Newcomer / Intro I know there are some threads about mining out there, but...

[Ashnak]

From what I've seen so far, you need a refinery, at least for the stuff you collect in space. Not sure about the stuff on the ground, though.

Not entirely true. You need a refinery for collecting minerals, which are commodities that can then be sold on the market.
You don't need a refinery for collecting materials which you need for engineering (or synthesis receipes).

In space, you can collect both minerals and materials. On the ground, you can only collect materials. The difference being that you can only get the lower tier materials in space (from asteroids), while you can get all tier materials from planetside sources.

The option to collect materials also from asteroid belts has saved the occasional explorer's bacon when they found out that thay can only reach another system by jumponium synthesis, but have neither the necessary materials on board nor the possibility to go surface prospecting (either from missing an SRV or suitable landable planets in that system). Hence the recommendation for explorers to carry a small mining laser - and the creation of the Rock Rats as support group alongside the Fuel Rats.

 

[CMDR Timber McWolf]

Not entirely true. You need a refinery for collecting minerals, which are commodities that can then be sold on the market.
You don't need a refinery for collecting materials which you need for engineering (or synthesis receipes).

In space, you can collect both minerals and materials. On the ground, you can only collect materials. The difference being that you can only get the lower tier materials in space (from asteroids), while you can get all tier materials from planetside sources.

The option to collect materials also from asteroid belts has saved the occasional explorer's bacon when they found out that thay can only reach another system by jumponium synthesis, but have neither the necessary materials on board nor the possibility to go surface prospecting (either from missing an SRV or suitable landable planets in that system). Hence the recommendation for explorers to carry a small mining laser - and the creation of the Rock Rats as support group alongside the Fuel Rats.

If this is true, why does all the stuff I collect in those emissions contacts get run through the refinery?
Except for data, that apparently gets processed by the mail system...

 

[Tyres O'Flaherty]

From what I've seen so far, you need a refinery, at least for the stuff you collect in space. Not sure about the stuff on the ground, though.

Shooting rocks on the ground involves jusp scooping up the resultant fragments with the SRV cargo scoop.

Asteroid mining involves a refinery, correct. A refinery has a number of "bins" - the amount of bins depends on refinery size - with each bin responsible for processing one commodity e.g. platinum, gallite. When you shoot the asteroid, it may also yield an engineering material such as iron or phosphorus. These latter are not processed by your refinery - rather, they make up part of your inventory, The former are stored in your ships' hold.

Now, you can get away with just a refinery and use the ship cargo scoop to gather everything but that will drive you mad.

To that end, fitting a collector limpet controller will allow you to set off collector limpets that wil gather for you. Note, if you target something, the limpet will collect it then merrily self-destruct so don't target anything.

Also, a prospector limpet controller is almost vital as, when you shoot one at an asteroid, it will show that 'roids makeup and what it potentially has.

For both controllers, you obviously need limpets. You buy these from the advanced maintenance screen and these are stored in your ships' cargo hold. Thus, the bigger yout hold, the more limpets you can have.

EDIT: shooting rocks on the panet surface does not yield any commodity, just raw materials you can use in engineering.

EDIT 2: there are things like outcrops and mettalic meteorites. These are slightly different to those things you find at a geological site which also yield engineering materials. However, both need pew pew.

 

[Ashnak]

why does all the stuff I collect in those emissions contacts get run through the refinery?

I don't understand this question - can you post a few screenshots or a video? "Emissions contacts" specifically doesn't ring any bells.

 

[Tyres O'Flaherty]

Except for data, that apparently gets processed by the mail system...

No, data is something else entirely but it is used in engineering. I think you may be talking about "encoded materials" which you get from targeting a ship and gettng data via your scanners. You can also get encoded materials from scanning frame shift wakes and other sources.

 

[He$$eeTant]

Limpets, don’t forget your limpets.

