I don't have access to a Cutter, (thought I'd get that out of the way first).
I've never mined before. I foolishly focused my efforts elsewhere and missed out on the credit farm that it apparently was recently.
I'd like to knock off the few mining achievements this game has, as well as get some materials for synthesis when I make my run to Sag A (hopefully in a week or two).
I'm probably going to focus on standard asteroid laser mining as it seems the simplest for someone so new to mining, but I'm open to suggestions.
Only just seen this post
As you are new to mining, the basics.
First of a ship, almost anything you are comfortable will do, my first mining was done in a T6, I would not recommend one now but it can be done.
Equipment,
Good shields, some of them rocks - the spinning ones can belt you pretty hard, they can hurt.
Lasers, preferably 2, you can work with 1 but it is slower, more than 2 and your limpets probably wont keep up.
Refinery, preferably a rated and nowdays the largest you can fit.
Collector limpet controller, go for A rated, a couple of 3A's will do to start.
Prospector limpet controller, only 1 required, I prefer 3A's, these you fire into a rock, target them and they tell you what is there, they also increase the yield of the rock. A's give max yield.
Detailed surface scanner, first time you approach a new ring you need to scan it, you can then see the hotspots, Hotspots only show if you have a scanner fitted.
Limpets, take lots, you can always throw them away to make space,
Optional equipment.
Pulse wave analyser, only used for looking for SD's, SSD's and Cores, these can also occasionally found with a prospector or by MK I eyeball.
Abrasion blaster, used for mining SD's, handy if you have space.
Sub surface displacement missile and Seismic charge launcher, used to mine SSD's and Cores only. both of these take practice to use, probably better to leave alone until familiar with working in rings.
Raw mats can only be found by laser mining, when you fire a prospector into a rock the material content is the amount of raw mats that are available, not all raw mats are available in rings, most are but some are only available in certain ring types and even then can be very rare, A raw mats trader will be your friend.
When firing lasers watch where the chunks fly off to, this can vary dependent on where you are aiming on the rock, the optimum point on and the distance to the rock can speed up your limpet collection time, it can also save most of your limpets with a spinning rock if you can get the chunks to fly away from where the rock is spinning. another way to speed up collection is to move and turn after finishing firing so the chunks are in the optimum collection position, these can vary dependent on type of ship and number of lasers fitted.
Keep an eye on INARA, sometimes its worth going after some of the slightly lower value commodities because they can be a lot easier and faster to collect or have a higher demand so are easier to sell fast than the latest craze.
It's always worth checking the reserve levels in the system map before mining in a new system and NPC's, well I mine from my carrier out in the black so I do not have to bother with them.
The build on one of my T9 miners
Ice Maiden
HTH o7