MiningActivity Guide

Mining extracts raw minerals and metals from asteroid rings and sells them as commodities. It is unusually tool-driven: where combat is about guns and trading about holds, mining is about a specialised kit of lasers, limpets, charges and a refinery working together. Done well on the right material, it is one of the fastest credit-per-hour activities a solo pilot can run.

The loop is a small production line you fly:

1. Prospect

   Limpet-scan rocks for yield.

2. Extract

   Laser, blast or crack the rock.

3. Collect & refine

   Limpets scoop; refinery sorts.

4. Sell

   Find peak demand, cash out.

The danger is low — pirates occasionally interdict a laden miner, and Hazardous-ring sites have hostiles — but the real skill is site selection and process efficiency: the right hotspot, the right extraction method for the material, and a refinery and limpet rhythm that keeps the hold filling.

Rings & hotspots

Mining happens in planetary rings, which come in icy, rocky, metal-rich and metallic types — each hosting different materials. A DSS map of the ring reveals hotspots: overlapping circles marking concentrations of a specific commodity. Mining inside an overlap of the material you want is the single biggest yield multiplier in the role.

The extraction methods

Prospecting, limpets & the refinery

• Prospector limpets report a rock's material content and richness before you commit — never mine blind.
• Collector limpets auto-scoop fragments so you can keep extracting; carry plenty and a limpet controller to match.
• The refinery sorts fragments into the actual commodity; more bins = more materials processed at once without waste.
• The Pulse Wave Analyser lights up rocks with cores or deposits across the whole asteroid cluster — your prospecting radar for deep mining.

Selling the haul

Mined commodities, like any trade good, pay best where demand is high. The high-value materials (opals, diamonds) can shift markets quickly, so spreading sales across stations — or using a fleet carrier as a holding warehouse — protects your price. Market trackers find the current best buyers.

1. Fit a starter miner

   A medium hull with two mining lasers, a prospector and collector limpet controller, a refinery and cargo racks. Keep it simple — laser mining first. The Mining — Ship Comparison page will help you pick an appropriate mining ship.

2. Find a hotspot

   DSS-map a metallic or metal-rich ring and look for an overlapping hotspot of a high-value laser material; drop in at the overlap.

3. Prospect before you burn

   Fire a prospector limpet at a rock to read its content and richness; mine the rich ones, skip the poor.

4. Set the limpet rhythm

   Launch collector limpets so they auto-scoop while you keep lasering. Keep the refinery bins fed and don't let fragments expire.

5. Fill, then sell smart

   When the hold is full, check a market tracker for the highest-demand buyer for your material rather than dumping it at the nearest station.

6. Graduate to core mining

   Once the loop is second nature, add the Pulse Wave Analyser and Seismic Charge Launcher and start cracking cores — the step up in pay is large.

Mid-game mining is about method, kit and site quality.

Master core mining

Core mining the top commodities is the income jump. Learn to read fissure rocks on the Pulse Wave Analyser, place seismic charges in the blast window, and clean up the motherlode with abrasion and collectors. One good fissure rock can be worth a whole laser session.

Build the dedicated rig

Move to a purpose-built miner such as the Type-11 Prospector — with a full multi-method tool set, a big refinery, plenty of limpet capacity and maximum cargo. A specialised hull keeps the hold filling far faster than a borrowed multirole.

Survey ahead

• Hotspot scouting — keep a list of strong, low-traffic hotspots for your target commodities.
• Sell-price tracking — find the stations paying peak demand, and spread big hauls so you don't crash the price.

• Fleet-carrier diamond operations — stage from a carrier parked near a prime core-mining hotspot, storing the haul aboard and selling in bulk at peak demand for enormous sessions.
• Maximum-throughput core mining — a fully-engineered dedicated miner working triple-overlap hotspots of the top commodities, optimised for the fastest crack-and-collect cycle.
• Large-hull bulk mining — an Imperial Cutter or Type-9 turned to mining when you want to fill an enormous hold in one sitting.
• Trade Elite via minerals — mining sales count toward the trade rank, so heavy mining is a parallel path to Elite trader.
• Supplying colonisation & CGs — feeding mined commodities into colony builds and Community Goals at scale.

Full ratings, tool fits and costs live in the comparison dossier — shortlist by stage below.

• The hotspot is the run. A triple-overlap of your target material out-earns any amount of effort in a poor ring — find the site first.
• Prospect every rock. Limpet-scan before extracting; a low-yield rock isn't worth the laser time.
• Match method to material. Lasers for bulk metals, seismic charges for cores, abrasion/subsurface for deposits — a dedicated rig carries all of them.
• Feed the refinery, don't waste fragments. Enough bins and collector limpets keep the line moving with no dropped yield.
• Sell into demand, spread the big hauls. Top commodities can crash a station's price — split sales or warehouse on a carrier.
• Watch for pirates when laden. A full miner is a target; keep a token shield and the means to high-wake out.
• Mining counts toward trade rank. If Elite trader is a goal, heavy mining gets you there too.