Where to Find Aluminum Ore in Dune Awakening

Aluminum Ore is mined in the northern third of Hagga Basin, close to the Shield Wall. The richest spot is the Wreck of the Alecto (172 nodes nearby), followed by Imperial Testing Station No. 17 and The Depot. You need a Cutteray Mk3. The Deep Desert has aluminum too, but you don't need to go there for it.

Besides the big nodes, small loose chunks lie around that you can pick up by hand. Almost all of the big nodes cluster in the north-west and along the northern edge, so a base in the south means a long ride every time.

Where to find Aluminum Ore in Hagga Basin

Counts are the nodes within reach of each named place.

Wreck of the Alecto

The best aluminum field on the map, in the far north-west. Copper is dense here too (178 nodes), so one trip fills two needs.

Imperial Testing Station No. 17

North-central edge of the basin. You can combine a mining run with the station itself; see our Imperial Testing Stations guide.

The Depot and The Nest

Two enemy outposts just north and north-west of the Alecto. Clear the guards first or work the rocks on the edge of their aggro range.

The Aegis and Keif's Triumph

The Aegis sits at the very northern edge of the basin; Keif's Triumph lies further south-east, with the Wreck of the Limos close by.

For a live heatmap of every node, open the finder:

Where to find Aluminum Ore in the Deep Desert

The Deep Desert also has aluminum on its rock formations, but its rocks move every week and many spots there can give one of several ores. Use the live finder rather than old screenshots:

Honestly, Hagga has more than enough. Go to the Deep Desert for titanium and stravidium, not for aluminum.

What you need to mine Aluminum Ore

• Cutteray Mk3, crafted at the Survival Fabricator from 15 Steel Ingots, 10 EMF Generators, 10 Cobalt Paste, 5 Ray Amplifiers and 90 ml of water. Lower cutterays can't cut aluminum nodes.
• A vehicle with storage. Ore is heavy, and the Alecto is a long way from most starter bases.
• Water for the refinery: every ingot costs 150 ml.

Ray Amplifiers are usually the bottleneck for the Mk3; see where to find Ray Amplifier.

What Aluminum Ore is used for

Aluminum Ore refines into Aluminum Ingot. There is no small-refinery recipe:

Aluminum Ingots go into 141 recipes: Mk4 sandbike and buggy parts, Cutteray Mk4 (18 ingots), the Industrial Static Compactor, Mk4 dew reapers, plus the Storage Container and Medium Insulated Cistern.

The bigger reason to farm it is Duraluminum Ingot: 1 Aluminum Ingot + 4 Jasmium Crystals at a Medium Ore Refinery (3 at a Large one), 400 ml of water. Duraluminum feeds Mk5 gear, the Scout Ornithopter Mk5, the Large Windtrap and the Medium Chemical Refinery. More on that chain in Steel, Duraluminum and Plastanium and where to find Jasmium Crystal.

Plan amounts in the crafting calculator, or buy ingots on the market if your guild has a surplus.

Farming tips

• Pick up the loose chunks between nodes; they need no tool and add up.
• Stay on rock while you cut and don't park on open dunes: sandworms hunt on sand, not on stone. See our sandworm guide.
• Check your water before a big run: 100 ingots cost 15 litres at the refinery, so top up the cistern first.
• The Medium Ore Refinery eats 7 ore per ingot, the Large one only 4. If you plan to make hundreds of ingots, building the Large Ore Refinery early pays off.