I couldn't find a post with this problem after searching forum for half an hour, so if repeat, then excuse me please.

My problem is as follows.
I try to mine more ores than capacity of ma cargo hold. While minig I jettisoned cargo. After that I select the most valuable ores for me and I took them. I went to onother system and sell them. But when I returned to previous place the whole cargo vanished.

Is it bug or normal action? Because it looks like a bug or overwhelming siplificity.

The cargo crates dissapear after 15 minutes or so, i've heard...
Possibly to take some load off the server....

They are "supposed" to disappear after 10 minutes (or so I hear) but in practice they usually last more like 5 minutes.
-:sigma.SB

I had heard there was a 5 minute timer on cargo crates if the sector went inactive and it could be slightly longer if the sector stayed active.

Just only jettison the useless ores and keep the valueables, till your hold only holds valueables, then go sell 'em.

No bug here. That is the desired effect. Only jettison the cargo you do not desire to keep or know you can get back to within about 4.5 minutes. Once jettisoned, the cargo has a finite time left in the universe before it becomes unstable, breaks down, and reunites with the great cosmic oneness.

Or they have batteries that only lasts 5 min. then they implode.

OK, I understand. So I cannot mine 100 crates and then sell them sequentially. I need some friends to help. ;-)

Maybe bots could acquire floating cargo and then it would be possible for cargo to float longer?

yes! space-scavengers, small, fast, unarmed bots that grab your cargo, continues so until full, then run to the queen with it.

PERFECT!

Damn those thiefin' bots sneeking up on me!

good idea

> So I cannot mine 100 crates and then sell them sequentially.
You could store them in a station, rather than leaving them floating around in space or your [friend's] cargo bay.
-:sigma.SB

Thieving bots? Are we trying to turn Vendetta-Online into Descent 2/3 now? :-)

It would be kind of cool though if you were able to come into a roid field infested with bots and dump a load of worthless ore as a bait ball and then go off and mine for a few minutes while all the bots collected the bait and took it back to the queen, would make tracking queens a little easier, and would make mining in infested areas a little easier too. Though you'd eventually have to defend yourself unless you made another ball.

As long as your feeding them they leave you alone scenario.