Although I've already posted a comment about this in the mining thread, I felt this needed a thread of its own. According to a dev post in the economy thread, the amount of inert material we're getting while mining with the Prospector is intentional. The inert material is a very intended part of the mining process. Removing it is what a refinery is for--and what makes ships like the Orion so appealing! We look at the inert material as a stopgap to represent the 'purity' of different elements you mine. If we removed inert materials, there'd be no way to differentiate the quality of rocks from one another. https://robertsspaceindustries.com/spectrum/community/SC/forum/4/thread/feedback-economy/1294525 Quite frankly, I take great issue with this and am ready to pull out my torch and pitchfork from storage. While I certainly did not expect the Prospector to mine pure ore, I certainly did not expect to be hauling back 80-99% of inert waste material. To quote the Prospector's product literature: The tractor beam holds large objects while the mining lasers separate precious minerals and ore from tailings and then transfers them to the filtration system. Mined materials are further separated from tailings and waste products within the filtration system before being deposited into the exterior cargo containers. Once filtered, any tailings and waste materials will be convenientlyl vented out of the ship's rear exhaust ports. Sorry CIG, but nothing is currently being filtered out. The percentages of ore and inert materials we carry back to the station are exactly the same as the percentages shown to us by our scanner while we're out prospecting. Adhering to this mechanic makes our ship nothing more than a limited cargo ship with a dedicated utility port, something which conceivably be done by any ship with cargo space and a couple of utility ports for a mining laser and tractor beam. I don't expect the Prospector to have any refining capability but at the same time I don't expect to haul back such a high percentage of wasteful inert material. Had the statement indicated this was a temporary measure I would have accepted that and patiently waited for a later iteration with a functioning filtration system. However, it indicates quite clearly this is intentional and not likely to change. Clarification is definitely needed on this. Edit: minor spelling correction