Recently I started playing EVE Online again and, more specifically, have managed to establish my own moon mining operation while introducing the game to my friend. Back in June 2025, I wrote about how I had stopped playing EVE Online, but had liquidated all of my assets so that I could start again with a fresh set of characters across two accounts. Over the last year, those characters have passively matured in terms of their skill points and capabilities, and they have remained tucked away in a quiet corner of high-security space.
However, after spending some time introducing EVE Online to my friend, I found myself wanting to play again but with a different challenge. To make that possible, I created two new accounts, allowing me to multibox four characters at a time. Since each account can have up to three characters, I decided to create two separate teams of four. The first team remains in the same sleepy, middle-of-nowhere corner of New Eden, quietly continuing its progression. The second team, which is completely independent, has been created for a much riskier, more experimental, and carefree experience, embarking on a mission to establish a moon mining operation.
Moon mining is only possible in solar systems with a security rating of 0.5 or lower. Because I don’t want to rely on other players, I am realistically limited to moons in 0.5 systems, which are still considered high-security space. From what I have seen, moons in 0.5 systems are highly contested. They are also the easiest places for suicide gankers to operate, as CONCORD’s response time is at its slowest. With that in mind, I needed to find a moon in a 0.5 system that had little competition and was unlikely to attract much attention. In the end, I chose a system that is effectively an ‘island’ surrounded by low-security space in a region that generally has a low population. This creates a different kind of challenge. Getting ships, structures, and supplies into the system carries some risk, and transporting any mined ore back out again is equally hazardous. However, I’m hoping that its relative isolation will discourage competition, and I suspect that few suicide gankers will be willing to travel through low-security space just to reach a single high-security system.
After choosing the system, I needed to visit it to get a lay of the land and survey each of the available moons. I found that there were a few regular players in the area, and while a handful of the moons were already occupied, most of those operations appeared to be inactive. That gave me the impression that there wasn’t much happening in the system and that I could probably fly under the radar. Even if the local residents did notice me, I doubted they would mind if I claimed one of the many remaining moons. In the end, I surveyed 24 available moons. There were a further 21 that I didn’t bother checking because I had already noticed a clear pattern. Every moon survey returned the same types of ore: Bitumens, Coesite, Sylvite, and Zeolites. The only difference was that some moons contained two, three, or all four of these ores in varying proportions. In EVE Online, these are all classified as ‘ubiquitous’ moon ores, so I came to the conclusion that all moons in 0.5 systems contain only ubiquitous ores, while the more varied and rarer ores are found in lower-security systems. Based on that assumption, I chose a moon that contained all four ubiquitous ores in roughly equal quantities.
Next came the risky part: moving ships, equipment, and an Athanor moon drilling station through low-security space to the island system. Before moving anything expensive, I tried to scout the route ahead. For the most part, I managed to move everything I needed to get started, including the Athanor itself. Along with the station, I transported two general-purpose haulers, four mining barges, four mining frigates, two exploration ships, and a handful of specialised haulers for transporting ore and fuel. All four of my characters have also set a jump clone in the system. This means that once every 20 hours, I can jump to another clone elsewhere in New Eden and then return the following day if I choose. Unfortunately, the move wasn’t completely without incident. I was caught in a low-security system and lost two mining barges. To be honest, it was a bit of a setback, but that’s part of the thrill of this new EVE Online adventure, so I didn’t mind too much. After moving everything into place, I discovered by chance that the station core I needed for the Athanor was being sold by an NPC station in the destination system. That saved me from having to transport one more expensive and bulky item through low-security space, reducing the overall risk.
I found anchoring the Athanor in position and getting it ready to start mining relatively straightforward. One thing I didn’t realise was that I could have started anchoring the Athanor before I had acquired the station core. Since anchoring takes 24 hours, doing this would have saved me some time, as I needed to earn enough ISK (Interstellar Kredits) to afford the station core. Once it was anchored, I was able to dock, install the station core, install the moon drill, and provide the station with fuel blocks so that it could begin operating. Now that I have a station, another corporation could potentially declare war against me and destroy it. After six days, this hasn’t happened, which I hope is a sign that nobody is bothered by my little moon mining operation and I will be left alone.
I recorded a video showing the first steps of my moon mining operation. The video shows me starting the moon drill on the Athanor and, later, returning once the moon chunk had arrived to fracture it so that I can begin mining the ore.
One unexpected bonus of the system I chose is that, occasionally, an Empire Border Rare Asteroid ore anomaly appears. These anomalies contain some Class 3 and Class 2 ores that are normally only found in low-security or null-security systems, and I have already managed to mine two of these asteroid anomalies for myself. Using the EVE Online map, I have also discovered that other Class 2 ores, such as Jaspet, Hemorphite, Hedbergite, and Gneiss, can potentially spawn. However, I haven’t seen any of these yet, and I remain slightly sceptical because I had always understood that these ores were found in anomalies within low-security space rather than high-security space. Hopefully, my assumptions are wrong, because I would really like the opportunity to mine these ores as well.
Looking ahead, there are still several challenges that I need to address, the main one being the lack of ore compression. One option would be to acquire and transport a Standup Reprocessing Facility for my Athanor. This would allow me to reprocess ore and, more importantly, compress asteroid ore, although it cannot compress moon ore. The reprocessing facility would also increase the station’s fuel consumption, so I’m not especially keen on what feels like only a partial solution. I also considered training one of my characters to pilot a Porpoise industrial command ship, as it can provide compression. However, I discovered that there is no medium moon ore compression module, only a large one, which can only be fitted to an Orca. The problem with the Orca is that the skills required to fly it are significantly higher than those needed for a Porpoise, and it is also considerably more expensive. A well fitted Porpoise costs around 300 million ISK, whereas a well-fitted Orca is closer to 2 billion ISK. Flying a 2 billion ISK Orca through low security space is a scary and incredibly risky prospect. Perhaps I could build one.
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