First Thoughts On Mining...

[MaxG10]

M00ka, I laser painite too, just from my experience, I do not even use prospect limpets anymore, I rather use them as collectors, laser a rock to see whether it coughs up painite, if so laaaaaaaaser until depleted, rinse and repeat. The prospects are needed for core mining after you pulse waved and identified some, and because not all of them orange/yellow rocks have a painite core, that's where you need the prospector for. For laser mining, they are not needed imho and you spare a module slot for which you can have another cargo instead. Btw. cargo, I also spare shields and whack another 64 cargo in that slot instead.

 

[Nasc]

M00ka, I laser painite too, just from my experience, I do not even use prospect limpets anymore, I rather use them as collectors, laser a rock to see whether it coughs up painite, if so laaaaaaaaser until depleted, rinse and repeat.

Although you will get more out of a rock if you prospect it first.

 

[MaxG10]

Although you will get more out of a rock if you prospect it first.

Why would that be? I laser until I can see in the Contact list no more materials added, or it says no valid targets anymore. If I shoot a prospect afterwards, which I tried, it reports a depleted asteroid.

 

[M00ka]

M00ka, I laser painite too, just from my experience, I do not even use prospect limpets anymore, I rather use them as collectors, laser a rock to see whether it coughs up painite, if so laaaaaaaaser until depleted, rinse and repeat. The prospects are needed for core mining after you pulse waved and identified some, and because not all of them orange/yellow rocks have a painite core, that's where you need the prospector for. For laser mining, they are not needed imho and you spare a module slot for which you can have another cargo instead. Btw. cargo, I also spare shields and whack another 64 cargo in that slot instead.

Thanks but while the 'taste test' does work, I find it is quicker to fire off a Prospector as it tells me how 'valuable' the asteroid is to me, i.e. is it worth my while. As for saving a limpet, out of the 100 I took with me, I ended up jettisoning around 25 of them to make room (lesson learned, no need to take some many minions).

Although you will get more out of a rock if you prospect it first.

Yep, I am 99% positive that you are correct, using a Prospector will guarantee more output from the asteroid.

EDIT:

Just confirmed via the Elite Dangerous Wiki, and I quote "Prospecting asteroids before mining results in double yield" Link So yeah, it is very beneficial to use Prospector limpets, basically cuts your mining time in half!

 

[Stealthie]

M00ka, I laser painite too, just from my experience, I do not even use prospect limpets anymore, I rather use them as collectors, laser a rock to see whether it coughs up painite, if so laaaaaaaaser until depleted, rinse and repeat. The prospects are needed for core mining after you pulse waved and identified some, and because not all of them orange/yellow rocks have a painite core, that's where you need the prospector for. For laser mining, they are not needed imho and you spare a module slot for which you can have another cargo instead. Btw. cargo, I also spare shields and whack another 64 cargo in that slot instead.

That would seem to be a bit inefficient.

I mean, prospecting increases the yield from 'roids, apparently, and it's not like we're desperate for every last collector limpet.
All you're doing is creating a situation where you have to shoot, say, 100 'roids to fill your cargo hold instead of 50 - thus proportionally increasing the time each mining trip takes.

 

[MaxG10]

Thanks folks, I was mistaken to not need prospectors then.

 

[Frank]

It seems to be gelling together now... Not done VO's yet but found a rather nice group of Alexandrite roids which pay ~250k credits per refined unit. 20 of those in the hold after a successful operation and, well, it beats radiant courier missions as something to do.

Maybe it's time FDev added a 4th Elite discipline - mining elite (based on tonnage or units of product).

You might want to add https://eddb.io/commodity/349
to your list of websites to visit. EDDB will tell you a good place nearby that you can sell yer Alexandrite. It should be easy to find someplace that buys them for 550,000 credits

 

[Soron Silin]

You might want to add https://eddb.io/commodity/349
to your list of websites to visit. EDDB will tell you a good place nearby that you can sell yer Alexandrite. It should be easy to find someplace that buys them for 550,000 credits

Oh please no. It would feel pathetic to be a multi-billionaire and still not have progressed more than one rank.

 

[Frank]

Oh please no. It would feel pathetic to be a multi-billionaire and still not have progressed more than one rank.

Sure. Play the game your way. Once them fleet carriers come I'm going to head out into the black with one and have a go at finding my very own triple hotspot

But the thing about choosing your own option is that you've got to know what the options are

 

[Seizewell Warrior]

You might want to add https://eddb.io/commodity/349
to your list of websites to visit. EDDB will tell you a good place nearby that you can sell yer Alexandrite. It should be easy to find someplace that buys them for 550,000 credits

550k per unit, now we're talking!

