Newcomer / Intro How do people make money mining?

[mrsiCkstar]

So yesterday I decided to have a crack at mining. I fitted my Cobra MkIII with a refinery, prostector limpet controller and a mining laser and went to work. There was a planet with an asteroid belt right next to the station, so I just hit that.

Well, the limpets didn't work because apparently I have to buy them separately (if a station sells the controller, why doesn't it sell the limpets themselves?), so I had to bounce from asteroid to asteroid and mine each one a bit to see what came out. It took me forever just to mine enough water to get the meter to 100%. Then it said something like "material refined" or something. I went to look at my cargo, and all I got was 1 meager unit of water. Worth about 125Cr. In the time it took for me to mine enough water for 1 lousy unit, I could have probably made 500 000 credits hauling cargo and data.

I must be messing up really bad somewhere along the line, because the ratio of reward to effort and time put in seems really messed up. The easiest jobs, just hauling stuff from point A to B pay good money, and the stuff you have to actually put effort into doesn't pay anything.

What am I missing?

 

[Pyrotiger]

Pristine reserves. Metallic rings. Try that.

 

[StiTch]

Well I thought the same, and discovered the secret while trying to nail RNGineer mining commodities.

The answer? (hint, you're gonna love this one)

Big ships.

Seriously.

Python with 5 C2 mining lasers, a small fleet of collector limpets and a pristine metallic ring.

That last bit is important btw. Being serious for a smaller ship, use an online calculator to find your nearest pristine metallic ring. Technique is to jump in, fire prospector at asteroids, if it has any of the "P" resources keep, and jettison pretty much everything else. Use the planetary body the ring belongs to as a reference point and head toward it so you don't loop and start prospecting depleted asteroids.

And yes, use them limpets. Just don't bother without them. One prospector, and collector(s).

Find best nearby system for selling refined "P"s. Sell. Profit. Repeat.

 

[mrsiCkstar]

Thanks... I can't afford a Python just yet, so I'll have to push on in my Cobra. I'll give it another shot somewhere more profitable. I was just giving it a go yesterday to see how it worked. Just the amount of time it took to get the material to 100% was really long. I've seen mining missions that want you to mine like 10 or 20 units of something for 120 000 credits or so... with the pace I was going yesterday it would have taken me like 15 hours to do that lol.

 

[Arry]

I tried mining once: Fitting a T-6 and dropped in the the rings away from the RES area. After about 4 hours my mind, turned to mush. Nice profits though.

 

[Cmdr Andy B]

Well I thought the same, and discovered the secret while trying to nail RNGineer mining commodities.

The answer? (hint, you're gonna love this one)

Big ships.

Seriously.

Python with 5 C2 mining lasers, a small fleet of collector limpets and a pristine metallic ring.

That last bit is important btw. Being serious for a smaller ship, use an online calculator to find your nearest pristine metallic ring. Technique is to jump in, fire prospector at asteroids, if it has any of the "P" resources keep, and jettison pretty much everything else. Use the planetary body the ring belongs to as a reference point and head toward it so you don't loop and start prospecting depleted asteroids.

And yes, use them limpets. Just don't bother without them. One prospector, and collector(s).

Find best nearby system for selling refined "P"s. Sell. Profit. Repeat.

Anaconda mining build: https://coriolis.io/outfit/anaconda...0040406050505CeCeCe45P91v24.Iw18ZlA=.Aw18ZlA=

Corvette Mining Build: https://coriolis.io/outfit/federal_...4040000Cj06064fCeCeCe1vC0P9.Iw18Z5A=.Aw18Z5A=

 

[Mysturji]

^What they said^
A T6 or Keelback makes an adequate miner, but generally, the bigger the better

 

[Rob_the_Sparky]

Common misconception, you don't need huge numbers of mining lasers a single medium is enough to generate chips faster than 9 collectors can collect them and the refinery process them (the refinery can often be the bottle neck). Using more has some benefit but is not a requirement. I prefer to keep my other hard points for defence.
.
Big ships are needed for larger profit as lots of collectors, a refinery and a prospector are needed in addition to cargo space. I started with an Adder, but profits were small.
.
You get limpets from the station under "restock", you have to manually buy them.
.
Mining only the 3Ps is a good guide but sometimes the ring will not generate a lot of them. If you play the game as a game you can re-instance but if you play it for immersion then collecting slightly cheaper materials can give a better profit per hour than collecting nothing. Depends if your mining trips are cargo space or time limited. If cargo limited then yes 3 Ps only and ideally only Painite.
.
Sell materials to a station in boom, you get MUCH more cash. I've had over 70k per tonne of Painite through this but in Jaques I only get ~40k. A good run in my Anaconda can net ~2million an hour, a bad run half that.

 

[pipo zelvelder]

Another option in the game that can never be profitable without the use of internet to find pristine rings.

 

[Rob_the_Sparky]

Nope, it is easy enough to find them on your own, it just saves a lot of time to use 3rd party tools. Your point is what?

