with asteroids, clicking on the scanner and having it cycle will tell you about all the mineable asteroids in your proximity, what type they are, and how much ore is left in each individual one. As you mine the Asteroids after having completed a scan, you will see the amount of ore left in the asteroid deplete in real time.
Defensive Modules: Warp Core Stabilizers can prove effective if you are being warp disrupted or scrambled, and of course, fitting tank modules such as Multispectrum Hardeners and Shield Extender/Shield boosters for that extra bit of tank against NPCs that spawn in the belts.
Drones: Players can use mining drones to increase their mining output while mining, or they can use combat drones to protect them from belt NPCs while mining. NPCs spawn periodically into belts, and if a player is not careful and paying attention, they may kill their mining ships before they know what is happening.
Time to mine:
Now that our ship is fit up with the appropriate modules, it’s time to go mine some asteroids! Once you have located an Asteroid belt, we go ahead and warp to it. Upon landing, our survey scanner will show asteroids available in the belt and we have to decide if we want to mine that specific belt or look for better asteroids in a different belt/location. Once an asteroid has been picked out that we would like to mine, lock the asteroid and activate your mining lasers. Keep an eye out for NPCs that may warp into the belt and try to kill your mining ship, and once your mining ship is full of ore, head to a station/structure and offload.
When your mining lasers are cycling, there is a chance that your lasers will hit a pocket of ore in the asteroid so rich that the mining lasers will crit and bring in more ore than was expected in that specific cycle.
If players are looking for specific ores, the in-game map can be used to find those ores remotely:
Once players open the in-game map, the information sidebar appears alongside the map. It provides extra context about the selected filter if players filter for ores, helping you explore ore data and learn more about the resources you’re seeing.:
Ore Anomalies - displayed as pins, showing nearby anomalies within a 5-jump range.
Ore Distribution - showing where ore belts are located across New Eden.
Specific Ores - highlighting systems where particular ores can be found.
Mining Crystals/Residue:
Mining Drones and certain mining crystals fitted on Tech 2 Strip Miners, Modulated Deep Core Miners/Strip Miners will cause Residue, where a certain amount of ore will be removed from an asteroid and not be delivered to your mining hold/cargo hold, and be lost forever. If the aim is not to waste any ore located in the asteroid players are mining, it is suggested to use t1/faction Strip Miners to avoid any ore being lost. It is worth noting that if players are using mining drones, the drones will also have some residue when mining.
There are a lot of mining crystals that can be fitted to these T2 mining hard points. To be specific, there are 11 different types that are either Tech 1 or Tech 2 and range from A-C. These crystals will grant a yield bonus for ores stated in the description of the crystal when a player is mining them. There is, however, a residue loss when using almost all crystals, and these can vary based on the crystal being used. Tech 1 A crystal will have the least amount of residue, then Tech 2, with the second to last, and then it will steadily increase as you go down the list through the B and the C crystals.
Below you will find a list of which Crystals should be used on which ore:
Abyssal Asteroid Mining Crystal: A custom-cut frequency crystal whose refractive qualities are specifically suited to boosting yield when mining Abyssal Ores such as Bezdnacine, Rakovene, and Talassonite.
Coherent Asteroid Mining Crystal: A custom-cut frequency crystal whose refractive qualities are specifically suited to boosting yield when mining Coherent Ores such as Hedbergite, Hemorphite, Jaspet, Kernite, Omber, Ytirium, Griemeer, and Nocxite.
Common Moon Mining Crystal: A custom-cut frequency crystal whose refractive qualities are specifically suited to boosting yield when mining Common Moon Ores such as Cobaltite, Euxenite, Titanite, and Scheelite.
Complex Asteroid Mining Crystal: A custom-cut frequency crystal whose refractive qualities are specifically suited to boosting yield when mining Complex Ores such as Arkonor, Bistot, Spodumain, Eifyrium, Ducinium, Hezorime, and Ueganite.
Exceptional Moon Mining Crystal: A custom-cut frequency crystal whose refractive qualities are specifically suited to boosting yield when mining Exceptional Moon Ores such as A custom-cut frequency crystal whose refractive qualities are specifically suited to boosting yield when mining Variegated Ores such as Crokite, Dark Ochre, Gneiss, Kylixium, Monazite, Loparite, and Ytterbite ores.
Mercoxit Asteroid Mining Crystal: A custom-cut frequency crystal whose refractive qualities are specifically suited to boosting Mercoxit yield.
Rare Moon Mining Crystal: A custom-cut frequency crystal whose refractive qualities are specifically suited to boosting yield when mining Rare Moon Ores such as Carnotite, Zircon, Pollucite, and Cinnabar.
Simple Asteroid Mining Crystal: A custom-cut frequency crystal whose refractive qualities are specifically suited to boosting yield when mining Simple Ores such as Plagioclase, Pyroxeres, Scordite, Veldspar, and Mordunium.
Ubiquitous Moon Mining Crystal: A custom-cut frequency crystal whose refractive qualities are specifically suited to boosting yield when mining Ubiquitous Moon Ores such as Zeolites, Sylvite, Bitumens, and Coesite.
Uncommon Moon Mining Crystal: A custom-cut frequency crystal whose refractive qualities are specifically suited to boosting yield when mining Uncommon Moon Ores such as Otavite, Sperrylite, Vanadinite, and Chromite.
Variegated Asteroid Mining Crystal: A custom-cut frequency crystal whose refractive qualities are specifically suited to boosting yield when mining Variegated Ores such as Crokite, Dark Ochre, Gneiss, and Kylixium.
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