 

[Nasc]

550k per unit, now we're talking!

Forget about Alexandrite.

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Have sold this for 840k/ton before.

 

[d8veh]

For those that suggested the double Painite in the Hyades sector - thank you, first time I tried a double. Fairly new to mining, done a few VO runs but never, until today, tried one of the "doubles'. So I filled my trusty Krait MK11, the Phoenix Digger with 100 limpets (128 cargo space, fitted out for all types of mining) and off I went. Did the normal scanning bit, pinged the ring, got the hot spots and off I went. I was basically finding Painite in nearly every asteroid, never bothered with pings, just shot a Prospector at any asteroid that looked umm suitable (yep very unscientific approach hey lol).

Less than one hour later, I departed the ring with 128T of Painite in my hold plus another 8 in the refinery bins (for a total of 136T). Flew to where my research said is a good place to sell (about 200ly away, 5 jumps, nothing really), and sold the lot for a tidy profit of just over 107M credits.

Even got me thinking maybe I should repurpose my T9 but then I realised that about an hour or so is all I can normally stand mining so the fabled Phoenix Digger is about perfect for me. Luckily I'm not greedy huh!

200ly is too far. The furthest I've ever had to go is about 120ly. Use the eddb mining tool.

 

[M00ka]

200ly is too far. The furthest I've ever had to go is about 120ly. Use the eddb mining tool.

I agree but this was an exercise to see what all the hoopla about the double Painite rush was all about. The reason why I picked such a far away location to sell my wares was it was the highest selling price nearest my home location and in the Krait 200ly isn't a great distance at all.

 

[MaxG10]

Thanks to your all advice here... Got myself a spanking brand new.... she's a MONSTER.... Anaconda... A rated her, moderately engineered her.... took her for a mining trip.... and what do you know... a single mining trip paid for her including modules and all.... sold painite for 780k that was it.... and yes, weird enough but there is a difference in yield if you shoot a prospect at a rock first... the logic here I fail to see, but that's the way it works.

 

[MaxG10]

P.S. what I did not know... ahem... well I do not read a lot I guess... was that you can have more than one collector limpet controller.... having three 5A makes quite a difference in speed.

 

[Hank]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I went back to the old fishing hole near the house and had better luck. In about 3 hours I made ~~35mill. I know I'm a bit slow but I'm thorough.

I spent 50/50 time in a painite/serendibite overlap and a dbl rhodplumsite overlap and did not see any rocks with serendibite or rhodplumsite in or on. I got several painite rocks and my first painite blasting job (those are fun - so I may go back to some VO mining).

I will probably venture to Hyades Sector DB-X d1-112 next time I get the mining urge. thx again

GL HF Commanders

 

[Lestat]

I only stayed with the cobra for one run. I did get 36 Void opals on it. which was around 57 Million. I would have used that. Upgraded to a Asp Explorer or did 2 trips and got Python. Now the one thing about Core mining is less is more. I only use A3 collector and A3 Prospector. which give 2 each and you can move up the group of asteroids.

Now Old school mining. You seem to need 6 collectors for each asteroid but is boring as hell to do.

 

[Red Anders]

Thanks to your all advice here... Got myself a spanking brand new.... she's a MONSTER.... Anaconda... A rated her, moderately engineered her.... took her for a mining trip.... and what do you know... a single mining trip paid for her including modules and all.... sold painite for 780k that was it.... and yes, weird enough but there is a difference in yield if you shoot a prospect at a rock first... the logic here I fail to see, but that's the way it works.

Prospectors double the number of fragments that you get from each asteroid when laser mining. I assume the intent is to simulate more efficient mining due to having fully scanned the rock for all traces of the commodity which you're mining. They've always done that.

 

[Red Anders]

I made just around 400 million mining today.

Time for nerf I think.

Provocative

 

[GoryDamnPixie]

By the time I'd found rocks with any worthwhile minerals, my limpets were down to 50% from the prospecting. I then spent a frustrating time trying to line up seismic charges with the spinning rock, finally got the readout in the blue and - bang - failed to blow up the 'roid. Can't do sub surface stuff as didn't pack a mining laser, the few surface deposits I found blew off with the abrasion blaster and used my remaining limpets to collect the low grade rubble.

I'm going to make more money selling the nav data I acquired looking for systems with rings..!

Not giving up on it, but think I will be ditching the Cobra for something with a bit more space. Mining really needs to be like exploration where your ship is self sufficient and equipped to stay out for a while without coming back in to re-supply.

Have a watch of this when you get a better ship. A very easy to follow guide on void opal mining, also explains seismic charges very well

Source: https://youtu.be/137jFkyyHac