Three Ways to Mine
Pick the method that matches your wallet and your crew. All three feed the same economy — you can start with a multi-tool today and work up to a crewed MOLE.
Laser & Haul
The big leagues. Crack large deposits in space or on the surface, extract the valuable fragments, refine, and sell. Best UEC-per-hour once you know the rocks.
ARGO MOLE — 3-turret crew ship
ROC Gems
Drive a buggy across a moon and pull surface gemstone deposits. Cheap to start, steady income, and a relaxed solo loop — perfect for new hands.
ROC-DS — two-seat variant
On Foot
A multi-tool and a backpack. Work caves and small surface deposits for gems like Hadanite. The cheapest possible start — no ship required.
The Mining Loop
Ship mining, start to finish. The same rhythm applies whether you're solo in a Prospector or running turrets on a MOLE.
Pick your target
Decide what you want before you launch. Every moon and belt produces a different mix of ores — check the Mining Ores index for what's mineable where, and the scan signature each ore reads at.
Scan & ping
Drop into mining mode and fly low over the surface or into the belt. Send a scan ping to light up deposit boxes on your HUD. The closer and more accurate the ping, the tighter the box. Hover a marker to read its signature number — match it on the ores index before you burn fuel flying out to it.
Read the rock
Pull up to a deposit and scan it directly. You'll see its mass, resistance, instability, and a breakdown of what's inside. Decide whether it's worth cracking — a rock that's 2% Quantainium can beat one that's 30% filler.
Fracture
Fire the mining laser and ride the power slider. Your job is to push the rock's energy into the green optimal window and hold it there until it cracks — not jam it to 100%. Too much energy tips into the red and the rock explodes, taking your fragments (and your hull) with it. Distance and firing angle change how much energy actually transfers, so reposition if a rock won't crack.
Extract
Once the rock fractures into chunks, switch to the extraction beam and vacuum up the fragments. The beam separates valuable ore from inert rock automatically — watch your cargo readout fill.
Haul it home
Mind your SCU capacity and head for a refinery. If you're carrying Quantainium, the clock is already running — it destabilizes and can detonate if you sit on it too long. Refine volatile loads first.
Reading the Rock
Four numbers decide whether a deposit is a payday or a waste of charges. Learn to read them at a glance.
Resistance
How hard the rock fights your laser. High resistance needs more power to crack — or a module to soften it. Rentals are capped low, so new miners should hunt low-resistance rocks (≈0.25 and under).
Instability
How easily the rock blows. High instability means a narrow, twitchy green window — ease the power in gently. Stabilizing modules widen your margin for error.
Mass / Size
Bigger rocks hold more ore but take more energy and may need splitting into sub-deposits first. Don't bite off a rock your laser can't finish.
Composition
The percentage breakdown of what's inside. Chase value density, not raw percentage — a sliver of Quantainium or Taranite beats a rock packed with Beryl.
Gear & Modules
Your mining head holds up to three modules. They're the difference between bouncing off a hard rock and cracking it clean.
| Module type | What it does | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Passive | Always-on buffs that permanently reshape the laser — lower resistance, reduce instability, widen the optimal window, or boost extraction. Slot and forget. | Focus · Optimum · Lifeline · Brandt · Rieger · Torpid |
| Active | Limited-charge boosts you fire mid-crack for a burst of power or stability. Powerful but consumable — restock at any station. | Surge · Stampede · Sabir · OptiMax · WaveShift |
| Ship / tool | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| MISC Prospector | Solo ship miner | Single S1 mining head, swappable. The standard first ship — rentable at refineries and rental outposts. |
| ARGO MOLE | Crew ship miner | Three independent S2 turrets + big ore hold. Bring friends; one pilot, up to three lasers on the rock. |
| Greycat ROC / ROC-DS | Surface gems | Drive-up deposits on moons. Cheap, reliable, and a great UEC starter loop. |
| Pyro RYT multi-tool | Hand mining | OreBit attachment + a Rucksack-class backpack for capacity. Caves and small surface gems. |
Refine & Sell
Raw ore sells for scraps. Refining is where the money is — and where a little planning pays off.
Dock at a refinery
Refinery stations sit at the Lagrange points and asteroid/R&R stations around each planet. Find the Refinery / Refinement Processing terminal and start a work order with your raw ore.
Pick a refining method
Each method trades yield, speed, and cost differently — some maximize output, some finish fast, some are cheap. Refineries also have material specializations, so the same ore refines better at some stations than others. Queue several jobs at once; the clock runs while you're away.
Collect & haul
When the job finishes, the refined material comes back as cargo boxes. Load them into a hauler and run them to a Trade & Development Division (TDD) in a major hub — Area18, New Babbage, Lorville — for the best price. Bigger cargo ship, fewer trips.
What's Worth Mining
Not all rock is equal. Chase value density and you'll out-earn miners hauling twice your tonnage.
| Priority | Ores | Why |
|---|---|---|
| King | Quantainium | Highest payout by far — but volatile. Refine it fast or lose the load. |
| Top tier | Stileron · Savrilium · Riccite · Bexalite · Taranite · Gold · Borase | Epic/legendary and high-value rares. Worth going out of your way for. |
| Bread & butter | Laranite · Agricium · Titanium · Tungsten | Steady, low-drama uncommons that fill a hold profitably. |
| Filler | Beryl · Corundum · the common metals | Fine as a bonus, not worth a dedicated run. |
Full scan signatures, rarity, and exactly which body each ore spawns on are in the Mining Ores index.
SALCOM Charts
Two org tools do the homework for you — bookmark both.
Mining Ores
Every ship-mineable ore with its scan signature for 1–5 rock clusters, plus which system and body it's found on, by abundance.
Open the ore index → ChartsAaron Halo Routes
The Aaron Halo is the richest rock in Stanton. These quantum-drop charts put you right in the belt — pick a refinery and destination, get the exact drop distance.
Open the routes →Zero to Miner
No ship, no problem. The classic bootstrap path from empty pockets to a working mining operation:
Hand-mine gems
Grab a Pyro RYT multi-tool, OreBit head, and a Rucksack. Work caves and surface deposits for Hadanite and other gems, or scan asteroids in the Halo on foot. Sell, repeat.
Rent a Prospector
Once you can cover a rental, take a Prospector to the Aaron Halo and mine low-resistance rocks. Refine and sell until you own one outright.
Add a ROC
A ROC opens up steady surface-gem income on the side. Stack runs, build capital.
Scale up
Crew a MOLE, run org mining ops, and put a hauler on refined-ore runs. Now you're an operation, not a solo hand.