Noob question here but how do you know which ore is more valuable to mine in your system? Was looking at https://www.fuzzwork.co.uk/ore/ but there is many ways to sort and im kinda confused.
1 Like
I read on the archive that the most valuable is depending on the alphabet… ABC being the most profitable of all ORE. With Arkanor at the top of the list, and veldspar as the cheapest. if its closer to “A” its more profitable for you. Im sure that rule still applies.
1 Like
I have never heard that before.
Still would be nice to understand that chart on fuzzworks.
The right most four columns are what you’re interested in.
The first, ISK/M3, lists how much the minerals are worth in 1mÂł of the ore.
However, ores are all different sizes. The second column, Isk Each, tells you what the minerals in each unit of ore would be worth.
Taking veldspar as an example, a unit is 0.1 mÂł, unit value 29 ISK, it takes 10 of those to make a full 1mÂł, so the ISK/M3 column is 10 times that amount.
The second two rows are as above, but instead of a valuation on refined minerals, the valuation is based on the market value of raw, unrefined ores. The order is reversed with the Ore sale each column being what a unit of the ore is worth, and the right most column indicating what 1mÂł of that ore is worth.
Because mining lasers extract in mÂł over time (not in units of ore over time), getting the most bang out of your mining buck will be based on the mÂł columns rather than unit costs.
Hope that helps.
5 Likes
My working rule of thumb is that in hi sec the most valuable ore is always gneiss. Markets do move but you will find gneiss will always be in the top 2 or 3. And even then it will only be missing top spot by a few isk. It is a bit of a mythology that ABC ores are the most valuable. One of Arkonor and Bistot will likely always round out the top 2/3, but gneiss is still your primary target for consistency I would suggest.
Gneiss (and the ABC ores) can only be had from 0.5 sec moons. So, you need to be able to compare whatever ores you do have access to. And, to paraphrase @Qia_Kare, the most useful column for you in the fuzzwork spreadsheet is the value per unit volume ie isk / m3. But, only using the value for sale of raw ore (see below).
In a venture, you always have a fixed max cargo volume of 5000 m3. So, it makes sense to always know what the maximum value for that fixed volume is. Hence the need to know the isk / m3 for each ore type. Note, this is only if you are going to sell the ore. If you process the ore, then the value you get depends on your individual skills in converting the ore to minerals, for each ore, and on the efficiency of where you do this ore processing, and then on the market fluctuations for each contained mineral that you recover. Only you will know the numbers for the first three; fuzzwork assumes skills are the same for all ores processed so it is less useful for you to know the value of the contained minerals.
Stick with raw ore sale price for the moment; it’s easier. Just remember though that the comparison is always relative. So, if fuzzwork says arkonor / gneiss are the most valuable, they likely will be, but the actual price you get when you sell them will still depend on your local market and may still be (much) less than fuzzwork or other evaluations suggest.
Check this. Feel free to make a copy to adjust for your values (refining). It gets more accurate if you change the prices for the minerals to use the 90th percentile value for buy orders.
isk/m3 and ore sale M3 are the key ones.
the isk/m3 is the value of the ore, if you refine it, per m3. But bear in mind the value is based off perfect refine, which isn’t possible. you’ll need to put in something into the Tax rate/Refining loss % box for it to be actually accurate. However, you can still use it to compare ores, to see which is better for you.
ore sale m3 is what you can sell the ore for, on the open market, per m3 of ore.
The reason you pay attention to it, per m3, rather than per unit, is that you mine a consistent amount of m3 of ore per cycle. (it’s a touch more complicated, due to the quantity you mine not being evenly divisible by the ore size, in the case of the larger ores. but that’s normally not much of a concern)
Sure, Omber might sell for 114.76 per unit, compared to 19.86 for Veldspar. but you get 6 times the Veldspar per cycle than you get of Omber. so that’s 119isk in the same space.
1 Like
Isk/m3
Hi Steve,
Question: is the column ore sale/m3 based on the price of the uncompressed ore or the compressed variant? With refineries being spammed all over the place, compression is now readily available also in places where Rorquals don’t go. So I expect the price of the compressed ore to be the most relevant as most miners will compress their ore in system and then haul and sell the compressed ore.
this is all uncompressed.
1 Like
In that case: Feature request? 
I find this is not the case. Yes, you would be unlucky in hi sec not to find a player owned structure offering compression. On the other hand, no, you would be lucky in low sec to find a player owned structure, 1) that was public AND, 2) offering compression. Even with those generalizations, there is also at least one hi sec ice system close to me (two regular ice belts) with no compression - reduces the competition from people who want to ship it out.
in low sec you have rorquals.
This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.