Can someone explain me how mining actually works?

[DeathAndMetal]

I'm trying to get mine a simple material in Deimos, but no matter what I mine I keep getting the same mineral over and over and over, without the drop ever changing. Am I just ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ retarded or ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ unlucky?

[PhellAsleep]

It changes based on location. I remember there being some maps for Fortuna minerals. I'm not sure about Deimos.

[Firefrye]

- I second the suggestion to look for a map of Deimos resources in case they're split up (I don't remember them being split... but it wouldn't surprise me AT ALL)
- I also suggest you run the Vault bounties from Mother. The optional objective to find and open the actual vault after the main bounty finishes will reward a large quantity of random deimos resources including mining materials and fish parts and is how I earned the majority of mine.
- You could even try your luck at learning how to farm the Pillars

Note: you need to beat the quest the War Within mainline quest to access the game mechanic that lets you open the vault and activate the pillars, so if you're not there yet I would put progressing the story quests ahead of continuing to farm Deimos reputation and materials.

[Moby The Duck]

Blue veins = gems
Yellow/orange veins = ores

Plains, Vallis and Deimos have different ores each.

Aim at the ore vein with the right button, watch for the glowing dots. Hold left on the dots, release when the bar fills up to the sweet spot. Sometimes a second, smaller sweetspot shows up, if you release the button while on it, it gives you two ore/gem rolls.

The more precise you are, more minerals you get. You have to aim for the middle of the sweetspots.

You can also get minerals from Tusks on Plains, Orbs on Vallis and Requiem Pillars on Deimos.