Mining

Thanks for CMDR Chngd4LegalRsns to put this together!

There are several areas in Deghardi to mine such as asteroid belts and rings of planets. Depending on what you are looking for determines where you want to mine. For example if you are looking for metals you should look in rocky rings or rocky asteroid belts. However Deghardi has planets with icy rings which are good for finding low temperature diamonds and tritium. The first thing we should go over is equipment needed and a brief explanation as to what they do.

DETAILED SURFACE SCANNER

While not absolutely required to go mining this tool is invaluable. Using this on a ringed planet's rings identifies any hotspots inside of the rings where the most valuable ores are most likely to be found.

PROSPECTOR LIMPET CONTROLLER

Not necessarily required but will help finding out what is inside of the asteroid you are mining. Also tells you if you have found an asteroid with a core. (only some asteroids have cores and you will need additional equipment to mine the cores of an asteroid)

COLLECTOR LIMPET CONTROLLER

Also not actually required but makes your life so much easier by collecting fragments that you can refine into actual commodities.

REFINERY (required)

Refineries are absolutely required to take the chunks you mine and make them actual commodities. It is suggested by most that you should get a refinery with as many slots as possible. Each chunk collected gives a small percentage towards 1t of the commodity. And some chunks have more than one material in them (ex. water, hydrogen peroxide). In these situations the refinery will add to the progress of both of those commodities. This is why it is suggested to have as many slots as possible.

MINING LASER (required)

Mining lasers are lasers used for mining. They will use energy from the weapons capacitors and allow you to mine the asteroid. They are very basic and do not allow you to do anything special such as surface deposits or core mining. The most basic of tools for a miner. These are fired at the asteroid to liberate chunks to be refined in a refiner

ABRASION BLASTER

While not required for basic mining these are required to mine surface deposits found on some asteroids. These are to be fired at surface deposits on asteroids which are found by the prospector limpet.

SUB-SURFACE DISPLACEMENT MISSILE

While not required for basic mining these are required to mine subsurface deposits found on some asteroids. These are to be fired at subsurface deposits. When using these you should fire them at a targeted sub surface deposit and continue to hold the fire button. The charge will begin to drill and a prompt will appear in the bottom left corner of your screen when you are in one of the blue lines LET GO of the fire button and boom chunks that will need to be collected.

SEISMIC CHARGE LAUNCHER

Used to access the cores of asteroids that have them. When a prospector limpet indicates a core, use these to access that core by firing them at asteroid fissures. You will most likely need multiple charges. When one is placed it will begin a timer and at the end of that timer all of the charges will explode simultaneously. In the upper right corner of your screen a prompt will appear showing the yield and time remaining before the blast. When firing these charges one can hold the fire button to charge them for a bigger yield percentage. The prompt will have a blue line that is the “optimum yield.” You want the charges you place to make the graph line up in the blue line before the timer runs out. MINIMUM SAFE DISTANCE FOR EXPLOSION IS 1.5 KM. any closer may cause damage to and/or destruction of your ship. Once these explode they will split apart the asteroid giving you access to the core where you can find more surface deposits to mine.

PULSE WAVE ANALYZER

Used to find the most valuable asteroids in an area. Use this to send a ping out of your ship that will reveal the most valuable asteroids by making them glow. Points out asteroids with surface deposits, subsurface deposits and cores.

My process

Now that I have explained all of the modules you will need/want i will walk you through my process of mining.

Step one: find planets with rings. Once found use the system map to find out if the planet's rings are icy or metal rich. In this case that is Degardhi 2. Degardhi 2 has two rings, one rocky and one icy. Based on what you want mine make the appropriate choice as to which ring you choose. (ex. If you're looking for tritium you want icy rings, osmium would be in rocky rings)

step two: approach the planet and use the detailed surface scanner and map the rings. This will point out any hotspots inside of the rings. Choose the hotspot that you want and go there.

Step three: drop out of supercruise and start using the pulse wave analyzer. This will reveal any valuable asteroids

Step four: use a prospector on any asteroid you plan on mining. This is conjecture but to me it appears to increase yield on each asteroid. This will also let you know what is in that asteroid and tell you if it has any surface/subsurface deposits and/or a core

Some local hotspots and a tool

Mineral	System	Ring	Gal.Average
Void Opals	Degardhi	2 B Ring	135,284 CR
Alexandrite	Degardhi	2 B Ring	217,277 CR
Low Temp Diamonds	Degardhi	2 B Ring	106,353 CR
Bromelite	Degardhi	2 B Ring	30,424 CR
Serendibite	Dumni	2 B Ring	172,711 CR
Musgravite	Dumni	2 B Ring	198,613 CR
Monazite	Dumni	2 B Ring	200,975 CR
Benitoite	Dumni	2 B Ring	149,395 CR
Tritium	Badbh	7 A Ring	51,707 CR

And here is the link to a hotspot tool: https://edg.fractalqb.de/hotspots