Shaft Miner

The Shaft Miner is in charge of all ore extraction and processing on the asteroid. Generally seen as a low-class assignment, there are no requirements to work this field - however knowledge in operation of heavy machinery and/or exosuit piloting are useful in order to make the most of the asteroid, by setting up the drills and being able to pilot a mining Ripley APLU.

Overview

Simply put, the Shaft Miner has three duties, as follows:

• Extract ore from the asteroid
• Process ore at the outpost's smeltery
• Report the materials yield using a Yield Declaration from the documents repository in the requests console.

Duties

Ore extraction

The process of breaking rock in order to obtain materials. Generally speaking, you will need the following equipment:

• Hardsuit set with breathing mask (available at the airlock)
• Oxygen tank
• Optical Mesons Scanners (may be available at outpost - otherwise place a request at Engineering or Science
• Flashlight
• GPS device OR Tracking Beacon (may require Research assistance)

As far as equipment go, there is a variety of tools available - the configuration you choose will depend on what you wish to extract, how, and what resources are already available. Examples of tools that you may work with:

• Pickaxe (for breaking rock)
• Shovel (to obtain impure silicas from the ground)
• Mining Drill (An upgrade to the Pickaxe)
• Sonic Jackhammer (An upgrade to the Heavy Drill)
• Plasma Cutter (A sidegrade to the Jackhammer - digs as fast, but is also capable of cutting through tougher materials if needed
• Wrench (for operating the Mining Drills)
• Ore Detector (for finding locations for the Heavy Drill)
• Flags (for noting location of deposits)
• Ore Satchel (to quickly amass your ores)

Of course, all of this equipment is pointless if you are provided with a Ripley. And do not forget - synthetic units need, instead of an oxygen tank and a breathing mask, a suit cooling unit (obtainable from any autolathe).

Preparation, Foot Mining

To ensure your safety, you are provided with steps to ensure that once you step within the airlock, you are ready:

• Attach the hardsuit helmet to the hardsuit
• Attach the breathing mask to the hardsuit assembly
• Put on the hardsuit
• Verify that breathing mask is properly adjusted over your breathing apparatus
• Attach the oxygen tank to the hardsuit's holding slot
• Gather all of your chosen gear in your backpack (Pickaxe is too large for operation - hold in hand)
• Put on backpack
• (Optional)Obtain second air tank and stash it in backpack
• Stash flashlight and GPS/tracking beacon in hardsuit's hip sockets, roughly at pocket location
• Strap ore satchel on belt

Preparation, Exosuit mining

If you are experienced in exosuit piloting, there are a few extra steps required in making an exosuit EVA-safe.

• (Optional, but recommended) Follow first five steps of the "Preparation, Foot Mining" guide.
• Enter Exosuit
• Using the diagnostics, verify structural integrity of unit and charge of power cell - charge and get repairs as needed.
• Verify presence of all equipment - minimum drill and hydraulic clamp
• Switch the cabin pressure settings from "take from environment" to "use internal air tank"
• Load ore box

Furthermore, as a general reminder: Ripley APLUs do not actively cool the air of their cabin - and thus, synthetic units also require a sealed suit and suit cooling unit to avoid overheating while operating an exosuit.

Setting up the Mining Drills

Setting one up is a very simple process:

• Using the Ore Detector, find an adequate location to place the drill, mark location with flag
• Bring drill to flag's location, along with support anchors
• Place the anchors to the sides of the drill
• Secure the anchors using a wrench
• (Optional) Place an ore box north of the drill
• Activate drill

And if you did not place an ore box, here is how to unload the drill once it reports being full:

• Place ore box north of drill
• Using the panel, command the drill to unload.

Mining

Once that is done, the actual mining process can begin.

• Bring an ore box with you (if not in Ripley)
• Locate ores embedded in the rock of the asteroid
• Use tool of choice to break rock/soil
• Use ore satchel to quickly grab all ores (if not in Exosuit)
• Put ores in ore box (if not in Exosuit)

Once you have a sufficient amount of ore, return to the outpost (do not forget to take the materials dug up by the heavy drills)

Ore Processing

Back at the outpost comes the step of processing. Place the ore box next to the crate unloader (just off the shuttle dock), and do not forget to unload it from the Ripley. Once you pull the lever, the machine will automatically extract ore and funnel them into the Smelter. Unless specifically requested otherwise, the Smelter should be set to the following settings (any other settings and the machine will either produce slag or useless products, such as pure iron or plastic)

• Hematite: Alloy (Smelting results in iron bars)
• Coal:Alloy (Smelting results in plastic)
• Hydrogen: Compress
• Osmium: Alloy (Smelting results in platinum bars)
• Diamonds: Compress
• Everything else: Smelt

By default, the stacking machine will output stacks of 50 units of material, which makes it easy to count. However, you can configure the machine to produce smaller stacks, or force it to eject an incomplete stack. Put them in a crate and head up.

Yield Declaration

The final step is simply to count how many resources you have brought and fill out a Yield Declaration. Get it stamped by at least a Cargo Technician if not the Quartermaster while handing off the crate of resources. Once it is done, repeat the process.

Beyond the Job

There is, honestly, very little to do in Mining beyond Mining. Though something you can do is, since you are on the asteroid with mining gear, assisting a Xenoarcheologist in their digs - avoiding strange-looking rocks and dig through everything else.

Second-Party Guide

As the job can be quite difficult, one of the seasoned miners of the Aurora has provided an in-depth, advanced guide with a plethora of miscellaneous information. It is available at the Guide to Mining.