Posted by: joeclark77
« on: May 12, 2016, 02:17:32 PM »Depends on what stage your empire is at. If Earth is still consuming minerals faster than it receives them, then all focus should be on getting more minerals to Earth itself. If you already have sufficient mining projects (automines+mass drivers, CMCs, asteroid miners) to support Earth for the next 12 months (at the least), then as AL said, the easy way is to sprinkle auto-mines and mass drivers around the system that your new colony is on. A system that has a habitable planet and all 11 TN minerals in good quantities is worth a lot.
You can do both. Let each star system have one "hub" planet that all the mass drivers point to. Ideally, that planet will accumulate all 11 TN minerals. Freighters resupplying Earth can stop at the "hub" planet on their regular route. You can use minimum stockpile amounts to prevent the freighters from depleting the entire stockpile, so the "hub" planet can retain a supply to be used for its own production or what have you.