Science & Industry

I came to eve for the industrial aspect mainly. I know that just about everything makes more isk than mining, and I know that 99% of you find it so boring that you wouldn't even do it to kill time on an alt. But I like mining. I really do. I can fly all mining ships and have 100% refining on common ore. My second account, currently inactive, is an Orca pilot. I want to run a single account for now, but the second account should get back online as soon as I can afford to PLEX it.

I'd like to know what my options are to do it for a living. "For a living" here means that I should be able to afford to PLEX my account(s) and maybe have a little spare isk to pay for crystals, and maybe save up for something like a freighter. I think we're looking at a figure close to 2 billion ISK/month. Play time is not an issue. 10 hours a day is my average anyways.

Now, I'm not saying that I will only ever log on to mine, but most of my training and assets should towards improving my mining yield.

As a secondary question, how can someone with such a mindset be an asset to a corporation?

If you want to do it for a living then join an organised industrial corp. You'll find it allot easier to make ISK when you are getting max bonuses and not having to haul your own ore. Plus mining is much more fun in a group.

Actually, that was the gist of the question. I know I can sell the ore, refine and sell minerals, or manufacture stuff and sell that. I know that at 100%, minerals are often the most profitable, and that manufacture is fiercely competitive and hard to make anything off unless you´re an established giant industrialist. I was looking for discussion on the subject of transforming ore into isk in the most profitable way, as well as perhaps finding out about any options I may have missed.



I agree, and this kind of vision is my dream about Eve gameplay. Organized mining. /fawn



I'm no expert on the subject, but personal motives aside, how is that better than simply selling your ore at the very same market price he is paying you, or better yet, refining it yourself when appropiate and making extra isk, especially if you did "all the mining", and were thusly probably alone? Your CEO had quite a deal with you. I would say that if the corp runs and supports your mining operations through the presence of armed defense forces, rorqual/orca, scouting, etc, it's only fair for them to either keep a large chunk of the ore, or get a huge discount if you "sell it to them". But doing it on your own and giving it away is stupid. Sorry if that sounds offensive, it's not my intention to call you anything.

Not sure on his specific circumstance, but in general, he didn't have to transport the ore/minerals to a hub. The corp had all the risk with a pos, with the BPs for the ships, with the logistics of transporting the ships to the hub, etc. Not to mention, the time the isk was simply tied up in the market waiting on things to sell. The miner on the other hand got paid and could move on to more mining, whatever.

If you are mining off empire space, this can certainly be a good argument for "better prices".


As a corporation member, you are to partake in covering the corp's metaphorical behind, but that's not relevant here. The miner risks their ship and clone too. We all have something at stake, that's how the game works. Everything else is up to agreement between the corp leadership and their members about risk sharing. Most will say "you cover your ass, I cover mine" as far as material loss goes, with corp tax paying for most corp property.


I do honestly not see how this is relevant at all. He stated that the CEO "bought the ore off him". While other details of his particular agreement with his CEO are unknown, I'd have to assume that the market risk is not the miner's problem after getting rid of his goods. Of course, I've heard about corps that mine and produce ships/modules/whatever, and then split the dividends among relevant members, which would make your point completely valid, were it the case here.

The miner gets to "move on to more mining", and the corp gets to not worry about obtaining ore. I think that's a fair deal, not an excuse to slash prices.

By purchasing the Ore/Minerals directly from the station that you base out of, they save you hauling time/risk.
By purchasing the Ore/Minerals directly from you, they save you Tax/Broker fees.
By purchasing the Ore/Minerals in bulk from you, they save you the effort of putting up sell orders.

Finally, your OP said you wanted to be an "asset to a Corporation." Which generally means not trying to gouge your corpmates.

FYI Corp Tax is not collected on any part of the mining process.


Like I said, you're probably best off not being in a corp. And I still don't understand how you haven't tripped into PLEX money while mining 10h/day. A Hulk should be making at least 20m/hr which would put you at a PLEX every 2 and a half days.

And here I thought that by putting up my expectations for discussion and rebuttal, I'd learn something. Instead, I get told that I screw people over, and to stay away from corps. Thank you for your time and effort.

Also, corporation tax doesn't apply to mining itself, but it does once I try to turn the mined goods into isk on the market, right?



I think I might have that covered. I can fly a Drake in decent fitting, and also a Raven. Not that those are good examples of ships useful in PVP... but it's a start, perhaps. In times of war, we all get handed a sword.

I'm really trying to figure out where this became a "something for nothing" venture. The miner was selling ore to corp for the cost of the ore. It's not the corp was demanding the tribute of ore for nothing, the miner was being paid the fair market value for the ore.

Why are you acting as if the miner was being completely ripped off in this situation?

And that would make most of my argument completely irrelevant. Thanks for clearing that up for me.

Ore mining actually isn't all that bad isk/hour when compared to other careers. Sure you can make good isk doing wh stuff, but those returns are not guaranteed. You need crazy isk invested, have a well trained character, be part of an active group, get lucky having sites spawn, get lucky to have sites escalate and so on. And then you have to hope you don't lose your ships. Mining is a good source of isk for new players, and is very dependable. I know how much isk / hour I'll make mining, but you never know how much isk / hour you'll make in a wh, running sites etc. or how much isk you'll lose. Mining is also very easy to improve your isk/hour by adding alts, where as many other careers you're pretty much limited to just a few possible pilots you can manage at one time (and yes people do this, but again, with a massive investment in both isk and skill training).




Well the logical choice is manufacturing. Instead of selling your minerals to buy orders manufacture with your minerals and setup sell orders of your finished product. it's an easy way to increase your minerals value. Freighters may seem like a good idea, but no one wants a freighter, you get a freighter because of a need. They are awful, slow expensive ships so the only reason to get one is because you hit a critical point where one is required. Personally I perfer to use 4 orca pilots vs 1 freighter.

The best option is to get a orca pilot you can use to boost while mining, hauling and general item hauling as well. I use my orca's all the time and wouldn't know what I would do without them.




Yes and no. A corp will offer to buy your minerals, and in exchange offer orca boosting. Any non-industry corp really wont care unless you're doing high end manufacturing. So you'd be better off finding a corp that does mining ops that you can join to increase your hourly yield.