Elite Dangerous: Core Mining
Asteroids in Elite Dangerous are persistent objects. While this has gone through some changes it has been said that exploded asteroids need over 5 days to re-spawn. When it comes to mining, there is no advantage for anything less than A rated modules, so be sure to invest the credits and get the best.
Setting Your Fire Groups
Setting up the correct fire groups is important to the efficiency and an enjoyable experience. There are many steps to mining and fumbling around for the right tool can be irritating, especially under fire. Regardless of what order you have them in, or which fire button, here are some recommended pairings.
- Discovery Scanner + Detailed Surface Scanner
- Pulse Wave + Prospector Limpet
- Seismic Charge + {your choice}
- Abrasion Laser + Collector Limpet
- Displacement Missile + Collector Limpet
- Mining Laser + Collector Limpet
Core Mining
Core mining is when you use Seismic Charges strategically planted on exposed Fissures, revealed by Prospector Limpets. As mentioned earlier there is currently only one type of asteroid shape that will allow for Core Mining.
Fissures are cracks in the asteroid. If charges are placed correctly the asteroid will explode with many fragments, and many more surface deposits to shoot off with your Abrasion Blaster. The mechanic with Core Mining is how long to hold down the fire button as this charges the strength of the warhead, and which strength of Fissures to fire at.
You have different strengths of warheads that you control, and different strengths of Fissures that are inherent to the asteroid and discovered by the Prospector Limpet. The arrangement of Fissure Strengths and placements seems to be random. Also, once a warhead attaches to the asteroid you have a timer that starts giving you 120 seconds, or 2 minutes. For new players than can feel unnerving. Relax. You have more than enough time. When you get the hang of it then you'll find you have too much time and will proactively detonate the charges.
You first must find a Core asteroid with the deposit you want. This is done with the Pulse Wave Scanner.
Then you fire Prospector Limpets to scan the asteroid.
Once the Prospector Limpet engages you'll get a reading on your asteroid. Notice the bottom left-hand area of the screenshot below. It indicates a Core is Detected and that it is Low Temperature Diamonds in this case.
The skilled mechanic here is like hitting the optimal yield blue area with Subsurface Mining. It seems in Elite Dangerous blue things are goals and means optimal. As you place Seismic Charges a chart in the upper right corner will show you the yield output. If too low you won’t crack the asteroid which equals zero fragments. If you go too high into the red, you’ll crack the asteroid but get around 30% of what you should. If you hit the blue area then you have hit the Optimal Yield and will obtain the most fragments and surface deposits.
We need another charge at least to get it into the blue like below. You can see a few red dots. This is okay, so long as it says in blue below the detonation timer, you Optimum Yield Range!
If you are under the Optimal Yield Range then you’ll have to keep placing Seismic Charges. If you go over you’ll have to either take the penalty of a reduced yield or disarm a charge and try another Fissure. Keep in mind, when you disarm a charge it takes 10 seconds and renders the Fissure useless. So you only really get 1 try per Fissure.
Finally, once you reach the blue Optimal Yield area, GET AWAY from the asteroid. You have the option to Detonate Now in the Navigation Panel, which will then detonate in 10 seconds regardless of how much time remained. If you are too close, and/or don’t have sufficient shields you could be damaged or destroyed. 1000km seems to be a safe minimum distance.
Also, this type of mining is known to beat up your ship from hitting the large pieces of the now blown up asteroid. Shields are recommended, or a good nimble ship, or Elite pilot. You’ll likely have to do some maneuvering of your ship-to properly line up shots with your Abrasion Blaster to shoot off Surface Deposit chunks.
The position with Core mining seems to be important with both ship damage and limpet efficiency. Limpets are weak drones and break easily. Try to keep the line of sight with your fragments. If you see that a fragment is behind a large piece of an asteroid, your limpet will have to fight the surface of that asteroid to get to the fragment and back to you. It is common for them to get destroyed on such a perilous journey. Keep a line of sight and they typically make it back okay.
Additionally, be aware of what is “under you”, or more specifically make sure there is nothing obstructing your cargo hatch. If you have an asteroid piece rotating too close to your cargo hatch, or you unknowingly hoover just above it and all your limpets are dying, it's because they are hitting that large obstacle while trying to enter your cargo hold. Simply move, and regain the line of sight.
General Rules for Seismic Charges:
Below we go over some general rules for how to best match warhead strength with Fissure Strength. In general, you want to start with Low Strength Fissures, then Average, then High. The reason for this is two-fold.
