Laser Mining and PP Questions

[spam]

I've always preferred core mining have done very little laser mining, and have done fairly well with Core Mining in a reinforcing system, while the payout are not top tier, they are OK, and it's the fastest merits I've seen so far. Since Platinum prices were really high in the system I'm in, I thought I would finally give laser mining a go (since platinum mining seems to be the current meta).

There is one planet with two metal rich rings (yes, not metallic) that each contain platinum hotspots (total of 6 or so). I dropped into one platinum hot spot and spent about 90 minutes prospecting for platinum. Although I did find some other valuable mineral that paid about the same rate as platinum, I actually found no platinum in in any concentration in this hotspot.

Clearly I am doing something wrong. Now for the questions:

• Is it just likely that the particular hotspot was mined out and had not been reset yet?
  
• If so, are there any tell-tale characteristics (e.g. depleted rocks which I did not see) to look for?
  
• Is there a particular shape, or other characteristic (like with core mining) that I should be looking out for?
  
• I've read about mapped mining, but I don't think there are any published maps for my system and I need some experience before I try that.
  
• From what I have read, I only get merits for mining if I turn in the materials at the same place I mine. However, my power also gives merits for trade with a profit > 40%. Would materials mined elsewhere and sold in this system count as trade for merit purposes (sounds like a loophole so I am guessing no)?

Finally, There seems to be a few players who manage to accumulate millions of merits within a very short time of the start of a new week. What are they doing that enables this incredible return?

[xXChaosXx]

Laser Mining Platinum needs metallic Rings
Scan every Asteroid

[Konril]

Platinum in metal-rich rings and (asteroid) fields only appears in cores. It takes a full metallic ring for platinum to be available to laser miners. But platinum cores also exist in metallic rings as well.

I would advise you to ignore the metal-rich rings. Cores from rocky rings are worth a lot more, and platinum in a metallic ring is a lot easier to get.

Laser mining platinum from a hot spot in a pristine metallic ring is about as lucrative as it gets if you are just after credits. However the combination is just too hard to find to be useful for power-play merit purposes. If you are able to fine any metallic ring (even without hot spots) in your system where the demand is, I recommend a hybrid approach instead. Start with your core-mining loadout and add to that a mining laser and a sub-surface displacement missile launcher (not to be confused with sub-surface extraction missile which was used to get people out of Thargoid titans). When you get to the metallic ring, use your pulse-wave analyzer to look for bright-lit rocks and send a prospector in them. Even if a core isn't present, there is a very good chance of surface or sub-surface deposits you can blow for platinum, painite, and osmium using your abrasion blaster or displacement missiles (respectively). The mining laser will do the trick if the rock happens to have a good ratio of platinum or osmium. Then if a core is present, do what you do as a core miner with the seismic charges and abrasion blaster. Don't forget your limpets. Filling up on valuable stuff to sell should be relatively quick this way.

[Konril]

Also, stuff in your cargo hold gets marked where it came from when it goes into your cargo hold. So stuff that's been on a fleet carrier becomes a no-count for meirt purposes. The same holds true if the stuff was jettisoned into space. Don't let pirates hit you with hatch-breakers.

In the case of gold and silver, which can come from either mining or extraction stations, how you get it does count. Mining minerals from a ring or belt means you sell in-system or it doesn't count regardless of what the mineral is. Gold and silver that came off of station market will count as trading merits as long as the profit is good enough. But it has to be sourced from an actual station market, and not a ring, belt, or fleet carrier.

If you do have to leave the system for any reason, your mined and salvaged goods will still count when you return to the system as long as they haven't left your cargo hold.

[spam]

Thanks for the thorough response @Konril. I tried some laser mining in a metallic ring, and sure enough there was platinum everywhere and I filled up fast. As you alluded to, however, there were no acquiring systems in range that had good platinum prices, so it looks like it would be merits or credits.

As for the rest, I typically bring mining lasers with my core rig to opportunistically mine anything decent that I happen upon while looking for cores. Although I haven't seen any subsurface deposits I would deem worth mining, I will keep your suggestion in mind if I do start running into some.

Any idea as to what the top merit-makers are doing? I'm thinking they have to be filling their FCs with something and dumping it all at once at new week opening for the shock & awe factor.

[Sighman]

Originally posted by spam:

Any idea as to what the top merit-makers are doing? I'm thinking they have to be filling their FCs with something and dumping it all at once at new week opening for the shock & awe factor.

They'd be laser mining platinum in a power-owned system where the station is buying for a high price.

Need metallic rings, owned by power, AND paying 250k or so for plat with high demand.