Check this thread, it should have all the info you need:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=60114
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=60114
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The Mining discussion thread.
- Thread starter IndianaGeoff
- Start date
It can be very profitable if you find some rich asteroids of the highest value materials and have a ship with a good cargo capacity. I think you need a refinery with at least three bins so you can use as much of what you find as possible.
The scooping is definitely the problem. I'm still pretty bad at it, but there have been hints of drones appearing in the game, which may take some of the frustration out of collecting the chunks.
I haven't had any trouble collecting ore, but I find I can make way more money doing cargo runs. I dunno, maybe others have had a more profitable time of it than me.
I bought a pair of mining lasers and a refinery and flew out to an asteroid belt in a remote system. Collected about 20 rocks to refine 3 tons of mineral which if you include the time it took to get there didn't cover the effort put in. Never mind it covering any of the cost of the lasers and refinery.
More interestingly I found some ancient artefacts at an unknown signal source in the same location and picked them up. Sadly it turned out they counted as stolen (I had hoped it would be otherwise, after all no way anyone had dropped them there. It's a genuine discovery.) and while they sold on the black market for 25k I got a fine for 55k taking them into a station. Managed to avoid the scan at the first station I visited, but it didn't have a black market and I was unlucky at the next stop.
With the credits spent on the mining equipment, I can't pay off the fine and tbh the best option right now is to wipe my commander and start again with a clean record.
So... mining wasn't very profitable. At all. Back to missions and exploration.
Step 1: Outfit your ship with a mining laser (one or more) and a Refinery.
Step 2: Find some rocks.
Step 3: blast rock with mining laser until a bit breaks off.
Step 4: Lock onto the rock as if it were a target (This also shows composition and Percentages)
Step 5: Open Cargo Scoop (Home Key by Default)
Step 6: Maneuver your ship, lining the chunk up with Cargo Scoop alignment interface (Left side, Big box with cross hairs that goes Beep a lot).
Step 7: Collect Rock.
Step 8: Go to cargo menu on the right info panel and choose what mineral you want in the hoppers. Bets are you have one hopper, get the best stuff, vent rest.
Step 9: Repeat step 3 -> 8 until cargo hold it full. Refineries with more hoppers means less clicking.
Step 10: Return to station with ore...sell ore...profit.
Thus completes your ten step mining program, please collect your chip at the door.
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Thank you. Looks like I will stick with hauling and exploration for now. Without changing the market prices per tonne of ore, I am not sure how FD will improve mining profitability at the moment. Maybe creating a separate market for ore haulers?
I posted a while back that mining could be better as a group activity: one armed with lasers, another with the refinery and then when you have a full load half is ejected for the other player.
You could also employ explorers to find the next seam for you and fighters to provide protection against piracy.
You could also employ explorers to find the next seam for you and fighters to provide protection against piracy.
What Mining in Elite Dangerous should end up as: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=7196
Managed to sort out this mining lark 
thanks to all that posted with helpful hints and tips, shame my ship was destroyed on the way back to the station with a full cargo hold!!! {cries}
thanks to all that posted with helpful hints and tips, shame my ship was destroyed on the way back to the station with a full cargo hold!!! {cries}
I've been into asteroid mining for at least three games (Eddy excluded) and I must admit, FD's on the right track. However - while keeping in mind, that hands-on is sometimes desirable, one shouldn't forget, that in any game of this type, making money belongs inevitably to the "necessary, tedious evil" category. I say some two things should happen about mining in order to make it less of a chore and maybe even somewhat fun.
Firstly, making asteroids into a category of targets, which could be locked onto, analyzed and kept track of in a field of any density. Just so one doesn't go after already-depleted rocks and saves some time, picking the ones that fit the bins' contents (Excellent solution with the refineries btw)
Secondly - automation. Not unlike in EVE (Which by necessity had to develop a very sophisticated mining framework), Eddy miners could benefit from automatons which would be Ammunition-like NPCs operating from an internal module like shields, cargo bays and such. For the moment, the most annoying part about mining is the retrieval mechanics. Now... to some extent, the direction inwhich shards fly off can be controlled but unless they are explicitly targeted - they won't be recognized by the cargo scoop. Try as I might, I never once managed to maneuver in a way that would launch the shards straight into the cargo scoop. It's usually like.. cutting 5 or 6 shards and then rounding them up before they expire. This is where retrieval drones would be extremely helpful, particularly in the case of larger, less agile ships.
Other than that, I say it works quite well, lots of money can be made, but there is little efficiency to it at the moment.