- Easier control over the detonation yield. Notice you only have two lines that blue bars can live in. It is easy to go below, and go above, thus the challenge. Using Low Strengths first fill up the lower yellow bars quicker. Then you have more forgiveness using a High Strength charge for the final "fine-tuned shot" than another Low Strength, were holding just a bit longer than you should yield more detonation charge.
- Uses fewer Seismic Charges in the long run. You don't want to end up having to synthesis these, as they are expensive on material and you don't get many. This method will help preserve your charges.
Ice Mining Fissure Combinations
You have a total of eight (8) Fissures to work with. Assuming you have at least two Low Strength Fissures, typically (but not always) try two (2) 100% loads on seismic charges. This should be optimal. If not then find a High Strength Fissure and shoot at 50% or find an Average and shoot at 25%. If only another low exists then barely fire.
Assuming you have one Low Strength Fissure to with, use 100% on the Low Strength Fissure, 100% on an average, and 75% on a High Strength Fissure.
Assuming you only have no Low Strength Fissure then it typically works out with three (3) 100% Average Strength Fissures, or two (2) Average Strength Fissures at 100%, and 1 High Strength at 75%.
- Low 100%
- Low 100%
- High 50%
Or
- Low 100%
- Average 100%
- High 75%
Or
- Average 100%
- Average 100%
- Average 100%
Or
- Average 100%
- Average 100%
- High 75%
For Rock Mining Fissure Combinations
- Low 100%
- Average 60%
Or
- Low 100%
- Low 100%
- Average 50%
Or
- Average 100%
- High 100%
- High 100%
These are GUIDELINES and not rules. It is irritating when two (2) 100% Low Strength Fissures equals too much for example, but can and does happen. You’ll have to disarm and retry another Fissure.
Core Driven Mining Locations
ALGOL
Many spots to choose from. Pristine reserves. The screenshots show a few and there a total of 33 hot spots. There seems to be double overlapping Monazite, and Serendibite hotspots at least. One of the screenshots shows a tight overlap of Rhodplumsite and Serendibite. Great location for many of the higher paying materials.
Ambibeb
Double overlapping Void Opal hotspot
Arietis sector xz-p b5-3
The following information is from https://www.reddit.com/user/vanderaj/ on the referenced Reddit post. Planet Arietis Sector XZ-P b5-3 1 2Alexandrite 2Bromellite x 3 2Void opal Several overlaps are high value overlaps if you don’t mind collecting more than one type of minerals, e.g. there’s a Alexandrite + LTD + granderite + tritium quadruple, and several others besides.…
COL 132 SECTOR AG-I B25-0
Eng: Easy. Outside the bubble. No NPCs. On the Guardian route “Eta Carina Sector EL-Y d16” Ita: Facile. Fuori bolla. No NPC. Sulla rotta Guardian “Eta Carina Sector EL-Y d16”
COL 285 Sector EF-N A50-5
Multiple high demand and high sell price materials, no overlaps but there’s little traffic.
Col 285 Sector IL-P B21-3
Weakly double overlapping Void Opals
Col 285 Sector MX-K B23-1
Double overlapping Low Temprature Diamonds.
Col 285 Sector MX-k B24-1
Double overlapping Low Temperature Diamonds
Col 285 Sector NI-O B21-6
This spot doesn’t have any same material overlaps, but does have a lot of different materials. This is a good spot for various materials.
Col 285 Sector TE-Q c5-7
Double overlap of Tritium with a very, very tight pattern.
Col 285 Sector UJ-G C11-6
The bromellite is a double overlapping hotspot. The are bonus spots that are NOT an overlap of the same material but rather three different types, Grandidierite, Void Opals, and LTDs. This is a useful spot for multiple mining opportunities.
Concordia
It’s a relatively pretty system, sure. It’s also where the Marlinists decided to call home after all of the conflict surrounding the Empress. All that aside, the BIG draw is the only TRIPLE overlapping Monazite hotspot I have ever seen. And to make it even better, there is a Resource Extraction Site within the triple…
Droju MZ-I c12-4
Lots of overlaps, really far out in the galaxy but tons of stuff to mine with a carrier with no one in sight to bother you
Dumbae DK-I d9-2101
Overlapping Hotspot 2x Serendebite very close to 3x Benitoide overlapping Hostpot at 11 o’clock position Overlapping Hotspot Musgravite/Benitoide (close to the body) and 2 x Musgravite overlapping Hotspot at 1 o’clock position Found in Ring Dumbae DK-I d9-2101 A 2 unfortunately 22,784.92 ly away from Sol and 3,117.17ly away from Sagittarius A*.
