Null Security Mining

Like all mining, quiet dull.

However there are as always several ways of doing it.

Take the other day. Logged on as Oliver as still need minerals for my Dominix build.

So Oliver had just warped to a random belt, commenced killing the rats and was on first cycle of Massive Scordite when local increased by three. All Neutral.
I immediately recalled drones and started aligning to station. Put a note out in Corp, Alliance, Fleet and Intel channels and commenced warp. Landed in station and saw I was only one of two docked up. 9 Friendly in system and 3 neutral....Hmmm.
Then a miner in the Small Asteroid anomaly announced he was tackled by a Tornado, Hookbill and a Rupture... 30 seconds later a Procurer was dead. They killed the pod as well. There was about 30 seconds between them being in system and getting the tackle. The hostiles then left as several Rattlesnakes and assorted other combat ships entered system. They were quite happy.

The dead chap was either AFK or not watching local or other channels. Fatal in Null.

Went out again to the same belt and carried on. Roughly 15 minutes a load, I never mine for more than an hour as to be honest I am bored by then. 48,000 m3 of ore.

Location, Location, Location...
 I have at this time roughly half of everything I need. That still leaves about 6 million Tritanium and lots of other stuff.
All materials are available in Null, so conversely Tritanium values are really quite high.
While i need the basic minerals I will always mine in an Asteroid Belt, rather than an Ore Cosmic Anomaly.
There are two sound reasons for this:-
1. Belts have all versions of asteroids, so I can get Dense Veldspar etc, Anomalies only have the basic types e.g. Veldspar. Same effort on my part, 10% more mineral.
2. Anomalies are Red Magnets. By this I mean that any hostile (or neutrals) in system will be able to warp straight to them from the overview, and catch you mining. An interceptor can get in system and if they pick the correct one, warp to you in under 5 seconds...

Now all Null systems will have asteroid belts, most commonly with ore types common in High Sec, and the lower the security status the better the grade of ore available. In some systems, if you can survive the rats, you rarely need the anomalies.

The Ships
Going to Null there is often a limited amount of goods that can be safely taken.  Even the mainly PVP (Player Vs Player) combat pilots often have a mining ship. For most, this list will include either a Venture or a Procurer. From experience I can tell you that mining in a venture is slow, dangerous and time consuming. Belt rats of any type will kill you. However for a newish character, or to get the ore to build a procurer, its sometimes seen.
Either take or buy a procurer.
NOT a Retriever or Covetor, these will die.
A Procurer can soak up damage from the belt rats and keep on mining. Remember to fit it for the pirates that you will be facing. I am in a Sansha region, so the tank is all against EM damage, with Thermal a secondary.
The Ore hold is only 12k but the rate of mining is similar to a Retriever.
Drone bay is 25m2 so a flight of light drones, Hobgoblins are a good all rounder. Skill up to fly a tech II type and uses these.


John