I don't know really. Well, I do know that prospecting them yields a higher amount pr ore, but I'm fairly certain it yields less gph.
Ores are selling for 80g a stack on my server, and still declining in price. Green/Orange uncut gems go for 200g. Red for 100g, and yellow/blue for 20-40g. Rare gems obviously.
So its pretty apparent that I personally, would make more gold from prospecting and selling everything as is.(Unprocessed further)
But then the gph kicks in. In the hour it takes me to prospect the 200 stacks of ore I get daily, I could go out and bot another 10-15 stacks.
Also the fact that ores never expire, and my gems usually only sell 30-50% of the time. So eventually I would be stuck with a ton of mats, which prices are still falling.
So all in all, on my server, I simply prospect 4000 ore about twice a week, sell the rest at 80g and up.
I know I'm making less, but atleast I sell everything and get gold liquidated instead of having it tied in items. This is extremely important to me because gold prices has already started falling, atleast from my current buyer.
However, to sum up..If you want fast gold, prospect some and then sell the rest raw.
If you're simply aiming for gold cap or whatever, and you're not in any rush you should process everything.
Prospect - make 450il jewelry - transmute metas - Cut the rest - Make green rings/necks - disenchant - sell scrolls - rinse and repeat.
That's how I made my first million on my server.
