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Mining in EVE Online is fairly simple, using menus to execute commands just like
everything else. First, lets make sure your cargo hold is empty. Assuming you
still have your starter frigate, cargo space is very frugal at the moment, so
every unit of cargo space matters! Dump what you have at the nearest Starbase in
your hanger.
Almost every system has 1+ asteroid fields, as you venture out into the low
security systems you will note that many of the asteroid fields are plagued with
pirates just waiting to pray on the happy-go-lucky miner (that would be you)
warping into the area. You will have plenty of warnings before they actually
start doing damage. First a threats box will appear, then how many ever ships
are near you are listed in that box, a colored square next to their names.
Yellow is ok, stay alert. Orange is a little severe and you may want to think
about backing out, or at least finding another asteroid away from them. Flashing
red indicates they have fired upon your vessel, and you should leave ASAP
(unless you intend to fight the pirates and pick up some loot)

(Elizar's note: I would advise not going up against pirates in a starter
frigate, usually only because pirates hunt in packs of 4+, you are no match for
them alone.)

Usually though you will be mining in your start sector for the first few times,
which thankfully are pirate free.

Lets talk about actually getting to an asteroid field. There are two ways to do
so, both fairly simple. The first way is to locate a triangle somewhere in the
star field around your ship, right click on it and warp to it. Triangles are
EVE's universal map sign for an asteroid field. Another way is to locate the
five horizontal lines near the name of the sector, right click on it and it
brings up a menu of asteroid fields, starbases, stargates, planets, suns, ect..
open the asteroids sub menu and choose an asteroid field to warp to from that
menu. You will begin to see the asteroids racing towards you just as you drop
out of warp; it is a beautiful sight of gray isn't it?

We have arrived to the asteroid field. There are several types of asteroids to
choose from. Each name can be found out by right clicking on the asteroid and
choosing the "show info" command. It will bring up a window stating the
asteroids name, and other misc. facts. If you so choose to mine this particular
asteroid simply right click it again and choose the target option (usually you
must be within 15k of the 'roid to target, and 10k to mine). Once you have the
asteroid targeted, and are within 10k of the asteroid you can now activate your
mining laser(s). At this point I like to open my cargo hold and drag it to the
upper right hand corner, just to watch the progress of the ore filling the cargo
bay (as seen in picture one); now you can sit back, relax and watch the cargo
bay fill with precious ore. If you intend to become a serious miner, you may
want to look at investing into better mining lasers, and a more plentiful
quantity for your ships turret slots.

Speaking of precious ore, and serious miners here is a more in-depth look at the
asteroids, and the minerals they produce: There are many types of asteroids;
many produce the same minerals, while on the other hand some asteroids only
yield a certain mineral, or a better quantity of one. Minerals are extremely
important for building starships, and other space faring equipment necessary to
keep the galaxy go-round. Minerals are created by refining asteroid ore at
Starbase refineries. Here are the current names of the asteroids and their
bounty. Veldspar: usually only yielding Tritanium. Pyroxeres: yielding in
different quantities Tritanium, Pyerite, Mexallon, and Noxcium. Scordite:
yielding Tritanium and Pyerite, usually more Tritanium. Plagioclase: Yielding
Tritanium, Pyerite, and Mexallon. Those are your basic large gray asteroids. The
following are much smaller, rarer to find, and can make you a lot of money when
sold. Omber: yields Tritanium and Isogen. Kernite: yields Tritanium, Mexallon,
and Isogen. Jaspet: yields Tritanium, Pyerite, Mexallon, and Noxcium. Dark
Ochre: Yields Tritanium, Noxcium, and Zydrine. Hemophrite: yields Tritanium,
Isogen, and Noxcium. Spodumain: yields Tritanium, Pyrite, and Megacyte. Crokite:
yields Tritanium, Noxcium, and Zydrine. Hedbergite: yields Isogen, and Noxcium.
Bistot: yields Pyerite, Zydrine, and Megacyte. Gneiss: yields Tritanium,
Mexallon, Isogen, and Zydrine. Arkarnor: yields Tritanium, Zydrine, and
Megacyte.

