What is it?
Moon-mining involves using your POS to extract Raw Materials from a moon. The Moon Harvesting Array structure will mine the moon your POS is anchored at. This is on provision that the moon has materials. To find if you have a suitable moon, you have to do some Moon Surveying.
The materials you harvest can be sold to other players or developed into more complex materials - eventually possibly allowing the construction of a T2 component.
What do I need to moon mine?
You cannot moon mine with your ship or mining barge, moon mining can only be achieved by using a Moon Harvesting Array structure at your POS.
- Moon Harvesting Array: Needed to extract materials from a moon.
- Silo: Needed to store Moon materials
- You may need a Coupling Array.
- You may need a Reactor if you plan to process the materials.
Where can I moon mine?
Moons in 0.3 security rated systems and below all have the potential of having materials to mine.
Reaction blueprints are much like a blueprint used for manufacturing ships or modules. When installed into a Reactor Array structure, it tells the reactor what type of material to create based on the materials being fed into it. In most cases your reactor will be connected directly to your moon harvesters, so you will need to get a Reaction Blueprint that matches the materials produced by your moon. Without a Reaction blueprint, your Reactor Array will not work. You must ensure you use the right Reaction Blueprint or your reactor will not be able to process your moon materials into something better.
Why do I need to create reactions?
There are several stages to moon material processing.
Raw Materials -> Processed Materials -> Advanced Materials
To get from one material state to the next you need to put the materials into a Reactor Array and insert the right Reaction Blueprint to create the next level of a material. There are many types of materials and many types of Reactions but the 3 groups remain the same, think of the above 3 like this, Wheat -> Flour -> Bread
You can sell the Wheat, but it can also be turned into Flour. You can sell the Flour but it can also be turned into Bread - which is obviously the most wanted.
There are two types of Reaction Blueprint:
Simple Reaction blueprints are used as the first stage of processing products from a moon. They are used to turn Raw Materials into Processed Materials. (Wheat -> Flour)
Raw materials -> [Simple reaction blueprint] -> Processed Materials.
Complex Reaction blueprints are used as the second stage of processing products from a moon. They are used to turn Processed Materials into Advanced Materials.
Processed Materials -> [Complex reaction blueprint] -> Advanced Materials.
Alchemy was introduced in the Quantum Rise expansion to enable producers to make advanced materials from more common processed materials without using extremely rare base materials.
Processed Materials -> [Complex Reaction Blueprint] -> Unrefined Material -> Refined Material
Installing A Reaction Blueprint in your Reactor
- Right-click on your Reactor Array and click 'Access Resources'
- Drag and Drop the Reaction blueprint in that corresponds with the materials produced by your moon
You will then need to configure the process via your Control Tower before onlining the structure..
Below you will find out about the process of making a construction component (Tech 2 part) from moon mining.
Your Moon Harvesting Array mines the moon and stores the contents in your Silo. All of this must be configured via your Control Tower prior to onlining you Moon Harvesting Arrays.
Once you have surveyed a good moon, you can begin mining it with your Moon Harvester Arrays. Moons all vary in material content and abundance of content but never run out of the material they provide.
NOTE: Changing Harvester and Silo type can only be done while the Moon Harvesting Array and Silo structures are offline.
To configure your POS for Moon harvesting:
Configure Your Harvesters Â· Open your Control Tower's management window Â· Click the 'Production' tab Â· Click 'Change type' for your Moon Harvester Â· Select one of the materials produced by your moon Â· Click 'Apply' on the management window
The next step is change the type for the Silo to tell it to store the same thing that you are harvesting.
Click the 'change type' button on the Silo. You can now select a Raw material you wish to be stored inside it. You can only select one type of material to store in a silo at a time. Please be aware that the drop down list for the Moon Harvesting Array and Silo differ slightly.
Next you need to show the POS how you want the process flow to be. Drag the output of the Harvester Array (which should now be a raw material icon) into the Input of your Silo.
Click Apply to save. Now online your silo, then harvester(s).
Your Harvester Array will begin warming up one cycle then will start harvesting.
Stage 1: Raw Materials
Ok, we know that once harvested, moons will produce Raw materials, but what exactly are Raw Materials? Well, there are two types of Raw Material, these are Gases and Metals. Gases are common, Metals are rarer, but both are essential if you plan to process your materials.
Gases: Atmospheric Gases, Evaporite, Hydrocarbons, Silicates. Metals: Cadmium, Caesium, Chromium, Cobolt, Dysprosium, Hafnium, Mercury, Neodymium, Platinum, Promethium, Scandium, Technetium, Thulium, Titanium, Tungsten, Vanadium.
A Moon Harvesting Array can mine 100 units of whichever raw material your moon has. So if your moon produces Atmospheric Gases and Tungsten, you can mine 100 of either but not both at the same time unless you have two Moon Harvesting Arrays (one mining each).
Your Moon Harvesting Arrays will mine then deposit your raw materials into the silo you specified during configuration. This will continue until you stop the process or until your Silo is full. You will need to offline the Silo before you can empty it, this is where a Coupling Array comes in handy.
