L'art subtil du minage
10 Apr 2022Claude Lecardunoie
I set my mining equipment on my good old Sidewinder, programed my computer to Otegine and took off from Mawson Dock. The objective that day, was to get some experience as an asteroid miner.They say that you learn from your mistakes and learn, I did. Here are some advices for wannabee miners.
First, be sober when mining. And I wasn't on that day. All eyes on my search for a piece of rock to mine, I didn't pay attention that I moved too close from the star and I took some heat damages. Of course, I panicked and because of the alcohol, I was not really able to manoeuvre my ship among the asteroids, even at a reduced speed and I actually threw my craft into to one of them, taking even more damage. I stopped the engine, took a breath, looked at my modules status. I was still allright.
I took my time and finally approached an asteroid close enough to start mining it. Sooner than I thought, I had two chunks of rock in my refinery. Unfortunately, I guess I didn't really know then how the refining module was working because I accidently flushed the fruits of my work. That was it, I flew to Aldrich Station to get a rest and recover from my hangover. Matet wine is good, but again, don't go mining when you had too much of it.
After one day sleeping in my ship docked at Aldrich Station, I was ready and decided to take this mining job more seriously. And here is the second lesson: spend some time studying the Galaxy and Systems map. Just by carefully reading the data about Otegine, I realised that there were more profitable planet belts to mine than where I went the day before. And since it is far enough from a star, no risk to take heat damages.
This time I thoroughly chose my asteroid, barely disturbed by a ship fight some kilometers away. It turned out that one of them was from the System Authorities and it even felt more comfortable mining in a place where you know there is some protection from pirates.
I don't have scanning equipment, so I randomly focused on the first material I collected : Lépidolite. I realised when I sold it later on, that I will not make a fortune out of that, but again the purpose was to learn.
I also learned from the Mac Arthur Mining documention how to use an embedded refinery and successfully packaged my Lépidolites fragments to 1 ton ready to sell on the market. I sold that in Mawson Dock, because I have some unfinished business there with Pilot's Confederation.