Ores

Ore is a basic resource item, usually obtained by mining Asteroids. Using a Hand Drill or ship-mounted Drill will destroy the rock and release the Ores as objects in the world to be collected. While useless on its own, Ore can be processed in a Refinery, Basic Refinery, or Survival Kit to be turned into a useful Material.

Appearance and Identification

Identifying ore patches purely by sight can be frustrating, especially if there are 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. The Hand Drill has a small Ore Detector built in, whereas a ship-based Ore Detector has a larger detection radius. This will put the name of the ore on the HUD in approximately the center of the ore patch. 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.

See the images and descriptions in the table below for more information on each ore.

Ore Information

Ore	Abbreviation	Description	Mass per Unit	Volume per Unit	Material per Unit	Rarity* ^[1]
Stone		Color varies slightly. Typically a matte midtone grey, the appearance of stone can vary a bit between brown and black.	1 kg 1,000 g 1,000,000 mg 1.0e-3 t	0.37 L 3.7e-4 m³ 2.368e-5 Large-Blocks 0.00296 Small-Blocks 0.037 hL 370 mL	10 g 0.01 kg 10,000 mg	31%
Iron Ore	Fe	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.	1 kg 1,000 g 1,000,000 mg 1.0e-3 t	0.37 L 3.7e-4 m³ 2.368e-5 Large-Blocks 0.00296 Small-Blocks 0.037 hL 370 mL	700 g 0.7 kg 700,000 mg	50%
Nickel Ore	Ni	Brown. Nickel is a straight, flat, brown, which when it spawns next to Iron shows strikingly enough to be discernable.	1 kg 1,000 g 1,000,000 mg 1.0e-3 t	0.37 L 3.7e-4 m³ 2.368e-5 Large-Blocks 0.00296 Small-Blocks 0.037 hL 370 mL	400 g 0.4 kg 400,000 mg	2%
Cobalt Ore	Co	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.	1 kg 1,000 g 1,000,000 mg 1.0e-3 t	0.37 L 3.7e-4 m³ 2.368e-5 Large-Blocks 0.00296 Small-Blocks 0.037 hL 370 mL	300 g 0.3 kg 300,000 mg	2.2%
Magnesium Ore	Mg	Blue. Rather distinct, Magnesium is not very hard to identify, but is fairly rare, so always keep a look out for the bluish hue!	1 kg 1,000 g 1,000,000 mg 1.0e-3 t	0.37 L 3.7e-4 m³ 2.368e-5 Large-Blocks 0.00296 Small-Blocks 0.037 hL 370 mL	7 g 0.007 kg 7,000 mg	2.4%
Silicon Ore	Si	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.	1 kg 1,000 g 1,000,000 mg 1.0e-3 t	0.37 L 3.7e-4 m³ 2.368e-5 Large-Blocks 0.00296 Small-Blocks 0.037 hL 370 mL	700 g 0.7 kg 700,000 mg	2%
Silver Ore	Ag	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.	1 kg 1,000 g 1,000,000 mg 1.0e-3 t	0.37 L 3.7e-4 m³ 2.368e-5 Large-Blocks 0.00296 Small-Blocks 0.037 hL 370 mL	100 g 0.1 kg 100,000 mg	2%
Gold Ore	Au	Gold. Very distinct. Can vary more to a grey-yellow in small patches or where it starts to mix with stone or iron.	1 kg 1,000 g 1,000,000 mg 1.0e-3 t	0.37 L 3.7e-4 m³ 2.368e-5 Large-Blocks 0.00296 Small-Blocks 0.037 hL 370 mL	10 g 0.01 kg 10,000 mg	2%
Platinum Ore	Pt	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.	1 kg 1,000 g 1,000,000 mg 1.0e-3 t	0.37 L 3.7e-4 m³ 2.368e-5 Large-Blocks 0.00296 Small-Blocks 0.037 hL 370 mL	5 g 0.005 kg 5,000 mg	2%
Uranium Ore	U	Black. Jet black, very shiny. Hard to miss, even in shadow (unless your server's Skybox has low light).	1 kg 1,000 g 1,000,000 mg 1.0e-3 t	0.37 L 3.7e-4 m³ 2.368e-5 Large-Blocks 0.00296 Small-Blocks 0.037 hL 370 mL	10 g 0.01 kg 10,000 mg	4.4%
Ice	Ice	Blue. Blue and White, Shiny.	1 kg 1,000 g 1,000,000 mg 1.0e-3 t	0.37 L 3.7e-4 m³ 2.368e-5 Large-Blocks 0.00296 Small-Blocks 0.037 hL 370 mL	100 g 0.1 kg 100,000 mg	?
Scrap Metal		While technically not a mineral, it behaves just like the other ores. Scrap is acquired by drilling Blocks or grinding damaged blocks.	1 kg 1,000 g 1,000,000 mg 1.0e-3 t	0.254 L 2.54e-4 m³ 1.6256e-5 Large-Blocks 0.00203 Small-Blocks 0.0254 hL 254 mL	800 g 0.8 kg 800,000 mg	?

Refining

Each Ore (including Stone) yields some sort of useable Material once it has been refined within a Refinery or Basic Refinery. Each Ore (except for Stone) 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. See each type of refiner (Refinery, Basic Refinery, Survival Kit) for their conversion tables.