To avoid missing a moon cycle you can anchor a Coupling array. In the production configuration you would simply pipe the output from your Harvester into the input of the Coupling Array, then pipe the output of the Coupling into the input of your Silo. The Coupling Array will temporarily hold any materials that come out whilst you are emptying your silo.
You now have the option to either sell your Raw materials or process them into something more complex: Processed Materials.
Stage 2: Processed Materials
So you've decided to turn your newly acquired Raw Materials into a more useful material (Wheat into Flour). You do this by combining them together in a Reactor Array to create the Processed Material.
It is at this stage of Moon Mining where you first use the Reactor Array.
The Reactor Array mixes various materials (can be raw or Processed) together to produce the next more complex material in the process. Reactor Arrays need a Reaction Blueprint to determine which materials to produce. Think of the Blueprint like a ship blueprint where you need Tritanium and Mexallon, but instead of minerals think Raw materials (Titanium, Silicates etc.)
NOTE: Not all materials will create a reaction. You need the correct materials for the Reaction blueprint.
Setting up the Reactor is always done before onlining it. You insert the correct Reaction Blueprint and the Reactor will automatically prepare itself and detect if you have the two or more materials it needs for the Reaction. The Reactor will look in your Silos and can also be fed directly from your Harvesters. The Reactor is configured on the Production tab of you Control Tower, drag the output of the Reactor into a spare Silo. If all is done correctly the Reactor Array will start up.
The Raw materials will flow out from your Harvester Arrays into your Silos. The Reactor then takes the raw materials it needs and mixes them together according to which Reaction Blueprint you have placed into it. If done correctly, the output in your spare silo will be a Processed Material. You may have to buy other Raw Materials your moon does not produce and place them into spare silos to make some reactions.
Processed Materials are mixtures of gases and solids, these are: Caesarium Cadmide, Carbon polymers, Ceramic Powder, Crystallite Alloy, Dysporite, Fernite Alloy, Ferrofluid, Fluxed Condensates, , Hexite, Hyperflurite, Neo Mercurite, Platinum Technite, Prometium, Rolled Tungsten Alloy, Silicon Diborite, Solerium, Sulfuric Acid, Titanium Chromide, Vanadium Hafnite.
Once you have a Processed Material you can either sell it or process it into something even more complex: Advanced Materials.
Stage 3: Advanced Materials
Similar to the previous stage you can now change your Processed Materials into Advanced Materials (the ingredients for Tech 2 components). Advanced Materials require two or more Processed Materials to make (remember processed materials are made up of a many different raw materials). For the Processed Materials you need but don't have, you can buy or trade them from another corporation and store them in Silos for the next level reaction.
Again you need a Reaction Blueprint to make a specific Advanced material. This time you will need a Complex Reaction Blueprint. You will need to offline the Reactor in order to change Reaction Blueprint. Ensure your Silo which is being used as the output of your reactor is emptied of any previous material.
After the reaction of Processed Materials, the output in your designated Silo will be an Advanced Material. Just like the previous stage, only certain Processed materials together with the right Reaction Blueprint will make something.
Stage 4: Tech 2 Component
You now have some Advanced Materials. Advanced Materials are the basic ingredients required to build tech 2 components.
You will now need to buy a Tech 2 component Blueprint from market. (E.g. Magpulse Thruster blueprint).
Now, simply take the T2 component blueprint to a normal station factory and put your advanced materials in your hangar. Check the ingredients, you will find your Advanced Materials are probably only 1/3 the ingredients needed to build the component.
You will have to trade or buy the missing Advanced Materials that make up the component from other corporations that also create reactions.
For breakdowns of Raw Materials (Simple Reaction) and Processed Materials (Complex Reaction). See this LINK.
As you can see, there is NO WAY you can build a T2 part from start to finish with one POS. You will simply not have all the materials needed throughout each stage to do so. You will need multiple POS's to obtain everything you need and process them. Bear in mind CT's have limited powergrid and cpu meaning there are only so many structures you can have at your POS.
There is also a huge diversity of materials needed for it all to be possible to do in one go. But then again this very much depends on your moon. If you find a uber moon which has the right materials you can do a lot on your own. Many larger corporations will run 2 or 3 POS's to achieve this feat and provide a end product, but always take into consideration fuel, time, location and costs - it may be better to work with others.
The most efficient and cost effective way of T2 production is working with one or more dedicated industrial partner corporations. Based on what they produce, you produce the other half. For instance, if you both make Processed Materials, combined them with your partner to make a specific Advanced material then split the quantity or profits between yourselves.
Alternatively, you don't have to go all the way to Tech 2 components, you can pick what stage you want to comfortably work at and do your best at it. If it's just you and a couple of friends in your corp, then you can run a Small Control Tower and harvest Raw materials to sell onto to others. If you are a medium sized corp and have found a good moon, you could run Simple Reactions and produce Processed materials to Sell. If you are a large corporation and have several POS's, you could go all the way to a shiny and very much sought after Tech 2 Component.