Miner Yields

One of the first questions a new player has is how to make ISK.  The majority of the time, mining is always suggested.  It is probably because that is the best way for a new play with very low skills to make ISK other than missioning and following the tutorials.  When I started, I don't remember any tutorial missions.  What I did was mine while I trained skills.  

Looking back, I laugh because I was such a newb.  I used whatever frigate had the biggest cargo hold.  Back then (and it could still be that way), some frigates had mining bonuses.  I overlooked them and probably spent a lot of extra time mining due to lower yields.  When you are using frigates and cruisers to mine, yield might not be as important because you have to keep making trips back to the station to unload.  I even remember when it took to warps to get from one side of the system to the other.  The capacitor didn't have enough juice to get you all the way in one warp session.  That was such a pain in the ass. I moved on to mining barges as soon as I could.  I went from cruiser to Procurer.  What a huge difference.  

Getting exhumers was an enlightening moment.  Back then the tanks were even more fragile, but it was worth the bump in yield.  Logistics still sucked as the cargoholds were tiny compared to what they are now.  There was no such thing as an ore bay.  You only sat in a barge for as long as it took you to get to the next barge up the chain (and having the ISK to buy one).  The exhumer skill cost was outrages back then and I had to borrow money from my corp to buy one.  I was able to quickly pay them back.  That was about the time I moved to null to pvp.  

Here is a little graph that shows yield on some of the various mining ships in the game.  I also added a Rohk, which is a Caldari battleship.  It was kind of a "goto" back before the mining changes a few expansions ago.  You could get around 100k EHP tank for mining in low sec or in shady areas where gankers were known to be.  I don't know of any one who uses them for mining anymore. With the changes to mining equipment, the Skiff can mount a tank over 100k EHP.  I used EFT and I fit only the mining lasers/strip miners and filled all the low slots with Mining Laser Upgrade II's and on the strip miners, there are T2 Veldspar Mining Crystals.  All skills to level 5 and no boosts or mining implants.  You probably wouldn't fit your ship this way, but there are the baseline numbers you would get if you could/did.

(Click to expand)

It is pretty clear that Exhumers (Hulk, Mackinaw and Skiff) outperform the mining barges, but not by much.  Before the big changes to the mining barges, the difference was much more distinct.  The difference you would want to take into account first is the tank you can fit.  Where you mine will help determine what ship you fly.  You can also see that the Rohk was a good alternative to the paper-thin barges and exhumers at one time.  Those ships have come a long way from when I started playing Eve Online in 2009.  Ah nostalgia!!

Thanks for stopping by and as always, fly safe-ish.