Ores
Ores are patches of valuable minerals embedded in stone. To be used at all they must be harvesting using a Hand Drill or ship-mounted Drill and then refined within a Refinery. Once refined, they yield one type or another of Raw Materials which can be used within an Assembler to construct Components.
Ores have a variety of appearances and rarities which are annotated below. Usually the best way to identify a particular ore is by the use of an Ore Detector (either one attached to a ship or the one built into the Hand Drill), which will put the name of the ore on-screen in approximately the center of the ore patch.
Contents
Stats
| Ore | Abbreviation | Icon | Mass per Unit | Volume per Unit | Rarity [1] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stone | Stone |  |
2.7 Kg | 1 L | 31% |
| Iron Ore | Fe |  |
2.7 Kg | 1 L | 50% |
| Nickel Ore | Ni |  |
2.7 Kg | 1 L | 2% |
| Cobalt Ore | Co |  |
2.7 Kg | 1 L | 2.2% |
| Magnesium Ore | Mg |  |
2.7 Kg | 1 L | 2.4% |
| Silicon Ore | Si |  |
2.7 Kg | 1 L | 2% |
| Silver Ore | Ag |  |
2.7 Kg | 1 L | 2% |
| Gold Ore | Au |  |
2.7 Kg | 1 L | 2% |
| Platinum Ore | Pt |  |
2.7 Kg | 1 L | 2% |
| Uranium Ore | U |  |
2.7 Kg | 1 L | 4.4% |
Appearances
Identifying ores purely by sight can be frustrating, especially if you have two similar ores next to one another (such as Platinum and Silicon). It is for this reason that an Ore Detector is always highly recommended for the initial identification process. However, once you have identified the vein you wish to obtain, it can often be more effective to rely on sight to guide your mining, and so a Spotlight is almost always useful for this purpose, to more easily see where one vein ends and another begins.
A description and image of each ore is shown in the table below.
| Ore | Appearance | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Stone |  |
Color varies slightly. Typically a matte midtone grey, the appearance of stone can vary a bit between brown and black. |
| Iron |  |
Red and Grey. Iron is fairly easy to identify due to being so common and in such contrast to the grey of the surrounding stone. Focus on looking for reddish, rust-colored areas if Iron is a priority. |
| Nickel |  |
Brown. Nickel is a straight, flat, brown, which when it spawns next to Iron shows strikingly enough to be discernable. |
| Cobalt |  |
Yellowish-Grey with Brown streaks. With a grey base, it can be difficult to discern from surrounding stone, so search for the distinct brownish-yellow bands. |
| Magnesium |  |
Blue. Rather distinct, Magnesium is not very hard to identify, but is fairly rare, so always keep a look out for the bluish hue! |
| Silicon |  |
Grey. One of three greyish ores, Silicon can be the most difficult to spot due to how close its color and texture are to base stone. Its color will often vary to a light grey, almost white sheen, so look for uncharacteristically light patches. |
| Silver |  |
Bluish-Silver. Another grey ore, Silver can be differentiated between Platinum most by its contrast: dark areas are jet black, while highlights are bright white. "Shiny" is an apt description. |
| Gold |  |
Gold. Very distinct. Can vary more to a grey-yellow in small patches or where it starts to mix with stone or iron. |
| Platinum |  |
Grey. Can be hard to differentiate between this and stone or silicon. The most reliable distinction is the texture rather than color: stone and silicon have a rough look, while platinum is smooth. |
| Uranium |  |
Black. Jet black, very shiny. Hard to miss, even in shadow (unless your server's Skybox has low light). |
Refining
Each ore (including Stone) yields some sort of useable material once it has been refined within a Refinery. Each ore has exactly one type of material that it produces, at various rates of efficiency; e.g. 1000 kg of Uranium Ore will not produce 1000 kg of Uranium Ingots. Various data on the Raw Materials refining production are shown below.
| Ore | Raw Mat Produced | Ore to Raw Mat Ratio | Ore Per 1 Unit Raw Mat | 1000 kg ore takes up (L) | 1000 kg ore refines to (kg) | 1000 kg ore refines to (L) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stone | Gravel | 90% | 1.11 | 370 | 900 | 333 |
| Cobalt Ore | Cobalt Ingot | 30% | 3.33 | 370 | 300 | 33.6 |
| Gold Ore | Gold Ingot | 1% | 100 | 370 | 10 | 0.52 |
| Iron Ore | Iron Ingot | 70% | 1.43 | 370 | 700 | 88.9 |
| Magnesium Ore | Magnesium Powder | 0.7% | 143.4 | 370 | 7 | 4.03 |
| Nickel Ore | Nickel Ingot | 40% | 2.5 | 370 | 400 | 44.8 |
| Platinum Ore | Platinum Ingot | 0.5% | 200 | 370 | 5 | 0.24 |
| Silicon Ore | Silicon Wafer | 70% | 1.43 | 370 | 700 | 300.3 |
| Silver Ore | Silver Ingot | 10% | 10 | 370 | 100 | 9.5 |
| Uranium Ore | Uranium Ingot | 0.7% | 143.4 | 370 | 7 | 0.36 |
References
