Mining 101
The basics of mining in EVE is very simple. In every system of every region, you will find asteroid belts which themselves contain asteroids of different natures. Using mining lasers, you simply harvest those asteroids and fill your cargohold with ore, which can be later refined into minerals, which again is used to build ships and modules (we call modules any equipment we can fit on a ship).

In Empire (anywhere from regions which have a security status of 1.0 to 0.5), the most common types of asteroids are Veldspar, Scordite and Pyroxeres. They yield the most basic minerals which are Tritanium, Pyerite and Mexallon. The quantity of minerals you will get from refining your mined ore depends of the refining skills you have and the standings you have toward the corporation owning the station you are refining at. This sounds complicated, but this will be all covered later.

In essence, we could sum up mining like this: any ship which has a turret slot and equipped with a mining laser that harvests ore from asteroids for personal production, trading or reselling.

EVE offers a wide array of mining ships and equipment, some much more efficient than others. Through this guide we will discover what they are, and what they do. This section however will cover the very basics of mining.

1.1 Asteroid Belts & Ores
As previously mentioned, every system has asteroid belts, some more than others. The rule is, the lower the security status of a system is, the better the quality of the asteroids you will find will be.

If you are new to EVE, I suggest you read more about security status and how it affects your gameplay. You will not go into a lowsec system with the same ship and setup as you would in a 1.0 system. However this is not the subject of this guide and I will not cover it here, so do your homework before you make a mistake that will cost you ! A simple reminder would be you are mostly safe in 0.5 and above since Concord will come to your aid if you are attacked. You are however never completely safe from ore thieves and suicide gankers, who will suicide their cheap ships to kill your most expensive piece of technology to later harvest the rest of what's left as well as your ore. Keep this in mind: you are never 100% safe ! But back to the theme at hand...

We call every ore found in 1.0-0.1 systems "Low-ends", and the exclusive ores to 0.0 systems "High-ends". As you may have guessed, high-ends (namely, Bistot, Arkonor, Mercoxit, Gneiss and Crokite) yield the best and most lucrative minerals in EVE. This doesn't mean that all low-ends are crap. Again, some are worth more than others. Finally there is ice, which is now only available in low-sec and 0.0.

Some ore can only be found in particular systems. For example, Jaspet can only be found in 0.4 systems in Gallente or Amarr space. You won't ever find it in any Caldari or Minmatar space ! Note that all ore types can found in 0.0. You will find everything from Veldspar to Mercoxit, however not in every system. It would be impossible to list which system has which kind of ore in 0.0, therefore, I suggest you use ToxicFire's Ore Map. It is a great tool to help you locate a good spot for your mining HQ or simply figure out where to go depending of what you need to mine !

It's also important to mention is that each ore has two variations. The first will give an extra 5% mineral when refining, and the second variant will give an extra 10%. Here's a table with each ore's variations.

Ore                 5% Variation                  10% Variation
Veldspar            Concentrated Veldspar         Dense Veldspar
Scordite            Condensed Scordite            Massive Scordite
Pyroxeres           Solid Pyroxeres               Viscous Pyroxeres
Plagioclase         Azure Plagioclase             Rich Plagioclase
Omber               Silvery Omber                 Golden Omber
Kernite             Luminous Kernite              Fiery Kernite
Jaspet              Pure Jaspet                   Pristine Jaspet
Hemorphite          Vivid Hemorphite              Radiant Hemorphite
Hedbergite          Vitric Hedbergite             Glazed Hedbergite
Gneiss              Iridescent Gneiss             Prismatic Gneiss
Dark Ochre          Onyx Ochre                    Obsidian Ochre
Spodumain           Bright Spodumain              Gleaming Spodumain
Crokite             Sharp Crokite                 Crystalline Crokite
Bistot              Triclinic Bistot              Monoclinic Bistot
Arkonor             Crimson Arkonor               Prime Arkonor
Mercoxit            Magma Mercoxit                Vitreous Mercoxit
   

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