Mining

Mining is an activity that produces resource, primarily Metal, Crystal, and/or Deuterium. It can only be performed by Utility ships and mostly at a Resource node.

In systems that are governed by the Trojite Crystal Collection Agreement, mining is used to collect Trojite from Trojite nodes or from metal, crystal, or deuteriums nodes that are mixed with Trojite.

In systems that are governed by the Data Rescue Agreement, the **collect** command for gathering data, resources, and shipwrecks from ruins is, for all intents and purposes, a form of mining.

## The Mining Command Sequence

To being mining, the player must initiate the mining command and navigate through a series of steps where they specify necessary information.

1. Select a resource node and click on the  mining button
2. (skipped if not needed) Create and place an Operation that includes the resource node to be mined
3. Select a fleet - eligible existing fleets will be shown - or use **Rapid Formation**
	* Please note that if a player wants to add high storage ships to the fleet to support mining, they must create the fleet **before** starting the command sequence. Rapid Formation fleets may only contain utility ships
4. Confirm - the confirmation panel will show the expected path for the mining fleet, distance it will travel, expected travel time, and Action point cost

**Please note:** Problems have been reported when mixing utility ships of different sizes - ships not mining and/or not getting experience for mining.

## Mining Rate

The effective rate of mining is affected by a number of factors.

First, is the mining rate of the utility ship, each of which has a base rate that can then be increased by Enhancement. The mining rate of a utility ship can be expressed in terms of storage space filled per minute.

Second, is the material being mined, which is a function of the type of resource node. Space Dust, the most basic type of resource node and the type near which the player's initial base is located, contains all three types. Other resource nodes typically only contain one. Different resources take up different amounts of storage space. Metal takes one space, so the raw mining rate will give the number of metal mined per minute. Crystal takes up forty storage spaces, so the rate for mining it is one-fortieth of the raw mining rate. Deuterium takes up one hundred spaces, so the mining rate for it is one percent of the raw mining rate.

Third, is the storage space of the fleet doing the mining.

Fourth, is the time it takes the mining fleet to transit between the resource node and the player's base. This time is pure overhead, so anything that reduces the percent of time traveling will improve the effective mining rate. Since resource nodes can't be moved, the only thing within the player's control that can be changed are the mining rate, through enhancement or by upgrading to larger utility ships, or by adding other ships that have additional storage to the fleet doing the mining.

## Mining Efficiency

To calculate the mining efficiency of your mining fleet you have to look at the following factors: Mining Speed, Cargo Space and Travel Time.

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{\displaystyle {Efficiency = Cargo Dumps Per Hour \times Cargo Space}}

* Cargo Dumps Per Hour - How many times the miner unloads it's cargo at base per hour is then the following:

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{\displaystyle {Cargo Dumps Per Hour= \frac {3600} {Cycle Duration}}}
* Cycle Duration - How long it takes for a miner to depart the base, sail to mine, fill up it's cargo space and return to base

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{\displaystyle {Cycle Duration= \frac {3600} {(Mining Duration + Sailing Duration)}}}
* Mining Duration is calculated in the following way:

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{\displaystyle {Mining Duration = \frac {Cargo Space} {Mining Speed Per Second}}}

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{\displaystyle {Mining Speed Per Second = \frac {Mining Speed} {3600}}}

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Divide with 40 to get the value for Crystal or with 100 for Deuterium, Metal takes up one unit of cargo space per unit so no additional division is needed.

The entire formula simplified is:

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{\displaystyle {Efficiency = \frac {3600 \times Cargo Space} {\frac {3600 \times Cargo Space} {Mining Speed} + Sailing Duration}}}

## Updates

In a Patch, the limit of one utility ship mining per node was removed/changed to one mining **fleet** per node (two in intermediate and advanced Mining Platforms).

See Maximizing resource production