I wrote this post to be accessible to the average HiSec player, with a mind for income balanced by safety. To this end, I have chosen the Procurer as the benchmark mining barge. The Procurer is the safest barge to mine in, boasting the highest EHP of the Tech1 barges and, critically, the fastest align time. The information in this piece is of course applicable to exhumers, but that might be perhaps too daring for most. For those who don't want to risk the 25m~ for a Procurer, Ventures work well, too.
Update 03/07/2021: Living in Amarr space, I did not realize that the other three empires had access to Plagioclase. This changes the formulation somewhat; however, a Hulk with perfect boosts will yield about 27.9m/hr mining Plagioclase. The same setup will yield 52.6m/hr from Jaspet. Also note: Minmatar space seems to have a high prevalence of Stellar Observatories, which increase mining speed by 10%. I have encountered a few of these in Amarr space. They spawn in LowSec.
A Changed Opportunity Map
Players have been decrying the resource distribution balance pass that CCP implemented in September of 2020. This change, which came just a few short months after moon minerals were nerfed, locked HiSec miners to Tritanium, Pyerite, and Mexallon. HiSec miners, while understandably upset as they watch their income per hour plummet after two major nerfs in a year, have in large part failed to catch up to the changing ecosystem and are still operating under a false belief: that mining in LowSec still isn't worth the risk. The opportunity map has changed under their noses, and in this article I will show that not only is LowSec worth the risk, but is now the place to mine for the average Empire player.
These changes are good for EVE. In days gone by, mining was in a very strange place - particularly when it came to LowSec. The profitability of mining in LowSec vs HiSec dependS on a number of variables. On paper it was setup-for-setup slightly more profitable to mine in LowSec than it was in HiSec. However, for risk averse miners (read: most HiSec miners), it was mostly too risky to bring barges beyond the CONCORD umbrella, and Orcas were out of the question. This limited these miners to using Ventures, most likely without even Porpoise boosts. After accounting for travel time, lack of hauler, lack of boosts, and safety measures, LowSec actually was either less profitable than mining with a solo barge in HiSec, or not profitable enough to justify the added overhead. Thus, LowSec ores remained an underutilized resource except in rare or exceptional cases. If you were going to mine outside of HiSec you might as well join a SOV entity - and make more ISK in NullSec than you ever could in LowSec.
With the mineral redistribution of 'Scarcity', however, this has changed. In the past, every mineral needed for production could be found in NullSec. Lower end minerals (such as Tritanium) were always in high demand, which made HiSec mining viable. LowSec was the odd man out, as it offered nothing that couldn't be found in NullSec. If you were seeking mid range minerals, NullSec was safer under a SOV umbrella, and offered a denser distribution. If you were mining for low end minerals, HiSec was just safer, period. Now all three areas of space must be utilized in order to supply the New Eden economy with the materials it needs. In other words: now there is demand for LowSec mining.
While HiSec mining does not seem very viable at the moment, this may just be a reflection of the abundance of Tritanium stockpiles. As those deplete, it's possible that HiSec mining may start to approach viability over time. In the interim, consider venturing into LowSec.
You Should Dare to Mine LowSec
This research was conducted utilizing IPH and typical mining setups, with attention paid to time-to-replacement for any losses (only factoring in the cost of hulls, for simplicity). For multiboxers, time-to-replacement is divided by the number of mining toons. If TTR is 100 hours, but you have 3 mining toons, the TTR is 33.33 hours. All values are also in compressed ores:
HiSec: Procurer (T1 Strips): Orca
- Veldspar: 9.4m/hr
- Pyoxeres: 8.2m/hr
- Scordite: 7.9m/hr
- Time to Replace - Procurer: 3.2 hours. Orca: 117 hours.
- Low yield, low loss probability.
- Veldspar: 23.1m/hr
- Pyroxeres: 20.8m/hr
- Scordite: 19.7m/hr
- Time to Replace - Hulk: 10.8 hours. Orca: 47.6 hours.
- Moderate yield, moderate to high loss probability.
- Dark Ochre: 22.5m/hr
- Gneiss: 16.4m/hr
- Jaspet: 15.1m/hr
- Hemorphite: 13m/hr
- Time to Replace - Venture: 0.013 hours.
- Moderate yield, low to moderate loss probability.
LowSec: Venture (T2 Miners): Porpoise
- Dark Ochre: 28.5m/hr
- Gneiss: 21.7m/hr
- Jaspet: 20.1m/hr
- Hemorphite: 17.3m/hr
- Time to Replace - Venture: 0.01 hours. Porpoise: 3.5 hours.
