Barge Mining
Mining barges utilize strip miners to pull in far more ore than a Venture can. They also have far larger ore holds, access to ice harvesters and gas harvesters, as well as per-hull specializations for yield (Covetor), capacity (Retriever), and survivability (Procurer).
Barge Mining
Mining and Extraction
Fittings
These fittings are based on the procurer hull. For other mining barge hulls, simply drop one of the multispectrum shield hardeners (you may also need to add a CPU rig to the equivalent ore covetor fits).
Ore Mining
Procurer, Intro Ore
[Procurer, [Intro] Ore] Mining Laser Upgrade II Mining Laser Upgrade II Damage Control II Mining Survey Chipset II Multispectrum Shield Hardener II Multispectrum Shield Hardener II Strip Miner I Strip Miner I Medium EM Shield Reinforcer II Medium Core Defense Field Extender I Medium Core Defense Field Extender I Hornet II x5 Caldari Navy Vespa x5 Hornet EC-300 x5
Procurer, Optimal Ore
[Procurer, [Optimal] Ore] Mining Laser Upgrade II Mining Laser Upgrade II Damage Control II Mining Survey Chipset II Multispectrum Shield Hardener II Multispectrum Shield Hardener II Modulated Strip Miner II Modulated Strip Miner II Medium EM Shield Reinforcer II Medium Core Defense Field Extender I Medium Core Defense Field Extender I Hornet II x5 Vespa II x5 Hornet EC-300 x5 Abyssal Asteroid Mining Crystal Type A I x4 Coherent Asteroid Mining Crystal Type A I x4 Common Moon Mining Crystal Type A I x4 Complex Asteroid Mining Crystal Type A I x4 Erratic Ore Mining Crystal Type A I x4 Exceptional Moon Mining Crystal Type A I x4 Rare Moon Mining Crystal Type A I x4 Simple Asteroid Mining Crystal Type A I x4 Ubiquitous Moon Mining Crystal Type A I x4 Uncommon Moon Mining Crystal Type A I x4 Variegated Asteroid Mining Crystal Type A I x4
Ice Mining
Procurer, Intro Ice
[Procurer, [Intro] Ice] Drone Damage Amplifier II Drone Damage Amplifier II Damage Control II Mining Survey Chipset II Multispectrum Shield Hardener II Multispectrum Shield Hardener II Ice Harvester I Ice Harvester I Medium EM Shield Reinforcer II Medium Ice Harvester Accelerator I Medium Core Defense Field Extender I Hornet II x5 Caldari Navy Vespa x5 Hornet EC-300 x5
Procurer, Optimal Ice
[Procurer, [Optimal] Ice] Drone Damage Amplifier II Drone Damage Amplifier II Damage Control II Mining Survey Chipset II Multispectrum Shield Hardener II Multispectrum Shield Hardener II Ice Harvester II Ice Harvester II Medium EM Shield Reinforcer II Medium Ice Harvester Accelerator I Medium Core Defense Field Extender I Hornet II x5 Vespa II x5 Hornet EC-300 x5
Gas Harvesting
Procurer, Intro Gas
[Procurer, [Intro] Gas] Drone Damage Amplifier II Drone Damage Amplifier II Damage Control II Mining Survey Chipset II Multispectrum Shield Hardener II Multispectrum Shield Hardener II Gas Cloud Harvester I Gas Cloud Harvester I Medium EM Shield Reinforcer II Medium Core Defense Field Extender I Medium Core Defense Field Extender I Hornet II x5 Caldari Navy Vespa x5 Hornet EC-300 x5
Procurer, Optimal Gas
[Procurer, [Optimal] Gas] Drone Damage Amplifier II Drone Damage Amplifier II Damage Control II Mining Survey Chipset II Multispectrum Shield Hardener II Multispectrum Shield Hardener II Gas Cloud Harvester II Gas Cloud Harvester II Medium EM Shield Reinforcer II Medium Core Defense Field Extender I Medium Core Defense Field Extender I Hornet II x5 Vespa II x5 Hornet EC-300 x5
Skillplans
You Can Access Mining Barge Skillplans Here
Completing a ship's skillplan ensures that you meet the requirements to fit it, and have the necessary support skills to be effective whilst using it.
Flying Your Mining Barge
Ore and Ice Mining
If you're new to mining, give the Introduction to Mining page a read to get some background knowledge.
Mining is a pretty straightforward activity in Eve, and can be done in almost every area of space. Start by finding an asteroid belt or mining anomaly. Once there, use your survey scanner to see how much ore is in the rocks around you, pick one, activate your mining lasers, and either orbit the rock or soft-align to a citadel. When your ore hold is full, you can empty it as-is into a citadel, or compress the ore using a rorqual, orca, porpoise, or refinery. Note that moon ore can only be compressed in a rorqual or orca.
Gas Harvesting
If you're new to gas harvesting, give the Gas Section of the Introduction to Mining page a read to get some background knowledge.
Gas can be found throughout New Eden, in 2 broad categories split between normal and wormhole space. Gas clouds spawn as Cosmic Signatures, and as such need to be scanned down before they can be accessed. Lowsec gas clouds can be harvested safely, while those found in all wormholes and most areas of nullsec have some risk-generating mechanic. Gas clouds are large objects, and usually only a handful are present per signature. This combined with the short range of your Gas Cloud Scoops means you'll mostly find yourself inside the clouds you're harvesting. Besides all that the idea is pretty much the same as mining. Note that gas can only be compressed by an Industrial Command Ship or Capital Industrial Ship.
Characteristics of Your Mining Barge
Defensive Capabilities
The above fits are based on the procurer hull. The procurer is a fairly capable ship on its own; able to stand up to most rats and even some player-piloted frigates. When in groups however and especially when supported by Industrial Command Ships, procurers with their 65,000 - 75,000 EHP and 200 - 315 DPS each become extremely dangerous to roaming gangs. It's very easy to catch hostiles off-guard, and that resilience allows procurers to stay on grid in the face of situations that wouldn't be survivable for other mining ships.
The covetor and retriever are a bit of a different story however. While better than they used to be (these ships used to have the equivalent tank of a destroyer), they still lack viable offensive capabilities and only max out at around 28,000 and 36,000 EHP respectively.
Mining Yield
The three barge types have differing yields even with identical fits; Generally the covetor has the highest, the procurer the lowest, and the retriever somewhere in between. This evaluation assumes max skills, 2 Mining Laser Upgrades, and 2 Modulated Strip Miner IIs loaded with T1 Type A Crystals on each ship. The procurer receives roughly 28.3% less yield than an equivalent covetor.
| Ship | Usable Yield | Waste |
|---|---|---|
| Covetor | 24.00 m3 / sec | 5.00 m3 / sec |
| Retriever | 19.8 m3 / sec | 4.00 m3 / sec |
| Procurer | 17.22 m3 / sec | 3.58 m3 / sec |