Mining

There are millions of asteroid fields in the  universe. Mining requires a ship with a good-sized cargo hold and mining turrets to harvest these ores and minerals.

Refining raw ore
You can purchase and equip a refinery on your ship. Refineries let you convert raw ore to refined ore – a more valuable commodity. Refined ore is used for crafting items and traded across the Universe on the Trade-Net. You can purchase and equip a refinery at any ship equipment vendor. Like all ship equipment, refineries are ship specific so you cannot swap them between ships. Refineries equip to your ships “hardware mount point”.

You can refine anywhere - in mission areas, in space, it doesn't matter - as long as you have ore in your cargo hold. So, you could have a ship with a large cargo hold full of ore and go complete a ground mission while all that ore is being refined.

Mining perks enhance refining so the process is more efficient.