Newcomer / Intro Daftie Mining Question

[Fachtna]

Currently working at unlocking Engineers.

I've made a list of materials needed etc and I see Sulphur, Iron, Nickel and Phosphorous are used by quite a few Engineers, especially for grade 1 upgrades.

Now, obviously, I need these and am currently reading up on mining but the one question I cant get answered is: Do these 4 items use cargo space?

I have seen a hint that they dont, but cant find any confirmation.

Cheers in advance

P.S> I'm gonna mine rather than surface explore. Can't get to grips with the SRV controls, so gonna read up on that while mining

 

[Ashnak]

No. Materials, like scan data, don't take up cargo space. And, unlike cargo or exploration data, they stick with you in the case of your ship blowing up. But your materials storage is limited to 1000 units in total.

 

[Fachtna]

Cheers for the prompt response
And the confirmation

 

[Limoncello Lizard]

P.S> I'm gonna mine rather than surface explore. Can't get to grips with the SRV controls, so gonna read up on that while mining

I hate using the SUV, but I like mining. So I do all my material collection via mining.

I have a thread dedicated to this: testing of mining for materials, where I have a list of places that are good for getting the less common materials. I've deliberately excluded the very common elements (C, Fe, N, P, S), as they are found pretty much everywhere in high concentrations. So if they are all you want, any metal-rich ring will do.

A few pointers:

1. Metal rich rings are the best place to mine for any materials (metal-rich > rocky > metallic > icy).
2. Don't take a refinery, so your limpets ignore everything except materials
3. Always take a prospector controller, mostly for the extra fragments, but it also lets you just mine medium and high content roids
4. It doesn't matter whether the ring is pristine or depleted, the material amounts aren't any better in pristine
5. Every ring has a specific set of materials that it will drop. See my thread above for examples.

 

[Fachtna]

I hate using the SUV, but I like mining. So I do all my material collection via mining.

I have a thread dedicated to this: testing of mining for materials, where I have a list of places that are good for getting the less common materials. I've deliberately excluded the very common elements (C, Fe, N, P, S), as they are found pretty much everywhere in high concentrations. So if they are all you want, any metal-rich ring will do.

A few pointers:

1. Metal rich rings are the best place to mine for any materials (metal-rich > rocky > metallic > icy).
2. Don't take a refinery, so your limpets ignore everything except materials
3. Always take a prospector controller, mostly for the extra fragments, but it also lets you just mine medium and high content roids
4. It doesn't matter whether the ring is pristine or depleted, the material amounts aren't any better in pristine
5. Every ring has a specific set of materials that it will drop. See my thread above for examples.

Thanks for the tips

I tried a wee shot at mining, not caring about efficiency or profit, just to get the technique right.
I took a refinery just to see how it worked.

So far,
Minerals refined: 103
Materials collected: 884

That has netted me
Carbon 9
Germanium 3
Iron 15
Manganese 3
Nickel 15
Phosphorus 12
Sulpher 12
Vanadium 3

Now, As I am looking to get heaps of Sulphur for the various engineers, the return there on Sulphur seems a bit short
Post on the forum all point out Sulphur coming out of their ears. Is that just because the have mined so much?

If I drop the refinery, will the materials rate increase or is it pot luck?

Any tips on increasing Sulphur yields or is it patience and persistance?

 

[Limoncello Lizard]

If I drop the refinery, will the materials rate increase or is it pot luck?

It makes no difference to the fragments dropped from a roid, whether you have a refiner or not. It's just that without a refinery you can't pick up the ores. This way the limpets will just focus on the materials.

Each ring is unique in the percentages that the materials will drop, though RNG plays a huge part in this as well. My best yields of Sulphur have been in Icy rings, though they are the worst ones to mine in for materials. But if you were to take some missions for bromellite or other ice only ores, it might be worth going mining in a pristine ice ring.
Otherwise: Ross 467, planet 1, ring A. This is a metal-rich ring with about 19% sulphur. It's also the best place I've mined for arsenic.