Mining Guide

Resource: Based from Mining Guide v3.0, I keep seeing rocks, rocks, rocks by Aeternus Doleo

Mining Guide, version 3.0
This mining guide describes the mining situation as it exists under the new mining mod, implemented early March, 2011 by Cannon, but configured for the 4.86 Mod update.

In a nutshell, for people who knew the old mining mod, the following things are different:
 * Fields get lower yields slowly, as they are being mined. They recover yield over time. More mining means a quicker decline.
 * Ore is automatically transferred to your cargo bay, no more ore packets in space.
 * You -have- to hit ore with your mining turrets now. Normal weapon hits won't give ore in most cases.
 * Water and a few other things can be mined without mining turrets.
 * The Surveyor light miner can fire it's turret forwards now.

Getting Started
Mining is a way to make credits in the Discovery mod. It's an alternative to trading, and doing missions. Mining is generally considered the quickest way of making money. However, with the new system you can't sit endlessly in one spot, filling transport after transport...

To get started as a miner, you will need the following (I will explain them in detail below):
 * A mining ship
 * At least one mining turret, either transport or fighter.
 * A mining ID
 * Either a mining company ID with matching IFF OR a "Freelancer Miner ID" with any IFF.

Mining ships
Mining ships are specialised vessels that have the equipment needed to do mining. They can either fill themselves, or send the cargo to another ship by selecting the ship on your HUD.

Sirius mining ships

 * Surveyor: A light miner with weak defensive capability, but with a forward firing turret. The default mining ship.
 * Scraper: A medium miner with a single forward firing turret. Useful as an escort that can mine.
 * Arrastra: A heavy miner capable of mounting and firing a bomber torpedo.
 * Spatial: A super heavy fighter with two mine dropper slots capable of mounting and firing 1 bomber torpedo. This is a very large fighter.
 * Hegemon: A transport class asteroid miner, capable of mounting up to 10 turrets.

Gallic mining ships

 * Tournez: A large Gallic light miner with weak defensive capability. Comparable to a heavier light fighter.
 * Courbe: A large Gallic heavy miner with slightly sub-par stats as a fighter.
 * Plier: A Gallic deep space miner capable of mounting and firing 1 bomber torpedo.
 * Rock Badger: A small Gallic transport class miner. Capable of mounting 10 turrets.
 * Note that only the GMS and the Miner ID receives a mining bonus when using Gallic mining ships. Non-Gallic factions cannot use the Gallic mining ships.

Junkers and Gallic Junkers
Junkers and Gallic Junkers can mine only Scrap Metal and Premium Scrap in the following vessels:
 * CSV: A freighter which has a rearfiring turret. Ineffective for mining because of said turret.
 * Collector: Junker very heavy fighter with 2 forward firing turrets. Useful as a light scrap miner.
 * CSF: A freighter with a few forward firing turrets. Useful as a light scrap miner.
 * Recycler: A super heavy fighter capable of firing 2 Bomber Torpedoes. Useful as a light scrap miner.
 * Salvager: A large, transport class vessel capable of mounting gunboat class weaponry. A very tough ship that can withstand radiation for extended periods of time.

Independent Miners Guild

 * Annapurna: A small IMG transport class miner, capable of mounting 6 turrets. Can be used by IMG to mine anything they get a bonus for.

ALG Waste Disposal
ALG Waste Disposal can mine only Scrap Metal, Premium Scrap and Toxic Waste in the following vessels:
 * Ragnar: A small Rheinland freighter class vessel.
 * Behemoth: A midsized transport vessel.
 * Golem: A large transport. Most commonly used for scrap mining, but expensive.

Samura Industries
Samura Industries can gather Alien Organisms and Helium-3 in the following ships:
 * Anki: A small freighter.
 * Kamome: Midsized transport vessel.

Kishiro Technologies
Kishiro Technologies can gather Helium-3 in the following ships:
 * Anki: A small freighter.
 * Kamome: Midsized transport vessel.

Gas Miners Guild
The Gas Miners Guild can gather Helium-3 and Alien Organisms in the following ships:
 * Anki: A small freighter.
 * Garanchou: A small freighter.
 * Kamome: Midsized transport vessel.

Kruger Minerals
Kruger Minerals can try to steal Helium-3 in the following ships:
 * Ragnar: A small freighter.
 * Behemoth: A midsized transport.

Mining Turrets
Mining Turrets are sold at a large amount of corporate bases and most Freeports. They come in 2 varieties: The "Fighter Mining Turret" and the "Transport Mining Turret". The Hegemon can mount fighter mining turrets as well, they are just as effective (but a bit more fragile and can be blown off of your ship by a wellplaced mine or two). Mining turrets are useless for combat, but invaluable for mining: Only by hitting ore rocks using these turrets, will you receive ore.

Mining IDs
Mining IDs are the IDs that will allow you to mine. There are only a few companies that can mine the various commodities available, but there are also independent miners. ''In order to get the mining bonuses, your faction affiliation must match your ID. The "Miner ID" can be used with any IFF''. For a specific list of faction mining bonuses, see the Mineable Commodities page.

Mining fields
Mining fields can be checked on your map. As you fly through a system, open your map (usually F7) and click on the hammer and pickaxe icon. You might see a few small yellow circles: These are areas where there are resources to be mined. It doesn't tell you how much there is, or what. Move into one of these areas, and start hitting small floating rocks with your mining laser. Shooting the big, unmoving rocks does nothing, you have to hit the small ones. If the field has ore, you'll soon notice some cargo appearing in your cargo hold. If the field is not giving out any ore, there are a few possibilities:
 * You are not in the field. The field is basically a sphere, so if you are above or below the plane, you can appear in the circle but not be in the field. Set a waypoint in the field and head for it, if in doubt.
 * You are not capable of mining the ore. Check if you have the appropriate ID, IFF, ship and turret. Check that you're shooting the rocks with the mining turrets, not with normal guns.
 * The field isn't active. Some fields will show up yellow but do not drop any kind of ore.
 * The field is mined out. As people mine the field's yield slowly decreases. If it decreases too much the field will simply shut down and not give any ore.
 * You have another ship selected, and you are filling it, instead of your own hold. Unselect the ship you have selected (default key: CTRL-T)

If you believe you're in the right field, check with some other players to see what is going on. If in doubt, ask an [Admin], [Tech] , or [Mod] for help. You can also ask players of the official mining factions, generally those will help you out.

Common mining areas
These are some common mining areas most players know about. I'm not listing them all, so keep your eyes open!
 * Cambridge: Huge beryllium ore field north of Planet Cambridge.
 * Dublin: G2 and H4 coordinates, two large asteroid fields. There are other asteroid fields in Dublin, but only a few give worthwhile amounts of gold ore.
 * Omega-7: Two areas southeast of Briesen Mining Facility, in the south side of the system. Two areas northeast of Elbich Mining Facility in the north side of the system. They have cobalt and silver ores. Three small patches northwest of Freistadt Base, containing copper, cobalt and silver ores.
 * Omega-11: Five small patches of uncut diamonds on the south side of the sun. Not all of them give good yields.
 * Tau-23: Beryllium ore field east of Indochine Outpost. Three patches of niobium ore a fair distance west of Java Station.

I got ore now. Where do sell this?
The nearest Junker depot (or Xenos, Hogosha and Blood Dragon base) will generally buy stolen ore for roughly 25% of the nearest sell value - so cargo piracy becomes a viable option.

Of course, you can also sell ore to a passing transport vessel. Typically, those will pay you up to half price for what you have mined.