Thy shall not covet thy neighbours ore

That sounds… almost rude… 😛

I’ve been thinking (uh-oh) about mining. And more particularly about how quickly a ship will replace itself value wise. This stems from a comment made about how coveters are a throwaway ship… at 31 million a pop. So I decided to do some number crunching and have a look at how long each ship would take to pay for itself. After which anything is profitses.

Assuming all level V skills and current Jita prices, I’ve picked six ships to look at. Two mining cruisers, the cheapest and most expensive mining barges and exhumers. Osprey, Vexor, Procurer, Covetor, Skiff and Hulk using Veldspar as the crunchee. Veld is going for surprising amounts at present, but allowing for some variation I’ve chosen the fourth best buy price at a convenient 18 isk per unit. Sizewise it’s 0.1m3

Lets have a look at the ships themselves and allow for T2 fittings (2x mining upgrades in the lows with the exception of the covetor which cannot fit those and three strip miners in the highs). This is a sketch, not an in depth analysis because of the sheer volume of variables. We’re not considering tankability or cargo space and the need for jet canning at this point only. This is purely replacement cost by mining.

Osprey 4.8 mil – yield 774 or 7740 units of veld per minute. If I’m right at current prices, it will take about 34 minutes to pay for itself.
Vexor 6.6 mil – yield 818 – 44 minutes to pay for itself.
Procurer 2.8 mil – yield 448 – 34 minutes.
Covetor 31 mil – yield 1549 – 110 minutes
Skiff 76 mil – yield 604 – 699 minutes.
Hulk 255 mil – yield 1859 – 762 minutes

Rokh  – also 225 mil – yield 1063 – big number that hurtz mai brane.

I’m not entirely sure what yield means in EFT as far as mining goes. From what I can see from in game m3 per minute. If things are out then I’ll apologize in advance. Obviously with lesser skills it will take longer. And dependent on the variability of hulls and ore, things may take much longer to replace (ie if ship prices keep heading north and ore south).

If I’m right – and you’re mining for 8 hours a day, then you’d need to mine for a day and a half to replace your hulk… then another five or so hours to catch up with the Vexor. After which there is no competition and the hulk grinds everything to paste as far as profitability goes.

Skillswise assuming flat stats and no implants – minimum to get into the cruisers with mining V and 5 mining drone IIs, 25days. A rokh is not much more at 33 days. The bare minimum for the hulk is 73 days. You can shave a good proportion of time off by dropping the drones completely, with 8 days for cruiser, 15 for Rokh and 55 (ouch) for hulk respectively.

All in all, and imho you don’t need to spend a crap load on mining. A covetor is a lot less cost, though it takes nearly as much time to skill as a hulk (curse you mining barge V). Is T1 and insurable, so can indeed be treated as a throwaway ship if your pockets are sufficiently deep. It also beats a solo hulk throughput if fleeted with a maxed bonus pilot and Orca. The downside is of course the total inability to tank it to any reasonable degree. Expect to lose a few.

If thats not your thing, spend 8 days get yourself into an osprey and chew away to your hearts content all the while keeping an eyeball on what cruiser V unlocks in the future for pew. A vexor pulls in a bit more due to it being able to fit a fourth mining laser and when drones are maxed.

I guess it really does come down to what you want to do… mine, mine quickly, or mine and piss off the gankers… 😛

 

Fly smart,

 

H