You have to consciously buy them through advanced maintenance next to the outfitting icon. Fill your hold with them you’ll use them prospecting and collecting so they won’t stop you from filling your hold with goodies - Paltinum, Void Opals etc.

 

[Mike Reacher]

I have found Odyssey to have changed mining recently. (Or I should say ED changed it)
Not so much in Horizons.
FYI I had to jump back and forth to see the difference. (Don't ask. Just do it unless you are a noob)
Noobs should not do it.
Now I am searching for a mining thread to discuss, and ask, where I can find stuff I spoke about.

 

[Codger]

From what I've seen so far, you need a refinery, at least for the stuff you collect in space. Not sure about the stuff on the ground, though.

You can collect materials without a refinery. You need the refinery if you want to collect valuable ore (which is what mining is all about).

 

[Codger]

If this is true, why does all the stuff I collect in those emissions contacts get run through the refinery?
Except for data, that apparently gets processed by the mail system...

Not sure what you're referring to here. The only thing that goes through your refinery is ore (mineral) fragments as you mine them off the asteroids. The refinery turns the fragments into actual tons of ore in your cargo hold. That's all it does.

 

[CMDR Timber McWolf]

Not sure what you're referring to here. The only thing that goes through your refinery is ore (mineral) fragments as you mine them off the asteroids. The refinery turns the fragments into actual tons of ore in your cargo hold. That's all it does.

The "emissions contacts" I mentioned are those "degraded / encoded emissions" you can find out in the wild space.
If you drop in there, you find what looks like the remains of a blown up ship with some materials floating around.
And every time I scoop such a part up, I get a message that implies these get refined.
In the encoded emissions you often find some data cache you can scan, which prompts a message in your mailbox.

 

[Fnord Velkor]

The "emissions contacts" I mentioned are those "degraded / encoded emissions" you can find out in the wild space.
If you drop in there, you find what looks like the remains of a blown up ship with some materials floating around.
And every time I scoop such a part up, I get a message that implies these get refined.
...

You are probably just seeing "Cargo Acquired" (suchlike words) - it certainly does not involve going through refinery bins - only mineral fragments go through the refinery.

 

[Teiri]

Yep so no refinery involved there, that's true. In fact here in this discussion we're dangerously close to the fact that Nickel is being quite different thing that Cobalt is for example. It's a little unnatural but ppl got used to it in Elite.

There're commodities. Those can be loaded in your cargo hold, traded, mined, given away, saved on your carrier. That is the only thing that can be mined for real. Gold and Cobalt are both commodities and can be mined, you can prospect a roid and see, whoah, 47% gold content. Only these go through refinery. Other commodities include, but ain't limited to, foods, industry goods, weapons, minerals and many other things that you can carry in your cargo, if you have any cargo. Commodities are often about money, you're trading them, or you keep them at hand just in case, like i have a couple of tons of Jaques Quinentian Still stored in my carrier.

And there're materials. Those are stored in a kind of separate chest, think like you carry a chest with you. A chest is splitted in two parts, each of them is again splitted in three. Raw, Manufactured and Encoded, that's for Horizons, and Assets, Goods and Data - that's Odyssey. Nickel and Iron are materials. They can not be traded normally (like for credits, however you can squeze another nickel from a material trader offering 6 chunks of iron). You can't as well mine specifically for, say, Nickel. Mats are still dropping as a subproduct while you mine, but that's kind of more random. So if you're after Iron, Nickel, Sulfur, which are common, chances are you just getting them along the way, but rarer raw materials will come from mining in lower quantities, and very rare may not come at all. Then planetary prospecting is the way.

Things that you find at these Degraded Emissions are often materials too (tho you may very well find a couple of containers with tea), but usually manufactured ones, which will drop as well if you kill another pirate, like focus crystals. Or encoded, from a data cache or a beacon. And Odyssey materials are tied to Ody missions and bases. Materials are often about engineering - you can upgrade your ships, or suits, or weapons in exchange of them.

Inara tables list all the mats by categories.

