Star Citizen - Mining Guide

Looking to make money in Star Citizen, then mining is a good way to get started. We will discuss the basics of Mining in Star citizen and help you become a professional miner – both with a ship or without one (hand-mining). This article is in accordance with the current version of the game. However, it should be noted that Star Citizen is still under development, and it is natural to witness new features in every patch release. So, we will try our best to keep the article up to date.

What is Mining – Star Citizen?

As the name suggests, and you might have guessed too, mining is the extraction of minerals and other materials. These minerals and materials can be found on various planets, moons, and asteroids. It's your job to mine them using ships or simply your hands and sell them to obtain profit. Aiding in your mining tasks would be different mining equipment. 

Mining can be done with equipment mounted on a ship. But if you can't afford a ship, you can opt for mining tools that can be handled with your hands. Though mining can be a time-consuming task, you get the chance to obtain exotic minerals, which can result in a lot of profit in exchange for them. Exotic minerals include Diamond, Gold, Agricium, Hadanite, Corundum, Aphorite, and Titanium.

Star Citizen – Mining Techniques

There are two mining techniques – Surface mining and Sub-Surface mining. In the former, minerals are extracted from the surface of the planets or moons. Then, you will use a ship to mine the minerals through the prospecting, fracturing, and extraction process.

While sub-surface mining, you must obtain minerals from caves and other places located underground. In this mining, minerals might not be that much rewarding, but it is still something you can get a good price for. Sub Surface mining is also known as FPS mining or simply Hand mining, in which you do not require a specialized ship for mining. 

Before discussing the equipment required for miming, let's discuss how to locate these minerals. 

Locating minerals

You can use a scanner to find minerals and other resources which you can mine on planets, moons, and asteroids. When you press the TAB key, ping begins, and if there are any minable resources nearby, they will be visible on the scanner as light particles. You will also be able to see the distance of these minerals from your ship. This method will work for planets and moon surfaces only. For asteroids, you can find the resources anywhere in the scan radius of the asteroid belt. You just have to scan these asteroids. Find a rock, align your ship with it, and press the V-key to perform a depth scan on the rock. 

Mining Equipment

Mining Vessels – MISC Prospector, ARGO Mole, RSI Orion

MISC Prospector is a ship for miners who are looking to work alone and wants to travel the whole universe in search of minerals. It has high-tech mining tools and a dedicated pod for storing the resources that you have extracted. 

If you want to take your crew for mining, ARGO Astronautics MOLE is perfect for you. It is a medium-sized ship capable of carrying multiple people. It also features multiple pods (up to 24) for storing your minerals.

With up to seven crew stations, the RSI Orion is the best multi-crew mining spacecraft in the universe. It is adept at quickly and effectively extracting massive mineral deposits. The Orion has abundant mineral storage, high-grade tractor beam arrays installed on its turrets, and a cabin.

Mining Lasers – Mining lasers are used to fracture and extract a huge amount of minerals at once. Every specialized ship carries one or more mining lasers. You can use – Lancet MH1, Hofstede S1, Arbor MH1, Klein S1, Impact I, and Helix I for mining lasers. Players can also modify their performance by augmentation.

Mining Process

Now we've learned about locations, equipment, and lasers, let's discuss the Processes of Mining. Once you obtain the mineral, it has to be refined before selling it to the market. Mining processes include – Prospecting, Fracturing, Extraction, and Refinement. Let's discuss them in detail.

Prospecting

This will be the first step in the mining process and involves finding the minerals. Players use the scanner for this process of discovering the mineral deposits. Once you have found the mineral deposits, go for a depth scan of the obtained deposit. This will help you understand the composition of the mineral. If you are sub-surface mining, you won't need any equipment. Your observation and knowledge about minerals will be used here. Once you know if the mineral is mine-able or worth mining, you can move on to the next step. We've already discussed how to scan a mineral deposit. Follow the same steps.

Fracturing

When you start the mining using M-key, the ship automatically gets ready for the fracturing process. To use the mining laser for fracturing, use the left mouse button. Minerals deposits are huge sometimes and condense various rocks and minerals. To extract minerals, you must first break the deposits into smaller pieces. This process should be handled carefully as if you use a high-power laser or any such device; it might cause an explosion. This might turn dangerous and result in the death of crew members. You can change the level of the laser by using the mouse wheel.

Extraction

After a rock fracture, a mining crew disassembles the pieces for transportation. This is accomplished by utilizing a special ship's extraction beam, which automatically disassembles the fragment and transports the debris to its storage bay. If you are hand mining, you have to move the minerals in the miner's storage area in this process. Then, you can sell the raw materials extracted from the mining.

The rock in front of you will split into multiple pieces if you properly fracture it. Some will have a yellow-orange outline, in which case you must shatter them again, while others will have a purple outline, where mineral extraction can begin. To enter extraction mode and activate your tractor beam, click the "Right Mouse Button." Then, simply aim for the purple pieces, fire the tractor beam, and remove the minerals they contain. 

Refinement

This will be the final stage in the mining process. This will remove the impurities and other waste materials from the extracted mineral rock. Items need to be refined before selling them in the market. You can use the major landing zones for refining.

You must stop by one of the verses Refinery stations, which are dispersed across Le Grange, to refine raw ore obtained using the Prospector or Mole. Currently, there are five refinery stations:

• CRU L1 

• HUR L1 

• HUR L2  

• ARC L1 

• MIC L1

With this, we would like to end this article and hope it helps you understand the mining process and become a successful miner. It is worth noting that mining is easy with ships and equipment but to get them easily, you need Star Citizen in game currency, aUEC.

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