Finding a good place for mining
Instead of waisting time searching manually for a good mining spot, I recommend you use a tool like EDDB to aid you. From the EDDB Bodies page you can search for planets with asteroid fields. Depending on which material you are looking for you can search for Icy, Metal Rich, Metallic or Rocky ring types. You should focus your mining on large planets with a ring with Pristine system reserves as these will fill your cargo much faster…
Use the Reference System to input the system where you are planning to sell the minerals you mine – or simply input the current system to find the closest systems with good mining spots.
Mining cores for Void Opals or Low Temperature Diamonds can earn you a lot of money and quickly get your Trading rank to Elite; these are mined from Icy rings with Pristine reserves.
FINDING THE BEST PLACE TO SELL THE MINERALS
I prefer using INARA to find the best place to sell the minerals and gems I have mined.
On the INARA main page select the menu Galaxy – Commodities – Common Commodities. Then simply input what you are trying to sell and which system you are currently located in and hit the Search button.
Select the Best Sell tab to get a listing of the best places to sell your stuff:
Notice: Before you decide on where to sell, make sure to pay attention to the ST DIST column – otherwise you risk a very long journey to the station!
Selecting your mining ship
Small starter ships:
Beginners may get started with surface mining using a cheap Adder. When you upgrade to a Cobra Mk III, Cobra Mk IV or Viper Mk IV you can do either surface or core mining.
Medium mining ships:
Any medium size ship with plenty of cargo space can be used for surface (laser) mining.
For core mining I recommend using a medium size ship, that is fast and agile and have enough hard-points and internal slots for all the gear you need to equip. You also want plenty of cargo space for your limpets but cargo space is not as important for core mining as it is for surface mining, as you will not be mining lots of minerals but focus on mining rare gems from the cores.
The following medium size ships are good choices for both surface and core mining:
- Asp Explorer
- Krait Phantom
- Krait Mk II
- Python
I prefer using the Krait Mk II for core mining because it is fast and agile so I can quickly setup the charges and it also have a good cargo capacity.
- Imperial Clipper
- Type-7
- Type-9
- Type-10 Defender
- Anaconda
- Imperial Cutter
