Off the top of my head, this is kind of the thought process I go through when I’m solo mining in low sec myself:
- Figure out your goal of mining lowsec ore. Is it to sell directly on the market? This influences the rest of your plans.
- Figure out your ship fitting to complete your objective. I recommend starting in a venture. It is quick to align and warp, comes with free +2 warp core stability which makes it hard for other players to pin you down, and it is inexpensive when you inevitably do lose it – which will be OK.
- Figure out your “exit logistics”. This answers the question: once I have mined the ore, how do I get the ore out? I recommend using DOTLAN to find systems that you want to mine in, that give you a good route to high sec if you are wanting to sell the ore. You may have to go further out from Jita or other trade hubs to find lowsec systems with low traffic (“jumps” or “ship/pod kills” statistics). You may decide “I will mine in my venture then haul it directly to highsec in my venture”, or go for the (much riskier) plan of “I will mine in my venture and drop off at a station in lowsec so I can mine w/o interruption, then later bring a slow industrial to haul it all back to high sec”. Sometimes there are courier services other players provide that can take care of that second step for you.
- I recommend mining in Cosmic Anomalies in lowsec instead of the belts. You can find ore like Crokite, Dark Ochre, and Jaspet. You will need to know how to fit your venture to speed tank the rats though.
- Lastly, but most importantly, never AFK mine. Learn how to use your D-Scan, and how it interacts with cloaky ships. Learn how to make “safe” bookmarks, but also know the dangers of combat probing.
A big benefit of learning to mine solo in lowsec is that the knowledge you gain can then be applied forward if you decide to solo harvest (ore/gas) in NPC nullsec and WH space – though a word of warning: neither are the same as lowec.
You will be prey, and you will lose ships. You are learning a very specific PvP skill in the process: how to be slippery, avoid danger, and survive as long as possible. As long as you can learn from each experience, you’ll do fine. Happy mining!