Aquiring Minerals

you can also buy minerals from the market by going to the market option on the left list of options under the economy sub title and just click on the mineral u want to buy and enter how much u want to buy or sell and for how much u want to sell for (assuming ur selling of course)

i personally wouldnt suggest u invest in mining infrastructure at all unless ur a. miner as its a waste when u can make much mpore money by using ur primary income source 99% of the time.

and yes mineral prduction from colonies is determined by the mining infrastructure research level that you have and clusters make much more due to their mods on mining (10% extra for level 1-30% extra for level 3 clusters) as they have also more planets than a single colony and cirtain other planets have higher mining mods on them than others thus yielding more minerals per turn that some others for the simple reason they are better suited to mining opperations it seems


hope this helped by giving a little more detail on how it works, im not too sure on the formula on mineral production but chances are it would just confuse the topic but if u want it post and ill dig it up for you

Minerals are produced from your planets... they tell you what you get from when you go to manage colonies and check for the "minerals" boxes. They tell you what each planet produces. They produce a certain amount every turn you make, and you can produce more if you research about "mining" at the research page.
Researching about mining also increases your chances of getting more ore AND minerals, but your mining infrastructure only helps how you get your ore