Mining questions

[Soulmirror]

When mining is there any way to visually determine what you will mine?

When mining, does a specific ring or belt only have certain types of minerals / metals or can you find anything?

[Cmdr Ant Kingsmill]

Hi, you can purchase Prospector limpets. They'll latch on to the rock and after a few seconds will tell you its makeup. Personally though I don't use them, just drill and drop some collector limpets. You can always vent unwanted stuff and move on to the next rock.

I'm sure more regular miners will have some good ideas but I've always used the system map to look for the planets with metal rings. If you're not well armed against pirates drop in about 20km from a resource site for a more peaceful experience.

[Sidenti Taalo]

* There is no way to determine by looks alone which rocks are moneyballs. I highly recommend outfitting at least a class 1 prospector limpet controller - not only to pick and choose what you're going to mine, but also to get a much higher yield out of what you decide to mine.

* Metallic-type rings will typically have the highest chances at the most profitable minerals, and are therefore the most highly sought by miners in general. The ring type goes a long way toward determining what you'll find - Rocky tends to be lower-class minerals like Bauxite and Copper, the Metal Rich will have materials like Uraninite and Coltan, and Metallic is where you find stuff like Gold, Painite and Platinum. (Also pay attention to the abundancy rating - Pristine Metallic is your brass ring as a miner.)