i actually tried to find a list of resources earlier today, I suppose it all depends on how many resources you want.

I would assume that certain buildings would require certain materials and it would be down to getting the mix just right. Say as an example you start off in a sector where agriculture is key, you would have to trade your farm produce to gain materials to build your empire, perhaps you could build basic buildings. it would therefore be important that farm produce is required by another player as he/she is mining, so they provide the materials for themselves but need food to expand and thus the trade cycle begins...

http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/It...se:Trade_Goods

The above link is one to the trade goods in EVE, probably the consumer goods are the ones to look at, some nice chances to name a few extra bits yourself lol.

http://www.ironfrost.co.uk/elite/tradegoods.html

The above is a list from Frontier Elite and is probably a bit more straightforward. I suppose if you wanted more goods you could expand on the list so if you were a miner it wouldn't just be gems, metal alloys, minerals, precious metals... You could go through all the metals as you have done.

I suppose then when you start a game you would be doing simple things like mining, farming etc and would be less of a target as apposed to someone who no longer mines and instead purchases raw materials to turn into robots etc...?