So my corp had a mining op today, we live in highsec.
Hauled in about 88m worth of Ore on the Jita market according to Evepraisal, very slightly less if sold in Amarr ~85m. (Sry forgot to take a screenie)
Our corp reprocessing bro has skills and implants to reprocess at about 74% efficiency at our refining Athanor with a T1 rig, which as far as I understand is only about 4-5% lower than the max reprocessing rate you can achieve in HS so not perfect but not bad.
After reprocessing it into minerals we are left with an evepraisal of…~67m on Amarr market which actually is more like 63m once we got it there and had it listed, vs ~85m on the Jita market…wtf?
So the value drops 20 mil between Ore and Minerals on the Amarr market but stays more or less the same if sold in Jita? I don’t understand.
We’re working out of 0% tax structures, with pretty good reprocessing skills, listing the minerals on the market by members who have decent market skills and we’re still not able to come anywhere close to making more selling the minerals than by selling the ore in the Amarr market.
Freighting a few hundred mil worth of minerals 50-something jumps to Jita just to make cost is not an option for us.
What happened to “Sell the ore until you have good enough reprocessing skills that the minerals are worth more than the ore”??
At this point if we want significantly better reprocessing rates it involves either a 2b structure rig or moving to lowsec or nullsec and the return on either of those investments for a small corp like us will take forever if it ever pays off at all.
Why is there such a huge difference between the price of minerals on the Amarr market vs the Jita market??
Is it down to Jita being that much bigger, suppy vs demand or am I missing something here?
Honestly, I’m surprised that you would be able to break even in Jita either. The thing to understand about high sec ore is that it is mostly exported to null sec. As such, they would rather have the Ore than the equivalent minerals. There are two reasons for this.
Ore takes up less space so it is easier to transport.
Null Sec refining is more efficient so they get more out of refining it themselves locally.
You must reprocess into minerals if you aim to USE them to build stuff. If you aim to get ISK you rather sell the compressed ore in market or directly to some nulllsec corp . ( I’m buying if you have some for sell)
I don’t think Amarr is a completely free and open market. I think it is seeded and perhaps price capped market. I think it is a hybrid NPC/player market.
Looking at the Tritanium - a mineral that is only available in high security space - then Amarr is currently about 3.25/unit, Jita is nearer 3.95/unit - I.e Amarr is about 15% cheaper than Jita.
Generally, in hi-sec, when mining for profit you should mine Veldspar. Almost inevitably that will give you the best income. Mine other stuff for your own pot/satisfaction. Though you may find “mine for trit, buy the rest from the sales profit of any excess” more efficient if manufacturing.
Nothing beats doing the maths upfront: spreadsheet time!
There are probably several reasons for the price differences - the markets are wholly player operated and subject to their demands and supply. CCP influence the market by the seeding rate of astroids (supply side) and them amounts needed in blueprints (demand side) - they don’t directly tinker in the market.
Amarr is now more decoupled from Jita since the fall of Nairja - the safe haulage route went from 9 jumps to well over 40 jumps. This means prices won’t shadow each other as closely, and Amarr as the smaller market will be more volatile as a result without the “ballast” of players rapidly transferring stock from Jita to cushion it (and make a profit on the differentials).
I suspect demand for minerals at Amarr is lower - any large purchaser is going to go to Jita by default: not because it’s cheaper, but because of habit and convenience. Titanium (and Veldspar) isn’t very expensive - but it is bulky and awkward compared to other items, especially if buying it in the quantities you need when building an alliance navy.
So, while @Rocketmouse’s observations are correct, there’s another layer of economic “truth” below it that drives what reality is in practice. Yes, a good refiner should see a profit from refining ore to materials - but “good” in this case means “perfect” as there are perfect refiners out there, and that is factored into the market prices for the Ores relative to their Minerals.
Welcome to Eve: It’s more complex and deeper than you think.
Null sec players can refine Veldspar at 90.6% in a rigged Tatara, and they’re almost obligated to import Compressed Veldspar from high sec as it is the largest source of tritanium in the universe. You’re losing money because you’re refining at a lower efficiency in a region where anyone with a Venture can pick Tritanium up off the ground.