Ellogy PM-W d1-294
Double Void Opal Overlap. While the overlap is small, they are still massive spots in pristine rings. Worth mining out if you’re on an expedition in the Vulcan’s Gate Region. Far from Civilization means NO PIRATES to hamper your mining efforts!
Eol Prou EV-E C12-132
There are two overlapping spots rather close to the jump in point of the system. For any miner located around Colonia this is quite a good system to have since its round about 4 jumps from Colonia, depending on ship.
Eol Prou IW-W e1-762
Abundance and diversity of resources, lack of pirates, proximity to the colony, very beautiful views.
Eol Prou IW-W E1-859
Multiple OverLaps (Platinum/Painite)
Eol Prou OH-K C9-254
Right on the doorstep to Colonia, with lots of resources to mine and even two Overlaps as far as I could see. Not too far from the jump in point and quite quiet.
Eol Prou OH-K C9-254
Its the second spot in the Eol Prou OH-K C9-254 System that I have found, only ~300 Ls further out. When paired with the Belt around Planet 3 you can find nearly all rare resources in the system, with the exception of Tritium, although I haven’t finished scanning yet so that might change.
EOL PROU TD-R C5-327
tight grandidierite overlap close to colonia
Eol Prou WI-W b17-2
The ring is absolutely loaded with material spots looking a little bit like cheese with a Double Tritium hotspot and with in 30 LY of Colonia making it perfect for a free fill up with a mining ship for your or others fleet carriers.
Flyaurps GH-L b22-0
A little signal is inside a bigger one, so going near the small tritium spot guarantee to have best mining.
Furuhjelm III-674
Lots of Hotspots for different mining possibilities, with lots of Fleet Carriers that resotck limpets. Not far from good selling spots as well. P.S. The double overlap is benitonite.
Gcrv 375
When Mining there you have great visibility, there is almost no fog. I recommend mining at the double musgravite overlap. It is one of the favorite Mining spots from the YouTuber Hawkes gaming. Most of the time there are FC in the same system that sells the musgravite for 750k per ton. I don’t know…
Gludgae UJ-K b8-10
It has a Tritium Double Overlap and is on the route home for many doing a circumnavigation. In total it has 36 hotspots! So it makes a good watering hole for Carriers. Standard Density works out at 10.08, which indicates a good core density. 4 is only 1,166 ls from the K-type star, so no…
Graea Dryoae DU-H c26-0
Signale: Serendibit: 4 (overlap) Alexandrit: 6 Benitoit: 6 Musgravit: 5 Monazit: 1
Guttors
Double overlapping Alexandrite hotspot
Guttors ABC 2
Double overlapping Rhodplumsite Hotspot
HIP 103571
It’s in the middle of nowhere, there’s little traffic, and close to starting systems for new players. Rhoduplumsite is on the outer ring, Platinum, Painite, and Serendibite are on the inner ring with an overlap between Platinum and Serendibite. I don’t know what kind of mining is required, but I was just exploring and found…
HIP 115094
Double overlapping Monazite Hotspot
HIP 16572
Directly from the referenced Reddit post: It is worth the time to go to HIP 16572. The planet is B 8 Ring B. It has 42 hotspots: 5 Alexandrite, 4 Bromellite, 9 Grandidierite, 6 Low Temperature Diamonds, 8 Void Opals and 10 Trition. Multiple Triple and Quadruple Overlays. It is the Motherlode of mining! The…
HIP 278 13 A
1OOt per hr averaging finding a core every 7-12min with constant med to high yields per core. No harassment from NPCs, very quiet neighbourhood Double overlap Rhodplumsite with multiple spots of others, also A7 is loaded but no over laps
HIP 4351
Below is the very tight overlap of HIP 4351. Shot was taken in the shadow for better examination. Since the mining nerfs of LTD’s the graphs are not relevant anymore.
HIP 49080
This is not an overlap of same material, but rather an opportunist overlap of Void Opals and LTDs. If you need or want to mine both, this is a good spot.
HIP 49104
Musgravite has been hard to find resources on so I added this one. There are also single Alexandrite and Monazite spots as well.
HIP 65126 – Benitoite
Incredibly tight Benitoite overlap and beautiful system. There is another Serendibite hotspot overlap in the same ring.
HIP 65126 – Serendibite
Overlapping Serendibite spot. There is another tight overlap of Benitoite in this same ring.
HIP 95415
Double overlapping Benitoite, and other overlapping materials of different types.
