Greets, just came back from a long hiatus. Started brand spanking new and got the Sunburst first off. went into the Ralston Ice field from Planet Erie and mined out some Helium. Went back to Planet Erie and sold it for $810 a pop.
My suggestion is that the products from Mineable zones should not be that profitable in the same system.
with my Sunburst I just sold 540 units of Helium to planet Erie for a profit of $437,400.00 and from leaving Planet Erie, mining the Helium in the Ice field, re-docking at Planet Erie and selling my ore the entire trip took 4 minutes.
It's honestly not profitable at all, it's just good for starting.
Also half a million is not much at all m8, considering an ore route from Taus to Liberty with a 5ker gives you circa 80 millions in an hour.
Emleton´s buying it too, for more that the NPC stations.
And you can get a transport, deliver it to Kusari / GMG territory easily enough. Its thought to be good but not outstanding cash flow...
Of course you can get a scrapping ship and join us at Tinkers Haven too : we mine PremScrap in Texas and buy it for 3999 cred, about 50k straight away from the field.
There are JM| and Xeno bases in the debris clouds too, paying less but closer.
Mining guide ( http://discoverygc.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=71050 ) is not quite up to date, but might be a help.
Oh, and if you like the burning aether : try H3 in Okinava or the sigmas...
Build a scrapper, a gas miner and a transport, and travel between Pensylvania and Okinava... you can always mine if there is no supply, and then trade the stuff.