Who said 'roid mining isn't fun...

[Catalan]

... or EVE real life training?  :-D

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/11560/riches_in_the_sky_the_promise_of_asteroid.html?page=1

notice how they are not accounting for pirates and ore thieves, poor n00bs....

[WayAbvPar]

To get an idea of just how much wealth is to be had from asteroids, one can examine 3554 Amun, a mile wide lump of iron, nickel, cobalt, platinum, and other metals that has an orbit closely resembling that of Earth's. Though it is one of the smallest known metallic asteroids, 3554 Amun contains thirty times as much metal as has ever been mined by human beings in the history of Earth. It's value, at current prices and if mined slowly to keep commodity prices level, is estimated to be 20 trillion dollars.

Holy shit! I need to build me a spaceship.

[Yegolev]

I think being mined slowly is something of a given, at least until NASA gets some Tech 2 mining lasers.

[Strazos]

Is that an asteroid or a plentoid? That sounds fucking stupid-huge.

[Yoru]

Is that an asteroid or a plentoid? That sounds fucking stupid-huge.

Asteroid. And pretty small as asteroids go. Pluto's moon Charon is somewhere on the edge between planetoid and space-rock, at around 1200 km in diameter. The pebble they're talking about is a mere 2.5 km in diameter. The gravitational force it exerts is almost negligible.

[WayAbvPar]

I flew around one in Arzi that was 10x that big I think.

[Trippy]

I flew around one in Arzi that was 10x that big I think.

What like one of these asteroids?

[Strazos]

If it's that small, that's an insane proportion of high-quality ore.

[Jimbo]

Lol, my son and I are doing an experiment where we shot model rockets at different degree's to see which will go farther...think we could build the F13 Space Mining Corp?  :-D  I'll stay on the ground and patch ya'all up when you come back to earth.

Seriously, sounds cool if they could get the space elevator and a moon base, then we could mine the asteroids and send the materials to earth.  I doubt I'll ever see it, but maybe my son's grandkids might.

[Murgos]

Seriously, sounds cool if they could get the space elevator and a moon base, then we could mine the asteroids and send the materials to earth.  I doubt I'll ever see it, but maybe my son's grandkids might.

Could you imagine the uproar if they tried to 'park' one of these in an earth orbit from the nervous nellies?  Heh, years of entertainment.

[angry.bob]

I'm just delighted that rather than utilize it's resources at whatever speed they'd actually be able to in order to provide large quantities of dirt-cheap material that could improve the quality of life around the world without harming the environment, they're already talking about manipulating production to artificially keep prices "level". Or am I misreading that?

[WayAbvPar]

I flew around one in Arzi that was 10x that big I think.

What like one of these asteroids?

It was at least that size. It took me more than a minute to fly around it (it was between me and a loot can). Another behemoth like that cost me my cruiser when I got it  stuck trying to warp out of a bad situation. Admittedly, I shouldn't have been there in the first place, but live and learn. Or die and learn, in this case.

[Viin]

I'm just delighted that rather than utilize it's resources at whatever speed they'd actually be able to in order to provide large quantities of dirt-cheap material that could improve the quality of life around the world without harming the environment, they're already talking about manipulating production to artificially keep prices "level". Or am I misreading that?

They do that now. You can expect any corporation with a monopoly to control access and prices. Same as it ever was. It *could* get better if enough players started doing something like this, so there was competition. But, more likely they'd band together like Big Oil and f*ck everyone whenever they can.

[Murgos]

They do that now. You can expect any corporation with a monopoly to control access and prices. Same as it ever was. It *could* get better if enough players started doing something like this, so there was competition. But, more likely they'd band together like Big Oil and f*ck everyone whenever they can.

You can blame Newton and his time at the Royal Mint for that (limiting output to maintain steady growth rather than massive flux-uations ;) ).  Sorry, but it does make the worlds economy work a lot better than pure supply and demand.

[Viin]

Yah, but the Mint wasn't trying to quadruple their profits over night. I don't trust greedy bastards to do things "for the good of man/country/whatever" - they just want more money to stuff in their pillows.

[Teleku]

I'm just delighted that rather than utilize it's resources at whatever speed they'd actually be able to in order to provide large quantities of dirt-cheap material that could improve the quality of life around the world without harming the environment, they're already talking about manipulating production to artificially keep prices "level". Or am I misreading that?

Your misreading it kind of.  All that comment was for was to justify the "20 trillion dollar" figure, so it can stay at what current mineral prices are and sound impressive.  Since, if we were to directly value the astroid, and try to price it in the context of just taking the whole thing and selling it at once, it would be worth much less, because the price of Iron would drop to a fraction of what it currently is.  Which wouldn't sound nearly as impressive.