HIP 95981
Double overlapping Void Opal hotspot
HR 3007
Quiet, close to jump arrival point. Chill mining experience. There is one Haz rez available if that is your thing.
HR 4298
Very hot mining, low pirates.
HR 6944
The following is from the referenced reddit link. Here is a list of the overlapping high-value Minerals (OHVM): If they are duplicated below it is because there is more than one of the exact same overlap. Monazite – 2x overlap Musgravite/Monazite – overlap Musgravite/Alexandrite – overlap Alexandrite/Benitoite/Musgravite – overlap Monazite/Serendibite – overlap Monazite/Serendibite – overlap…
Hyades Sector ON-T C3-14
This is a great mining spot for all sorts of materials.
Hypoae Aihm KP-C c27-5
he ring density is 9.85. Co-Orbiting gas giant has Bromelite Overlap and is only a meagre jump away from another overlap hotspot system. This far out no one bothers you, though it needs a Fleet Carrier to reach.
Hypoae Aihm KP-C c27-6
Bromelite Overlap (hard to see as they are on top of each other) LTD Overlap plus a Tritium/LTD overlap. Ring has a standard density of 9.75 which indicates a good core density. Another planet in the same system has 6 Grandiderite Hotspots.
LDS 413
Double overlapping Void Opal hotspot & Double overlapping Tritium hotspot. The 2 Tritium spots are so close together there is less than 5Ls between them. So far mining has been alright, hoping to find lots of high percentage rocks.
LHS 277
Double Alexandrite, triple bromellite. For some reason game system map shows only 2 rings, but there is only 1.
LHS 6427
Pristine reserves single hotspot > common reserves all day long. The ring system contains 9 overlaps of varying degrees. The attached table lists the materials starting at the 9 o’clock hotspot and works clockwise around the ring image from the closest to the body to the furthest out. One Grandidierite site has an overlapping High…
LP 834-42
This Planet is only 240LS from the drop-out star and it’s only 1 Jump away from 6 different sell stations that buy Monazite for 600k+-700k+ (at the time of writing this) Station – System – Sell Price – LY from System Veblen Colony – LHS 184 – $718,906 – 15.44 ly Bruce Depot – LHS…
LTT 9391
Major Reserves.
Marubal
Double overlapping Void Opal hotspot.
Narasimha
This is a good spot for Benitoite and Musgravite, two materials that typically have a high price.
Nyeajaae OI-L b14-23
A long distance to the bubble
Phrio Phoea RG-J d10-20
Double overlap Monazite, double overlap Serendibite.
Phroea Phio CE-L B14-7
Out in the black, this exploration watering hole will help boost your next exploration mission and provide fuel for your carrier. Located ~6 kylies from Sol, it’s quiet. No pirates. Careful flyers could exchange shields for extra cargo capacity. On the way home for anyone doing a circumnavigation, it could easily provide a welcome distraction…
Pleiades Sector GW-W c1-15
nothing in particular. just a pristine monazite DO… 🙂 others are: platinum, serendibite, rhodplumsite, painite and musgravite close to the bubble and little traffic. 625 ls from system star.
Ploi Aec AB-E b26-1
Signale: Alexandrit: 2 Grandidierit: 8 Tieftemperaturdiamanten: 7 Leerenopal: 6 Tritium: 9 Bromellit: 7
PRAEA EUQ TS-B B13-7 5
Just one hotspot with pristine reserves. Ring around a beautiful purple/blue gas giant to look at if you get bored
RHEA
Its cool
Shapsugabus
This site is in the same system as a high demand high buy price station for monazite (reinhold dock). System is high population with medium security.
Smeits
Serendibite hotspot
SWOILZ PK-R B20-0
Quadruple LTD hotspot. Since the mining nerfs of LTD’s the graphs are not relevant anymore.
Swoilz WD-T D3-5
Lots of overlapping materials, notably a 2x Musgravite overlap, a 2x Alexandrite overlap, and a handful of mixed material hotspots as well.
swoilz yq-j c10-2
No pirate around and near the ltd 4 spot system
Thaila XQ-Q c20-13
triple overlap VO.
Trella
Overlaping spots
Voqooe PX-J c25-68
Just to log a deep space Tritium hotspot for possible carriers.
Wregoe JB-K c10-1
There is triple alexandrite overlap and double benitoite overlap
Wregoe SD-A C1-0
Double overlap of Void Opals, along with a couple of single Low Temp Diamonds hotspots and 2 Alexandrite hotspots.