Mineral Refineries vs Mining Drones?

[heron61]

From the text, it sounds like both mining drones and mineral refineries process asteroids into ore, and that mining drones do so faster and vastly less expensively (10 tons of TL 13 mineral refinery (at a cost of MCr20) processes 20 tons of ore/day, while 10 tons of mining drones (at a cost of MCr1) can process 1D x 10 tons of ore per day. Am I reading this correct, or does ore collected by mining drones then need to be fed into a mineral refinery for further processing?

In any case, if my reading of it is correct, then having mining drones collect and process ore and deliver it to a smelter sounds like a faster and vastly cheaper option, but I think the idea that both mining drones and a mineral refinery are necessary.

Also, there isn't a TL listed for mining drones.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

Mining drones turns asteroids into chunks that you can feed into the refinery?

 

[heron61]

I like that idea, but what the text currently says is both mining drones and mineral refineries process asteroids into ore and that mineral refineries use "tug drones" to bring asteroids to them. Worse yet, there's no actual write up for tug drones, which only appear in that single sentence. The simplest answer would be to replace "tug drone" with "mining drone" and in the section describing mining drones, make them TL 12.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

The Mining Drones crush the asteroids into ore, but cannot separate out uncommon elements, so only producing Common Ore. It's easier to transport crushed asteroid than whole asteroids.

The Mineral Refinery also separate the ore into Common, Uncommon, Crystals, and Precious.

 

[MongooseMatt]

Mining Drones just do Common Ore, as said, but I am also going to change them to 5D tons, so less efficient. You get to do it anywhere though, that is the trade off.