[Yegolev]

Not only would it sound unimpressive, it would generate unimpressive interest in the moneymen who would fund the project.  To try to quote James Garner in Barbarians at the Gate: "I'm talkin' about puttin' a shitload of money in everyone's pockets right now!"

[Soln]

anyone got a handy good FAQ for the mining business?  I started it for something different to do, but it seems a timesink and I want to know which minerals best.  I  lost a chunk of cash getting pwnd in Schmael, so I need to recoup.  RECOUP!

[Murgos]

In my experience it was mostly a time sink as a newb.  You don't have a ship big enough to mount guns for the rats and mining eq as a newb and the profit to be made is sorely hampered by having to ferry stuff to somewhere where there is a decent profit to be made in small units.  Making 8 mil in one frigate dogfight probably has colored my PoV somewhat though.

[Yegolev]

The short mining FAQ would boil down to "mine in a gang" or "mine into a jetcan and use a hauler", and "get a cruiser".  I have not had a problem with ore thieves, but as has been posted they generally go for the high-ISK ores.  I have not had the opportunity to try combat against one, either, but I suppose that you could irritate them a bit by destroying the aggressor... that would require fitting weaponry, though.

[Yoru]

As for which minerals are best...

Overall, the best high-sec ore is omber, which is found only in Minmatar and Gallente space. I think Gallente space has more of it and in higher-security systems (0.7 and below I believe), but it's also probably more heavily farmed and populated. Minmatar space was heavily farmed back when we were up there.

Near us (Amarr space), the best lowsec ore is hemorphite, which is available in 0.3-sec and below, and the 'best' highsec ore is kernite, available in 0.7 and below. Jaspet is okay; you'll find it in 0.4 and below. Pretty much everything else in our area is garbage from an income-rate perspective.

Caldari space just plain sucks, mining-wise. Don't even bother.

[5150]

As for which minerals are best...

Overall, the best high-sec ore is omber, which is found only in Minmatar and Gallente space. I think Gallente space has more of it and in higher-security systems (0.7 and below I believe), but it's also probably more heavily farmed and populated. Minmatar space was heavily farmed back when we were up there.

Near us (Amarr space), the best lowsec ore is hemorphite, which is available in 0.3-sec and below, and the 'best' highsec ore is kernite, available in 0.7 and below. Jaspet is okay; you'll find it in 0.4 and below. Pretty much everything else in our area is garbage from an income-rate perspective.

Caldari space just plain sucks, mining-wise. Don't even bother.

Its probably worth pointing out that, quite frequently, you do get roid spawns in agent missions - my corp has recently mined a crap load of Omber in Caldari space inside a mission one of us was doing. Simply clear out the area and move your miners in (the mission holder can then go on to do the rest of the mission as long as he doesnt return to the agent).

Very little chance of ore theives finding you (hardly anyone would bother with scan probes in high sec space) and usually more ore than you can mine before the mission 'quick completion' timer runs out - I think 3 of us mined 150k units of Omber like this the other night....

But yeah other than that Caldari space sucks for ore (I think the devs did this because everyone was either Caldari or hanging in Caldari space) until you get Kernite in 0.4

[Evangolis]

Actually, I wouldn't count on being undiscovered.  I had a mission in .8 space go past the bonus timer, and so I thought I'd get a little mining experience in what I presumed would be a secure environment.  I take all the loot I can carry, and head back to base, where I swap in cargo holds and a mining laser.  I come back, start mining, and within a minute three level one rats show up and start shooting at me.  Then, some geek named True Power starts lobbing missiles at me from way out.  Of course, by the time I warp out and come back with my combat rig, everybody is gone.

[Yegolev]

Seems like the probably had a bookmark rather than probing, maybe running the circuit in the hopes someone had spawned the rock.  Then again, miners don't fit missiles too often. =)

[Yoru]

Actually, I wouldn't count on being undiscovered.  I had a mission in .8 space go past the bonus timer, and so I thought I'd get a little mining experience in what I presumed would be a secure environment.  I take all the loot I can carry, and head back to base, where I swap in cargo holds and a mining laser.  I come back, start mining, and within a minute three level one rats show up and start shooting at me.  Then, some geek named True Power starts lobbing missiles at me from way out.  Of course, by the time I warp out and come back with my combat rig, everybody is gone.

True Power is a faction name... did you see a ship or were you just getting hit by the missiles from the mission rats? Sansha NPCs' missiles are often labeled as belonging to 'True Power'. It's disingenious.

[5150]

yes NPC rats will find you at an agent mission location (I was referring to other players previously)

[Evangolis]

I'm guessing Yoru was right, because if it was a player, they were damned incompetent.  Although the NPC's other shots weren't labeled True Power, so who knows.

[Yoru]

I'm guessing Yoru was right, because if it was a player, they were damned incompetent.  Although the NPC's other shots weren't labeled True Power, so who knows.

Yeah, it's just missiles. Don't ask me why.