Those are all of the current asteroids and mineral yields to this date.

So now that we have that out of the way, lets turn back to our mining job. Our
cargo hold is now full to the max with an ore. Now ferry your load back to a
Starbase (Elizar's Note: I recommend book marking a Starbase in a sector and
only mine in that system for a while, traveling back to the same Starbase so all
of your ore and materials are at one hanger in one base. You cannot access your
materials on Starbase A from Starbase B). Assuming we have docked now, unload
your ore into the 'items window' (which is actually your personal Starbase
hanger). Once your cargo hold is unloaded, undock and go mining again. Once you
have amassed enough units of the same type of ore into your hanger you may now
use the Starbase refinery to refine your ore into minerals. Note: The minimum
number of units needed to refine a type of ore vary according to the ore type
that you are mining. You do not have to pay the base for using the facility, but
the base will take out some of the minerals you create. You also should have a
skill for refining. You should work on increasing that immediately as it
increases the yield of minerals you get back. Observe screen two for the
refinery process. After you are done refining you can use those minerals to put
towards building something, sell them via the market, or stash them away for
safe keeping for yourself, or your corporation. This my friend, has been mining
101.

Earlier I had mentioned that if you intend to be a serious miner (the bulk of
your online time) you might want to invest replacing that gatling gun with a
second mining laser, it mines twice as faster, and so you get the job done
quicker. And with the whole long ferrying back to base process mining can take
some time. Which is another reason why you should (when getting a new ship is
possible) look for a ship with many high-powered turret slots. You will not want
a missile ship at all, be sure to read ship info bars, and check the stats, see
what kind of cargo hold they have, how fast they can go, and how many high
powered turret slots are available. If you have basic mechanical skills you may
want to look into investing in a skill called "Hull Upgrades" this allows you to
use things to upgrade the physical aspect of your ship, for example cargo
expanders which expand the maximum amount of cargo space by 5%.

Notes with the Market: The rest of the EVE community relies on you, the miners
to supply them with the building blocks to so many advanced technologies. And
vise versa, so many people will see the quality and riches of becoming a miner
and so it is your job to make sure you are the better miner. How can one be a
better miner? Know more then they do, be more polite, and fill orders. Lets
start with know more then they do: This is an sketchy situation, if you are a
freelance miner you should reach out to the fringe of space and do some recon
first, find a good unprotected roid field (or blast away pirates to make it
unprotected) where nobody else is, and keep your mouth shut, book mark the
field, do as much mining as you can implementing the techniques above with
better mining lasers, more mining lasers, a fast ship, and large cargo
holds/with expanders (some times you cant have it all though…you must decide
which you can sacrifice) and make money selling the valued asteroids, remember
if you out on the fringe of space more then likely sine its a higher threat to
you there will be more money making asteroids (possibly even new types of
asteroids not yet introduced we do not know about) If your in a corporation, I
would think about leading a mining expedition fleet, and sharing what you have
found with your corp. members. Be Polite: If your a freelancer, or the minerals
you yield are not going to the corporation and are meant for outside use, get a
group of contacts with other major corporations, visit their websites ask if you
can supply them with minerals, tell them you can deliver on (which ever minerals
you have) ask them where their nearest Starbase is, and if they want to pay you
extra you can ferry it over to them; never just leave minerals for them with out
telling them where, or why. If you're not the social polite kind of guy, fill
mineral request orders via the advanced market. But still, be polite. If someone
puts in an order for 4000 units of Pyrite, some people will sell him maybe
15,24,67 units of pyrite and those small numbers will be scattered on the other
side of the galaxy, making it extremely incontinent for that person to get, one
day he may get fed up and find a private contractor (and hey, that could be you)
to supply him with all his mineral needs. So at all times possible fill full
orders if the guy wants 4000 and you only have 2000, go out and mine more, there
is an 85% chance his order wont be filled yet. We cant really say a lot more
about advanced mining techniques, but when we do find out more you can be sure
EVE Gate will have it first!

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