 

[pipo zelvelder]

My point is that this game greatly depends on time investing in tools outside the game. I don't like that. When I am playing this game, I have to open side programs to make any profit (like finding stations that sell what i need for a mission, or that sell stuff, or where profitable rings are, or where the engineers are, or where the engineer stuff is).

Without that, I am constantly interdicted for my engineering stuff, which are unmanageable without aid outside of Eliteangerous. I just think that is ridiculous, but that's me. Apparently, i am the only one

 

[jrb]

Haz Res in a Pristine Metallic Ring with a defensive build on a cutter.
There is profit to be made...3 "P" sales and bounties...
Delkar 7 never seems to run out of pirates or the 3 "P's"

 

[Rob_the_Sparky]

Not everyone likes it but it is how FDev have designed the game so not much point in moaning about it as it is not going to change. You/we have to either accept it and move on or go play something else.

 

[D.G.Cerberus]

My point is that this game greatly depends on time investing in tools outside the game. I don't like that. When I am playing this game, I have to open side programs to make any profit (like finding stations that sell what i need for a mission, or that sell stuff, or where profitable rings are, or where the engineers are, or where the engineer stuff is).

Without that, I am constantly interdicted for my engineering stuff, which are unmanageable without aid outside of Eliteangerous. I just think that is ridiculous, but that's me. Apparently, i am the only one

I understand what you are saying but your two statements are a non-sequitur I'm afraid.

The use of third party tools to find rings, commodities etc has zip to do with your level of interdictions for mismanagement of engineering "stuff" (I assume you to mean commodities here). There is enough on this forum to have formed just a basic conclusion - get the commodities last.

When I started this game I used no third party tools - I made and kept my own extensive database.....exactly like I used to do back in the 80's (Well not quite, I used paper back then and now it is Excel) in order to maximise profit. It is entirely possible to do that if you don't want to use tools, however as Rob the Sparky says, it saves a lot of time. They can often be inaccurate or not quite up to date, but they give invaluable pointers as to what might be the likely or logical outcome of a trade or other situation.

 

[Codger]

Check this thread. And by the way, you get limpets from the restock screen.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/244228-The-popular-guide-to-mining

That should get you going, it helped me

 

[Ashnak]

How people make money mining? Easily .

Seriously? The bigger the ship, the better. I recommend a Federal Dropship (I don't like the T-6).

You need:
- mining laser
- refinery
- prospector limpet controller
- collector limpet controller
- cargo racks

Optional:
- shields
- pest control (whatever you're most comfortable with, I prefer a turreted beam)

Fill up your hold to 60..80% capacity with limpets (restocking), find a pristine metallic ring, wait for pirates to move off.
Fire prospector, check results, repeat until you find a promising lump. In that case, go there, shoot mining laser, fire collectors, occasionally clean out refinery and materials inventory.

Yep, collecting cheap stuff (like water) isn't worth your time.

When you return to the station to sell your stuff, check missions first. Occasionally, you find someone who will offer you far above market rates for sourcing the stuff you already have in your hold.

Stuff to collect: Painite, Platinum (and other metals from the platinum group), Praesodymium. If you can't find anything else, collect Gold.

 

[goemon]

@OP mining without limpets isn't profitable. fullstop.

cobra mkiii can make a nice first mining ship, so - as others have said - it scales with cargo space and internals (for limpet controllers). cobra mkiv, t6, keelback ... and a bit like trading, mining missions are the way to go, till you have ~ 60t of cargo.

Another option in the game that can never be profitable without the use of internet to find pristine rings.

actually, pristine rings are found with a detailed surface scanner and a discovery scanner.

i have done so.

 

[mrsiCkstar]

Thanks everyone! Awesome tips. Once I got to the ring and noticed my limpet controller was "out of ammo", my first thought was the restock screen. But then I thought, nah, when I buy a weapon that uses ammo, it comes with the first load of ammo. Why would limpets be any different? I was wrong.

My cobra is loaded with 2 level 4 cargo racks for a total of 36t of space, a level 3 shield generator, then a refinery, the prospector limpet controller and a discovery scanner. I wanted to get a collector limpet controller also, but I don't have any compartments left. Maybe I should just ditch the discovery scanner, but I'm sure I'm going to need it for something. I figured scooping up the asteroid chunks wouldn't be too much of a drag, but there were a lot of chunks lol. Also, I kept having to eject materials all the time because the refinery was full.

 

[mistohise]

Another thing is they the level 2 mining laser is much faster than the l1. Can't remember if that's an option on the cobra though

 

[Limoncello Lizard]

But then I thought, nah, when I buy a weapon that uses ammo, it comes with the first load of ammo. Why would limpets be any different? I was wrong.

You may be in for a nasty surprise trying mine launchers. They don't come with ammo when you buy them, you have to load seperately.

Limpet controllers are more important than lots of cargo space. I've often mined in a iCourier. It only has 8 tons of cargo space, but you can also get the bins up to 100% which means this Courier can hold 14 tons of metal/ore.

edit - to answer the question in the title. The best way to make money mining in a small ship is through missions. Some of these pay in the millions.
if you have a big ship, missions are a bonus. But the real money is in quickly getting bulk heavy metal - platinum, paladium.