Science & Industry

hi there,

no worries, we wont talk names of systems here.

BUT,
i wonder for you guys: what makes up a great / good mining system ?
and what is your setup ?

let´s see. i am a noob so my list of priorities would look something like this:

-good logistics (refinery with 50% in sys or VERY close - 1 Jump max)
-plenty of belts
-players are rare

preferably highsec so gankers / pirates are less of a hassle.

setup:
pos (or the station with corp office)
as many mining chars as possible
booster ship in system

while reading some other posts i wonder if those systems still exist at all.
they all seem crowded with all belts chewed off and smallish rocks left....

When I deceide to take up mining, I looked for an NPC corp that was in 50+ systems, also made sure they were in the major hub regions. I grabbed my frig, did level 2 misisons until I could do 3. I then did 3's till I could do 4's. I then moved to a system of that corp that had a level 4 agent. This was before I joined a mining corp, after I joined a mining corp, things changed!! The fleet bosst we have are way to good to pass up.


Of course you want to be lower then .8, and yes as few people not in your corp as possible. You also want 2-3 systems where you can mine when your home is cleaned out.

And yes the systems still do exeist, you just have to be willing to move your ore/minerals to market. The closet hub where I mine is 9 jumps away.

By the way, we are looking for more miners!!! :) Shameless plug.

Here are some pointers I've picked up over 5+ years of being a miner/industrialist in EVE.

1. The lower sec-status a system has, the better...until you get to .5. It' s a waste of time to mine in lowsec. Nullsec can be worth it, but only if you are part of a large and active corp/alliance. If you're a small corp or solo player, you'll make more money in highsec than anywhere else.
2. If you can fly an Orca or set up a POS, find a system with no stations. However, it should be close enough to a system *with* a station to make hauling your ore there for refining less of a burden. (Having high standings with the NPC station corp is also a plus.)
3. Look for systems with ice belts as well as ore belts, especially if you're operating out of a POS. You can either use the ice products to make your POS fuel, or just sell them on the market. It's boring work, but it makes for a decent augment to your mining income.
4. Diversify. Mining is pretty boring, and if that's all you ever do the game will become nothing but an endless grind-fest very fast. Do PI, do manufacturing, do missions, do exploration. In addition to keeping the game fresh for you, it's also a good way to have reliable streams of income if your mining activities get interrupted by incursions, gankers, wardecs, or whatever.
5. Don't bother with highsec grav sites if you're a miner/explorer. Seriously. They're not worth the trouble unless you can find one of the rare Hemorphite/Hedbergite/Jaspet sites. And even then it's barely worth the effort.
6. Listen to Chribba: Veldspar is almost always the best ore to mine. Year in and year out, you'll make more money mining Veld than any other ore. Look for systems with big fat Veld rocks in them. But since it takes a lot of trit to turn a profit, you need to be able to fly a freighter (or pay Red Frog to haul it to the market hub for you). (Also, Scordite is a good ore because pyerite is so high.)
7. Use mining drones! Too many solo/small-gang miners leave attack drones orbiting even when no rats are around, and that means you're giving up yield for nothing. Mining drones can bump your yield by 10% or more. Use them.

I should explain further on why skilling up for an Orca is a good thing. It's not so much to provide in-belt support (that's useful only if you mine in a gang of three or more), but rather to allow you to travel to different systems easily. You can fit 2 fully-fitted mining vessels in the Orca's ship hangar (or some other variant, as long as the total volume doesn't exceed 400,000m3). It's a great exploration-support vessel and a mid-grade hauler - it can haul way more than the biggest indy ship but less than a freighter, and if you put the goods int he corporate hangar cargo, it will be invisible to ship scanners. This, combined with the Orca's tough hide, makes it an unattractive target to gankers.

It sometimes makes sense even in small gangs to use an Orca in the belt for boosting and tractoring in cans, but it's not as efficient as having another mining vessel in the belt. Until you get up to four or five people in the mining gang, the Orca's main role is mainly as a hauler and fitted-ship mover, not a mining-support vessel. (Though there are still scenarios when using an Orca as a booster/support vessel makes sense: mission mining and salvaging is a good example. An Orca can pass through many deadspace gates that a mining barge can't. So you just throw a barge or two in your ship hangar, warp to the mission site, and salvage away while your missioning toon finishes off the rats. Then the missioning toon can switch to a barge and mine out any good roids in the area.)

Don't ever leave your Orca floating unpiloted in space! People look for that, and will jack your pretty Orca faster than you can blink if you leave it unattended.

For a highsec industrialist, the Orca is the best ship in your inventory aside from a barge/exhumer.

Ignore the systems where there are ice fields and most often than not, if it is near one. Ice mining for profit is not worth it and if you do want to do it, you can just leave a ship in one and shuttle there from your home base.

When i am looking for a new place to mine then it has to fulfill 4 criteria on dotlan.

-As few as possible ship kills in the last 24/48h (+check eve-kills to see longer statistics)
-has a 50% refinery
-As few jumps as possible in the last 24/48h
-be within 5-7 jumps of a trade hub

There are 100's of such systems and most often they have quite big roids that you can have a laser cycle for 5-7 times even.

Generous Buy Orders, for all the kinds of ore that appear in the system's belts, so that you can just dock, unload and sell. Then you don't have to worry about refining, or about hauling ore or even minerals out of the system.

And if you or anyone else want tips on good systems to mine in, in connected high-sec, contact me by EVEmail.

High sec island.

Pirate buddies in front.

You'd be surprised. My mining alt spent a couple of weeks in Botane which is adjacent to Dodixie and it was very quiet. Not even so much as a sniff of a ganker. No stations though.

Don't get complacent. Mining is still the most dangerous High Sec activity.

This is the way I roll.