- High yield, low to moderate loss probability.
LowSec: Procurer (T1 Strips): Porpoise
- Dark Ochre: 51.8m/hr
- Gneiss: 39.5m/hr
- Jaspet: 36.6m/hr
- Hemorphite: 31.5m/hr
- Time to Replace - Procurer: 0.58 hours. Porpoise: 1.93 hours.
- High yield, low to moderate loss probability.
While it might seem that mining with Orca boosted Hulks in HiSec is an attractive option, keep in mind that this is the maximum profit per hour of HiSec mining per ship and that Hulks, which are currently selling for 250m in Jita, are prime gank targets. I never see Hulks in HiSec anymore - I only included it for the purposes of theory crafting. Most of the ships I encounter are solo Retrievers or Procurers boosted by Orcas. Also keep in mind that this was all calculated with every relevant skill at level V (you may not have Exhumers V), and that the same Hulk/Orca setup operating in LowSec would yield 68.8m/hr mining Jaspet and 97.4m/hr mining Dark Ochre. LowSec is more profitable, by far, setup-for-setup. Hands down. This was not the case a few years ago. This is unequivcally the case today: February 2021.
There are of course some variables still at play. There is not a tremendous amount of Jaspet in the LowSec belts, so you might want to start your day cleaning out the Jaspet and then heading back to HiSec. Also, Dark Ochre and Gneiss are only available in anomalies. These may or may not be spawned where you are - but if they are, the "Average" deposit contains over a billion ISK worth of ore after compression. (update 03/11/2021: Crokite is also available, and is competitive in price to Dark Ochre. Because the prices are so close I did not update the prices to include Crokite. Note that 1 rock of Crystaline Crokite contains about 1 billion ISK worth of compressed ore.)
In my opinion there seems to be no contest: If you're willing to take a bit of risk, mining in Procurers with Porpoise boosts is the best route to take vs Procurers with Orca in HiSec. Feeding a Porpoise with mining barges will prove to be a bit of a pain for multiboxers, as two Strip Miner I cycles will fill the fleet hangar, and the Porpoise will be constantly warping to station to empty the ore bay. In my opinion the ISK is worth the effort. This micromanagement issue also has the benefit of keeping your attention on the EVE client, which means watching local, thus increasing your safety margin. If neutrals do appear in local, Porpoises and Procurers align relatively fast.
Implementation
It's rather simple to put this theory into practice. You don't even need to join a corporation or rent a system or get permission. Procurers and Porpoises are quite capable of ninja mining - assuming you're not jumping blind into systems and have done at least a modicum of due diligence to research the area. You can take on as much risk (Porpoise + Procurer) or as little risk (Ventures only) as you want. No matter what you decide, you will be making considerably more ISK than you would mining in HiSec for the same amount of assets on field - as long as you're willing to take a small risk and put in the additional effort.
I'm not going to give my game away completely, nor will I give you a complete safety guide to mining in LowSec. What I'll give you is a general idea of what to look for: A 0.5 system that contains a public Athanor with compression and an NPC station. A bordering LowSec system/s that also has an NPC station. Compressed ore is not only much easier to transport, but it's a value added product. Simply warping to an Athanor and clicking "compress" is enough to vastly increase the value of your product. Optionally, you can anchor your own Athanor in a 0.5 system next to where you will be mining, although this will add overhead.
You're also looking for systems with lots of belts. The more belts, the lower the chances that a hostile will land on you by chance after jumping in, and the more time it will take for a hunter to find you. More belts also means there will be more Jaspet and Hemorphite for you to mine, and you won't have to resort to Kernite and Pyroxeres. Make bookmarks in every belt that are as far away from the warp-in beacon as possible while still being in range of the asteroids.
The rest is relatively simple: mine the ore and stash it in an NPC station. After each mining session, use a hauler to bring the ore to the nearby 0.5 system, compress it, and then store the compressed product in the 0.5 NPC station. When you're ready, haul the compressed ore to a trade hub to sell, or to a refinery to prepare it for production. Be careful hauling compressed ore. Compressing ore allows you to transport extraordinary amounts of wealth without even realizing it, painting a target on your back. Use cloaky haulers as available.
The mineral distribution pass was a step in the right direction, returning EVE to it's original ethos: He who dares, wins. Now that you've read this, you have no right to whine if you're not willing to dare.
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