NEW! I've made a table for ease-of-use. No more calculator nightmare, you can now compare ore profitability easily here http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/9663 … tomine.png. The values are the price at which you expect to sell the ore, and the most profitable one is the one that is most to the right. See post #20 for an example on how to use it, if you're not sure. Note that this takes into consideration the information in the edit just below this.
RE-RE-EDIT : It seems Stermonit, Imentium and Liquizit get 20% more volume per cycle than Titan Ore and HDT (confirmed with a Dev). I'm adding a Corrected Ratio column.
The Data
Ore type Volume/Unit Ratio CorrectedRatio
Titan Ore 0.00005 5 5
HDT 0.00005 5 5
Stermonit 0.00010 2.5 3
Imentium 0.00015 1.6667 2
Liquizit 0.00020 1.25 1.5
Epriton 0.00025 1 1.5
Equation : Price x CorrectedRatio = Profitability Rating
Higher Profitability Rating is better.
The Explanation
The volume/unit column is the volume of a single unit of that ore type. For example, 1 titan ore takes up 0.00005 U of room in your cargohold.
This is useful because mining modules mine a specific volume per cycle. Correction : Stermonit, Imentium and Liquizit mine 20% more volume, meaning they fill your cargohold faster than Titan Ore and HDT. Epriton fills your cargohold 50% faster.
The third column shows a ratio of how many times more ore of that particular type you get per cycle compared to Epriton (the most voluminous ore).
To easily find out which ore is the most profitable to mine, multiply the price at which you would sell the ore, with the CORRECTED ratio found in the graph. Note that you must use the price PER UNIT.
EXAMPLE : if you can sell titan ore at 1 NIC each, and stermonit at 1.5 NIC each, you could be fooled into thinking you'd be better off mining stermonit. By using the equation found at the bottom of the graph, you will find that this is not the case.
From the EXAMPLE above :
Titan ore -> 1.0 NIC x 5 = 5
Stermonit -> 1.5 NIC x 3 = 4.5
From the EXAMPLE above : The titan ore has a higher "Profitability Rating", hence it would be more profitable to mine, assuming you intend to sell the ores at the prices you used in the equation.
IMPORTANT NOTE : This calculation does not take into consideration the fact that some ores may be harder to find, and further away from a terminal. Correction : it also does not take into account the fact that Stermonit, Imentium and Liquizit fill your cargohold 20% faster, making them slightly inferior to Titan Ore and HDT in a situation where the profitability is equal. As for Epriton, if you can mine it, you don't need equations to figure out that it's more profitable.
PS : tell me I'm pretty.