However, I noticed my blog still receives some pretty consistent traffic of miners out there, so I am willing to perform custom calculations and comparisons with YOUR prices.  Just leave a comment of what you want analyzed – just include the prices of ores you are willing to sell at and I’ll see what I can do.  Please, no ice mining figures though.  Its been a while and I think I forgot how to calculate it haha.

Plagioclase
Kernite
Veldspar
Scordite
Pyroxeres
Hemorphite
Omber
Jaspet

Here is the more detailed breakdown:

Asteroid (ISK/m3)
Rich Plagioclase (95.63)
Fiery Kernite (93.40)
Azure Plagioclase (91.26)
Luminous Kernite (89.13)
Dense Veldspar (86.88)
Plagioclase (86.85)
Massive Scordite (86.56)
Kernite (84.89)
Concentrated Veldspar (82.93)
Condensed Scordite (82.64)
Veldspar (78.98)
Scordite (78.67)
Viscious Pyroxeres (74.47)
Solid Pyroxeres (70.79)
Pyroxeres (67.10)
Glazed Hermorphite (64.24)
Vivid Hermophite (60.70)
Hemorphite (58.22)
Golden Omber (56.40)
Pristine Jaspet (53.96)
Silvery Omber (53.74)
Omber (51.23)
Pure Jaspet (50.53)
Jaspet (48.74)

• Average ISK per m3 of ore mining is 95. Considering Fiery Kernite is 109 ISK per m3 and Veldspar is 87, let’s just say 95 is a modest amount although probably inaccurate.
• Also, let’s assume that ice mining completes in 8 minutes. Like before, it is probably inaccurate, but I have a sneaking suspicion that these two are going to be in two completely different ballparks.
• Lastly, I’m assuming that a block of ice sells for 120,000 ISK each.

With one strip miner, approximately 1000 m3 ore is mined every cycle… or in other words, every 3 minutes. That means in the time of 1 cycle of a ice harvester, there are 2.67 cycles of a strip miner. In terms of ore, there are 2670 m3 of ore by the time there is 1 ice block. That means there is about 253,650 ISK per strip miner in that amount of time compared to the 120,000 ISK ice block… and that is assuming a 100% run time of ice harvesting which is difficult to do. In other words, it is estimated to be more than twice as profitable to mine ore than ice in a Retriever… or the equivalent of mining ores that yield about 45 ISK per m3 (even Omber blows this away).

Now using these crude numbers and data from the Complete Miner’s Guide by Halada, lets test the Mackinaw out. The Mackinaw recieves 4 ice blocks every 317 seconds… or 2 ice blocks per harvester every 5.28 minutes. In this time, a Retriever’s strip miner has 1.76 cycles yielding about 1760 m3 of ore. At the 95 ISK per m3 average, this is about 167,000 ISK compared to the Mackinaw’s 240,000 ISK. However, since the Mackinaw takes about an extra month or two to train, costs around 90 mil, and the cycle was considered perfect; it isn’t very hard to believe that it’s more profitable.

Considering the Covetor’s third strip miner let’s try this again. The Mackinaw yields 480,000 ISK per cycle and in the same time, the Covetor yields 510,629 ISK worth of ore. Considering you can’t get the Mackinaw without the skills to get the Covetor, mining ore is definitely more profitable than ice. It is the equivalent of mining Scordite in a Covetor (89 ISK/m3).

One additional issue to concern is that every 3 mintes you would have to drag ore into a jetcan. Ice mining you can do other things, like help your girlfriend study for an anatomy exam with notecards. I got yelled at a few times during the hauling process though haha.

I didn’t mention this before on the blog but I have recorded this about a week ago as well. The only noteworthy change is the dropping price of Pyerite resulting in Dense Veldspar being more profitable than Condensed Scordite, Concentrated Veldspar is better than Scordite, and both Veldspar and Scordite are better than Viscious Pyroxeres now. I would also like to add that Tritanium rose in price and the more expensive ones like Isogen and Mexallon decreased… something to think about in the future or if you are stockpiling

Additionally I’d like to add that these prices may fluctuate day to day (or within the same day) and that my regional average my differ than yours. Nor does this data include 0.0 mining.

Asteroid ISK/m3

As you can see, low security (or rare) asteroids don’t necessarily yield more profit. Don’t be fooled by the price of Zydrine… it isn’t actually worth it at this point in time. Also note that Veldspar is abundant, found almost everywhere, and easily refined even for beginners. I’ll try to come up with some comparison with Ice and minerals some other time.

Anyways, it was interesting to say the least. I anchored three giant secure canisters. That was like finding real estate in a highly developed city. There were cans everywhere (check out the screenshot to see what I mean). It was very difficult to place all three relatively close to each other. I managed to get them all within 10km of each other and I’m thinking I can fill up each one and collect all of them in a single Iteron haul.

I also managed to check the time and profit potential of it. In about 8 minutes I recieve only 2 ice blocks. Since I am not refining them, I am only going to estimate the wholesale price of the iceblocks which run about 115 ISK each. That means an estimated 1-2 million ISK an hour depending on how much down time I experience. Not very profitable, but 8 minute cycles means I can mine while doing homework or playing some other video game haha.

I think just embarking on the new adventure into an ice field was worth the unprofitable hour or two of my time. I’ve done less meaningful things before.

I’m still in the process of improving my combat skills and further equipping my ship, but for now it is pretty powerful – and with over 10k armor and two medium armor repairs, its hard to complain. I haven’t used it a lot, but from my limited experiences so far, it just sits there taking hits while the drones do the dirty work. At about 10km, I web and unload 200mm railguns on them. The webber helps me place hits.

For now it is sitting in the space station looking pretty. Like a weekend car, I’ll probably just take it out on rare occasions until it’s ready.

So other than mining, training skills to effectively use the Battlecruiser, and making some purchases here and there, I’ve made the very intelligent decision of leveling up Salvaging to level 3 to make even more profit by sitting there in an asteroid belt. I sit there, jetcan mine for a few hours, kill every wave of rats, haul ore, then salvage with the Catalyst. Pictures included. Next time I post I probably will be showing off a shiny new Battlecruiser.