Copernics are a new type of ore added to Warframe in the Rising Tide update. This ore can only be mined in Orb Vallis, and can only be dropped when farming The Red Veins of Ore. You can find The Red Veins right outside the entrance to Fortuna, and a good place for mine is in the cave system near the central maintenance.
To mine for ore on Orb Vallis, you will need a Nosam Knife from Old Man Sumbaat in Cetus or a Sunpoint Plasma Drill Bit from Smokefinger in Fortuna. Both can be purchased from Standing for the corresponding unions. To gain status, do The missions for Konzu in Cetus or Eudico in Fortuna.
Equip your mining tool for your cogwheel, then load it into Orb Vallis. When you choose the explore tool in the cogwheel and hold it in your hand, it will fill the veins of ore markers on your minimap, as long as they are within a certain radius. It will also emit a beep that increases in frequency the closer you get to a vein. The veins appear as blue or red lines on the rocks, but to get Copernics, we're looking at the red veins.
When you find a red vein, aim it with the extraction tool, and one to three light spots will appear on it. Hold the trigger button down to shoot one of the dots, then carefully observe the color bar that will form around the center of the screen. You must hit a target, indicated by the white square brackets. These can travel back and forth, stand still, or be very thin. Ideally, you want to stop shooting when the color bar hits the center of these spots. The more precise you are in this process, the more you will get The res
