MDM's Market Guides: Minerals and Waste

Trading is a simple business.
But low from the producer and sell high where there is demand.

In a series of market guides I'm going run through the various commodities and outline the principles of their trading.

This is intended to be a general guide but I'll use examples from Standard Beta to highlight good practice and potential pitfalls.

All prices, supply and demand, are subject to market forces and unexpected events.

Minerals trading is one of the simplest markets in the game.
Minerals are raw materials that typically require refining to isolate their most useful base elements, usually metals.

Producers: Extraction Sites
Consumers: Refineries, High-Tech for selected minerals.

The key to minerals trading is nearby Refinery Sites:

In SB:
Acihaut*
Dahan
LFT 880
Ross 1051
LHS 2887*
Surya*

Note: *Extraction and Refining is a cross-over business. Some systems have achieved vertical integration and are refining materials on-site. This impacts the availability, prices, supply, and demand, for certain materials.

Bauxite:
The source material for Aluminium, Bauxite is a low price, high margin mineral, extracted in many systems, and in demand at all Refining locations.

Major Producers: LP 64-194, LHS 2884, Ithaca, LP 98-132
Typical Buy: 25
Typical Sell: 115
Major Consumers: All Refinery Sites

Bertrandite:
The source material for Beryllium, Bertrandite is a high-price, large profit per unit mineral, extracted in many systems, and in demand at most Refining locations.

Major Producers: LHS 5287, LHS 3006, G239-25, LP 64-194, Acihaut
Typical Buy: 1870
Typical Sell: 2600
Major Consumers: Refinery Sites except Acihaut.

Coltan:
The source material for Tantalum, Coltan is a high price, large profit per unit mineral, with limited extraction sites, and in demand at all Refining locations.

Major Producers: Ithaca, LHS 417, LP 64-194, LP 98-132
Typical Buy: 950
Typical Sell: 1495
Major Consumers: All Refinery Sites

Gallite:
The source material for Gallium, Gallite is a high price, large profit per unit mineral, extracted in many systems, and in demand at most Refining locations and all High-Tech systems.

Major Producers: LHS 5287, G 239-45, Acihaut, Morgor
Typical Buy: 1380
Typical Sell: 2050
Major Consumers: Refinery Sites except Acihaut, All High Tech

Indite:
The source material for Indium, Indite is a high price, large profit per unit mineral, extracted in many systems, and in demand at most Refining locations.

Major Producers: Ithaca, LHS 417, Dahan
Typical Buy: 1620
Typical Sell: 2345
Major Consumers: Refinery Sites except Dahan

Lepidolite:
The source material for Lithium, Lepidolite is a medium price mineral, extracted in many systems, and in demand at most Refining locations.

Major Producers: Acihaut, Morgor, LHS 3006, Ross 1015, G 239-25
Typical Buy: 325
Typical Sell: 620
Major Consumers: Refinery Sites except Acihaut

Rutile:
The source material for Titanium and with interesting Optical properties, Rutile is a low price, medium margin mineral, with limited extraction sites, in demand at all Refinery and High Tech sites.

Major Producers: Ithaca, LHS 417, LHS 2884, LP 64-194, CM Draco
Typical Buy: 140
Typical Sell: 325
Major Consumers: All Refinery Sites, All High Tech

Uraninite:
The source material for Uranium, Uraninite is a medium price mineral, with limited extraction sites, in demand at all Refinery locations.

Major Producers: LHS 2884, Ithaca
Typical Buy: 560
Typical Sell: 960
Major Consumers: All Refinery Sites


Extraction Sites Best Practice:
Extraction Sites are typically low population, frequently have low legal enforcement, and typically do not produce any of their own material needs.

Be aware of the jurisdiction and plan your trip appropriately.

Typical Imports:
Food, Medicines, Mineral Extractors, Explosives, Weapons, Consumer Goods

Export Route Planning:
Locate the nearest Refinery Site.
 
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Gallite is also an ore of Copper (which is only produced at Refineries, so should be coming from one of the mineral ores.)

At present there's no correlation between the ore inputs of a refinery and the metal outputs, which hopefully will be the case later as there's a complete match between the ores and the metals, except for gold, silver and palladium which can be found free. Well, not sure about palladium but I think it's found free.

(Also Gallium and Beryllium are incorrectly listed as mineral ores. Ticketed.)

Have you noticed how the economy of LFT 880 is oddly different from the other refineries?
 
LFT 880 is a bit more isolated than the others. You'd expect the access to materials and markets to impact the prices.

It's very close to LP 64-192 so I'd expect a focus on the materials from there but as you say I'm not sure the market is taking source materials into account at the moment.

They exclusively export metals (and waste) so it's probably not a mixed economy, although some of the metal exports are directly extractable so perhaps there are metal extraction sites there.
 
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MDM's Market Guide: Waste

Trading is a simple business.
But low from the producer and sell high where there is demand.

In a series of market guides I'm going run through the various commodities and outline the principles of their trading.

This is intended to be a general guide but I'll use examples from Standard Beta to highlight good practice and potential pitfalls.

All prices, supply and demand, are subject to market forces and unexpected events.

Waste trading is the simplest market in the game.
Wherever there is human activity there will be waste products. The trick is to find somewhere that can use it.

Producers: All except Agricultures
Consumers: Refineries and Agricultures

Biowaste:
Utter crap! Everyone does it and systems need to get rid of it. Luckily it's a fertiliser so it's in demand at all Agriculture systems.

Major Producers: Everywhere except Agriculture Systems.
Typical Buy: 15
Typical Sell: 68
Major Consumers: All Agriculture systems.

Scrap:
All manufacturing processes produce scrap materials. These materials contain traces of valuable resources, so recycling is a viable industry.

Major Producers: All Industrial and High Tech systems.
Typical Buy: 25
Typical Sell: 91
Major Consumers: All Refinery systems.

Waste Best Practice:
Waste is a low cost high margin commodity. If you're down on your luck and low on cash, fill up your spare cargo space if you happen to be heading to a consumer world for waste products.
 
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