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How to start mining

Learn hand, vehicle and ship mining, from scanning and breaking rocks to choosing lasers, modules and gadgets, then refining and selling what you mine.

Mining is one of the most relaxed ways to make money in Star Citizen. You can start with a handheld tool and work your way up to a mining ship. The basic loop is always the same: find a rock, break it, collect the ore, then refine or sell it.

Pick your mining style

  • Hand mining: a multi-tool with the OreBit Mining Attachment breaks and collects small deposits such as Aphorite, Dolivine and Hadanite. You find these in caves and on the surface of planets and moons.
  • Vehicle mining: the Greycat ROC (one seat) and ROC-DS (two seats) mine on the ground and fit in a ship as small as a Cutlass. The Argo ATLS GEO is a mining suit for the same kind of work.
  • Ship mining: the MISC Prospector (one seat) and the Argo MOLE (built for a crew) have much stronger lasers. They can break big rocks on planets and asteroids in space.

Multi-tools are sold at weapon shops and general stores, and the refinery deck at L1 stations sells mining gear.

Scanning for rocks

  1. In your ship, switch to SCM mode (hold B).
  2. Tap Tab to send a scan ping. It shows ore and other points of interest within roughly a dozen kilometers.
  3. Fly to a promising signal and aim at the rock to start a detailed scan. A meter on the right of your HUD shows the rock's stability and other stats.

Breaking a rock

  1. Press M in SCM mode to get your mining laser ready.
  2. Press Mouse 1 to fire the laser and use the mouse wheel to raise or lower its power.
  3. Hold the energy level in the green zone until the meter fills and the rock breaks apart.
  4. Keep an eye on the rock's instability and resistance on your HUD, along with the expected mineral yield.

If the energy goes into the red zone, the rock can explode. You lose the minerals and can damage your ship or vehicle.

Collecting the ore

When a broken piece can be collected, its outline turns from yellow to purple. In a vehicle or ship, use gather mode (Left Alt + Mouse 1). With a multi-tool, use Mouse 2. Gather mode pulls in everything, including inert material, so keep an eye on your cargo space.

Lasers, modules and gadgets

  • Laser heads come in size 1 and size 2. Each one has its own maximum power and a number of module slots, and changes how resistant, how unstable and how wide the green zone feels.
  • Modules slot into your laser head and change its stats, such as power, resistance, instability or the size of the green zone. They come in passive and active types.
  • Gadgets are devices you place on a rock to change its stats, such as resistance and instability. You leave your ship, attach the gadget, calibrate it, switch it on, then break the rock. Pick the gadget back up afterwards.

Rental ships come with their default equipment and cannot be fitted with different components.

Refining your ore

You can sell raw ore straight away, but refining it first turns it into a more valuable material. Refining happens on the refinery decks of certain space stations.

  1. Land at a station with a refinery deck. In Stanton these include ARC-L1, CRU-L1, HUR-L1, HUR-L2 and MIC-L1. Levski in Nyx and several Pyro stations have them too.
  2. Use the refinery terminal in the processing center and choose the ship holding your ore. You can also refine mining bag contents from your station inventory.
  3. Choose the ore and a refining method. Methods trade off speed, cost and yield.
  4. Check the quote for yield, cost and time, then confirm the work order.
  5. Wait for the job to finish. It runs in real time, even while you are logged out.
  6. Collect the refined material at that station, load it onto a ship with the freight elevator, and sell it at a trading terminal.
  • Highest yield: Dinyx Solventation, Ferron Exchange, Pyrometric Chromalysis.
  • Fastest: Cormack Method, Gaskin Process, XCR Reaction.
  • Cheapest: Dinyx Solventation, Kazen Winnowing, Thermonatic Deposition.

The in-game tooltips for refining speed, cost and yield are known to be wrong. Trust the quote the terminal gives you for your ore at that station.

Selling and keeping your ore

  • Refine valuable ore when the extra yield and higher price are worth the fee, the wait and a second trip.
  • Sell raw when you need money now or the ore is low value.
  • Since patch 4.10, ore and commodity containers you get from now on persist between patches. Ore pods that come with a ship are handled by item recovery instead, so they do not keep their ore.

If your ship is destroyed, the ore inside it is lost. Sell or refine full loads before going back out.