Components | Elite:Dangerous | INARA

The companion site for Elite:Dangerous with the game database, market data, trade routes, outfitting, engineers, blueprints, crafting, Thargoid war, squadrons, logbooks, galleries, galaxy information and much more...

inara.cz

 

[CMDRQuainMarln]

Ship engineering is a medium to long term activity in the game that needs raw, manufacture and encoded materials.
Most efficient (but not necessarily fun) ways to collect these are well documented here.
A key point is material traders allow you to trade a material for another and exchange rates apply depending on the rarity grade of the material.

Source: https://youtu.be/iHl-SsKQfe4

 

[Codger]

And every time I scoop such a part up, I get a message that implies these get refined.

They don't, so the message must be implying something else. What exactly does it say?

 

[CMDR Timber McWolf]

They don't, so the message must be implying something else. What exactly does it say?

I will have to check that later and try to get a screenshot of it.



To be honest, it had me confused from the first time I read that. I could imagine a decontamination process, but why call it "refining"?

EDIT TO ADD: Okay, went in and checked. You are right. It does not say "refining" anywhere on the screen. My apologies.
I guess the old jester that is my brain thought it would be funny to mix things up.

 

[Codger]

I guess the old jester that is my brain thought it would be funny to mix things up

Mine does that too

 

[Lowbee]

I checked the blueprints and found that some of them require metals like iron or chromium. I take it to obtain these, I'll have to go mining?

As CMDRQuainMarin has pointed out, you can gather engineering materials as you find them, whether by chance or by strategy. Acquiring high grade materials is most useful, as you can then visit material traders at stations and trade down for others that you need for blueprints.

o7

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[TheTechnobear]

As CMDRQuainMarin has pointed out, you can gather engineering materials as you find them, whether by chance or by strategy. Acquiring high grade materials is most useful, as you can then visit material traders at stations and trade down for others that you need for blueprints.

Ive been doing a lot of mining, so been picking up lots of materials along the way... but basically ignored them so far.
is there a general strategy of what I should be doing with them... e.g I read something about 'trading up' common materials, as there's a limit on them.

or do I need to switch focus, and look to see what Im missing for particular engineering tasks?

i.e. for now, my approach was just to let them build up, and hope if/when I turn to engineering I would have some of what I needed...
but perhaps it'd be wise for me to already do some material trading ' along the way'
... but if its very depending upon what engineering that I want to do, then I might as well leave this until, I shift my focus?!

 

[Ashnak]

If you want to take a look, which matterialsare needed for what (both Engineering and Synthesis), Inara has a few lists:
https://inara.cz/elite/components/

But otherwise, I'd just keep collecting them until I get too many filled bins, then visit a suitable raw material trader and empty those bins by trading up.

The materials you get from mining usually aren't woth losing sleep about.

 

[CMDRQuainMarln]

Ive been doing a lot of mining, so been picking up lots of materials along the way... but basically ignored them so far.
is there a general strategy of what I should be doing with them... e.g I read something about 'trading up' common materials, as there's a limit on them.

or do I need to switch focus, and look to see what Im missing for particular engineering tasks?

i.e. for now, my approach was just to let them build up, and hope if/when I turn to engineering I would have some of what I needed...
but perhaps it'd be wise for me to already do some material trading ' along the way'
... but if its very depending upon what engineering that I want to do, then I might as well leave this until, I shift my focus?!

When out laser mining say platinum, you do tend to get a lot of lower grade materials like iron and Chromium as a by catch. Once you have a ship with I think at least 38ly jump range you can head to the crystal shards sites in that video and max out your stocks of all top grade raw materials except Selenium and use the raw material traders to trade them down for large volumes of low grade materials. 1 unit of top grade 4 raw material trade gives you 87 units of grade 1 material in that same class. Cross trading between classes is at a 6 to 1 ratio. So you can trade 6 units of Yttrium to get 1 unit of Selenium.