In core mining you will be looking for asteroids with mother lodes inside to crack open, and then collect the materials inside. This type of mining often gives you fewer materials per hour, and therefore is also less profitable than laser mining.
Abrasion blaster
Seismic charge launcher
Pulse wave scanner
Surface scanner
Refinery
Prospector limpet controller (1 active limpet is enough)
Collector limpet controller (4 to 6 active limpets should do it)
Cargo racks
Shield generator
Imperial clipper
Python
Cobra mk III - Good Starting ship
Choose a ship
Before you start mining you will obviously need a ship. Here you should be looking for a ship with a decent amount of internal slots as well as good speed and manoeuvrability. A lot of internal slots allows you to carry more cargo and the speed and manoeuvrability will help you locate and explode rocks faster. It is therefore recommended to use a ship like the imperial clipper or the python. The python has the advantage of being a medium ship which allows you to land on stations the clipper can't. The clipper on the other hand is faster than the python. If you are new to the game a Cobra mk III is a solid choice for a starter mining ship.
You can see some of my recommended loadouts in the Ship Builds section.
Hardpoints
For hardpoints you will need a Seismic charge launcher to crack the asteroids open and an abrasion blaster to shoot the fragments loose inside the rock. If you have spare hardpoints you can fit a few weapons, but that is optional.
Utility
In your utility slots you need a pulse wave scanner. This module allows you to scan the rocks around you so you can see which rocks might contain mother lodes. The remaining slots are up to you.
Internals
In your internal slots you will need a long list of modules. In your lowest slot you should fit a surface scanner, this is used to scan the rings around planets for hotspots where you get a higher chances for mother lodes. In your second lowest slot you should fit a prospector limpet controller. It's not that important which one you fit, but I usual fit the largest A-rate that will go in that slot. Next you will need a refinery. Again it's not that important which one, any of them will do. Having more bins is always nice, but you can make do with just 3 or 4 bins. Next you will need collector limpet controllers. You will most likely need more than one controller since you want around 4 to 6 active limpets. The more limpets you have the faster you can collect your materials, but it will take valuable internal slots away from your cargohold. Talking about cargo hold you will need Cargo racks. How much cargo is really up to you. I like to keep it around 200 T but more or less is also fine, it's really a matter of taste. Finally I recommend a shield generator. This is technically not mandatory, but since you will be flying around exploding asteroids it's probably a good idea to bring a shield.
Before you set out mining you should consider where you want to sell your materials. The market in Elite can change from day to day so make sure you check the market before you leave. I recommend using a site like https://inara.cz/galaxy-commodities/. You are looking for the most valuable of the following materials:
Alexandrite
Benitoite
Bromellite (Icy rings only)
Grandidierite
Low Temperature Diamonds (Icy rings only)
Monazite
Musgravite
Painite
Rhodplumsite
Serendibite
Void Opals (Icy rings only)
Once you find your desired material make sure there is a station with good prices that has a demand of at least 10 times what you can carry in your cargohold. Due to the supply and demand change made in January 2020 the bigger a % of the station demand you carry the less they will pay you per ton. Once you find your station, stock op on limpets and begin looking for rings with a hotspot matching the material you are looking for. Fly up to the various ringed planets and scan them using your surface scanner. Once you find one drop into the hotspot and you are now ready to begin mining.
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