TL;DR: In the future, will the Prospector be able to filter out tailings and waste materials as it is stated it will be able to do in the attached image, taken directly from the Prospector’s Concept Sale page? There has been a lot of discussion since the mining mechanics were released with 3.2 as to whether or not the Prospector should be able to filter out all of the “inert material” from rocks that it has fractured and extracted and, if it could, whether or not that would invalidate the Orion’s position as the only ship that can “refine” the material it mines. However, even a relatively short time spent researching the removal of tailings and waste materials from mined materials (as the Prospector’s concept material says it can do), as well as the processes involved in refining a mined ore (as the Orion is said to be able to do), reveals that both of these terms (“tailings” and “refining”) are quite technical and have very well-defined meanings. It also reveals that they both involve entirely different processes, intended to accomplish entirely different objectives. The removal of tailings is, firstly, not the same as the removal of random rocks and other materials surrounding or lying overtop the actual ore one is trying to mine. That is known as “overburden”, which is another technical mining term, and simply refers to dirt and other valueless material that gets pushed out of the way or otherwise removed during the process of extracting an ore. (So, any mining vehicle or piece of equipment in Star Citizen that cannot at least do that much isn’t a very good mining vehicle or piece of equipment.) Rather, tailings are the materials left over after the valuable fraction of an (already mined) ore is separated from the worthless fraction of that ore. That worthless portion, FYI, is referred to by yet another technical mining term: "gangue". IRL, tailings are typically extracted using one of two primary methods: “placer mining” and “hard rock mining”. Refining, on the other hand, is something entirely different. When used in reference to metals, it consists simply of purifying an impure metal, making it more valuable and/or more useful as a result. Refining processes include hydrometallurgical, pyrometallurgical, electrolytic, and – in the case of precious metals being separated from noble-metalliferous materials – pyrolysis and hydrolysis. I’m sure that there are other processes, both for removing tailings and for refining, that I’ve missed here, but you get the idea. Also, for non-metals being mined, the actual processes involved differ, but there is still a distinction to be made between simply filtering out worthless materials from valuable ore, and the further refining of that valuable ore into a more pure form. Given all of that, there are a lot of players who are currently confused and disconcerted by the fact that one routinely returns from a mining session in the Prospector with as much as 90% or more of one’s storage capacity filled with “inert material”. So I think it would be helpful if a CIG developer could come along and clarify whether or not you guys have decided to backtrack on the idea that the Prospector can filter out tailings from unrefined ore, and if we should expect to always have some large amount of inert material mixed in with our mined ore, or if that’s only happening right now because this is the tier 0 iteration of mining, and you guys just haven’t gotten around to implementing the mechanics for filtering those tailings out the back end of the Prospector (again, as illustrated in the image taken from the Prospector’s concept page). If you guys also wanted to talk a little more about how you envision the Orion's refining capabilities will work, that would be pretty cool too. Thanks for reading. :slightly_smiling_face: Also, here is the link to the Prospector's concept sale page, as well as links to a few Wikipedia articles on the subjects discussed here (each of which contain links to more scholarly articles at the bottom of the page): Prospector Concept Sale page: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/15306-MISC-Prospector-Unearthed Tailings: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tailings Gangue: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gangue Overburden: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overburden Placer Mining: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placer_mining Hard Rock Mining: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_mining_(hard_rock) Refining (in metallurgy): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refining_(metallurgy) Pyrometallurgy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrometallurgy Hydrometallurgy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrometallurgy Electrolysis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrolysis Pyrolysis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrolysis Hydrolysis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrolysis EDIT: I put up another post in response to a CIG Dev's post in another thread (the link for which can be found in my reply below). Here is a direct link: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/spectrum/community/SC/forum/50259/thread/will-prospector-be-able-to-filter-out-tailings-in-/1304601