Firstly, making asteroids into a category of targets, which could be locked onto, analyzed and kept track of in a field of any density. Just so one doesn't go after already-depleted rocks and saves some time, picking the ones that fit the bins' contents (Excellent solution with the refineries btw)
Secondly - automation. Not unlike in EVE (Which by necessity had to develop a very sophisticated mining framework), Eddy miners could benefit from automatons which would be Ammunition-like NPCs operating from an internal module like shields, cargo bays and such. For the moment, the most annoying part about mining is the retrieval mechanics. Now... to some extent, the direction inwhich shards fly off can be controlled but unless they are explicitly targeted - they won't be recognized by the cargo scoop. Try as I might, I never once managed to maneuver in a way that would launch the shards straight into the cargo scoop. It's usually like.. cutting 5 or 6 shards and then rounding them up before they expire. This is where retrieval drones would be extremely helpful, particularly in the case of larger, less agile ships.
Other than that, I say it works quite well, lots of money can be made, but there is little efficiency to it at the moment.
Agreed. I have been enjoying mining but it would be more enjoyable doing it with others and having a chat/laugh at the same time.
And you are forgetting we can tether a 1000 ton ship wrangling like a Marlin in open waters from 60Ls away using..... some form of magic....
But we can't latch onto a small, stationary chunk of rock 200 meters from the nose of our ships using the exact same technological magic...
Tried my hand at mining and thought the Cr/hr was pretty low yield (did my sums to save up for an Asp... wow, that will take a _long_ time. *sigh*).
What worked much better was when I tricked up my Eagle and came back to clean up the pirate scum that loiter about!
Stacks of crims hanging about and from what little experience I have, it was a lot more "bountiful" than hanging around the Nav beacons.
Mind you, after a few successes, I was hammered by a bad-boy NPC in a Cobra. With my smashed out canopy, 22% hull, I had a very tense time bravely running away avoiding the cranky Cobra and trying to clear the mass-locking asteroid field.
... 32 seconds left of oxygen when I made it back to the platform.
Lots of repairs, but came out about $10K ahead. That was about double the amount from my mining run and took less time. Not to mention a hellavu lot more fun.
What worked much better was when I tricked up my Eagle and came back to clean up the pirate scum that loiter about!
Stacks of crims hanging about and from what little experience I have, it was a lot more "bountiful" than hanging around the Nav beacons.
Mind you, after a few successes, I was hammered by a bad-boy NPC in a Cobra. With my smashed out canopy, 22% hull, I had a very tense time bravely running away avoiding the cranky Cobra and trying to clear the mass-locking asteroid field.
... 32 seconds left of oxygen when I made it back to the platform.
Lots of repairs, but came out about $10K ahead. That was about double the amount from my mining run and took less time. Not to mention a hellavu lot more fun.
Sounder Deeps
Banned
LOL ya I get gameplay and all but things like this just make you wonder wth? K-warrant scanners instantly upload a targets warrant info from, everywhere. Have to dock to check local shipyard. ?
Tried my hand at mining and thought the Cr/hr was pretty low yield (did my sums to save up for an Asp... wow, that will take a _long_ time. *sigh*).
What worked much better was when I tricked up my Eagle and came back to clean up the pirate scum that loiter about!
Stacks of crims hanging about and from what little experience I have, it was a lot more "bountiful" than hanging around the Nav beacons.
Mind you, after a few successes, I was hammered by a bad-boy NPC in a Cobra. With my smashed out canopy, 22% hull, I had a very tense time bravely running away avoiding the cranky Cobra and trying to clear the mass-locking asteroid field.
... 32 seconds left of oxygen when I made it back to the platform.
Lots of repairs, but came out about $10K ahead. That was about double the amount from my mining run and took less time. Not to mention a hellavu lot more fun.
Mining is not bad, you just need to mine the right stuff. I turned in 8 tons of Paladium for 120,000 credits. Mining either needs you to pick what you mine (platinum, Palladium, Gold, Beryllium) or to have a large enough hold for more moderate ores.
THIS is the most annoying part of mining. Honestly...maneouvering a 1000T spaceship to collect fragments of rock in a tiny scoop. really? I think the devs at FD got lazy with this. But I guess this is in line with the whole 'just because its the year 3300 doesn't mean we've automated everything' eg. supercruising (manual throttle inputs), multi hyperspace jumps (manual calc), trading (manual calcs, etc) and good ole mining. *sigh*
That's a really good idea. I like it
I made a video showing mining in action. I'm in a Sidewinder, but hey, with just a bit of starting cash you can get into mining pretty easy:
[video=youtube;6RdOwf6ufnQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RdOwf6ufnQ[/video]
[video=youtube;6RdOwf6ufnQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RdOwf6ufnQ[/video]