Minerals and Ores
Star Fleet Universe Discussion Board: Captain's Log: New Fiction:
Minerals and Ores
I need a few names for minerals and ores. Have there been many mentioned in previous stories and background materials?
At least one needs to be mildly rare rare earth mineral (would rather not use dilithium).
The rest can just be varieties of stuff like iron or nickel-iron isotopes that may have come from asteroid mining. Any tongue-twisters should have a nickname for non-chemists to use in common conversation. (I mean, I'm fine with long conversations on fluorotetraferriphlogopite processing or topatourbiolilepiquorthite futures trading, we get paid by the column-inch, right?)
Just a quick check before digging out the textbooks on isotope structures and main sequence star life cycles...
Iridium (important metal in SFU) is often a byproduct of copper mining. No particular ore is associated with it AFAIK, but then I know little of geology.
The TOS episode The Devil in the Dark with the Horta has a list of stuff they mine for, maybe you can get some ideas there.
According to The Secret History of X-Ships from SFB Module X1R, advanced technology requires the use of germanium, rhenium, and gadolinium. Indeed, certain refinement processes are required in each case; for example, germanium needs to be formed into a "foam block" before it can be used to handle the exotic fire control systems on X-ships.
On a side note, germanium is even more crucial an element over in the BattleTech setting, as the K-F core at the heart of all JumpShips (and WarShips) is comprised of a germanium-titanium alloy, housed in a liquid helium jacket.
To get back to the SFU, it is also noted in the monster article from Captain's Log #52 that those same minerals required to make X-technology function also happen to be the primary food source for a common species of "space whale". Coincidentally, the star system which has the highest known concentrations of these minerals, and which thus draws the largest population of "space whales" to feed upon them, is the home system of the land-octopus Mirn. I wonder if they ever coined a name for such deep space life forms...
Thanks, that will get me started. I hadn't gone looking in the X-tech articles yet. The story is in the workboat era, so X-materials will work fine.
It doesn't need to be magical, just rare enough that they have to go somewhere else to get it (and important enough to be worth the trouble).
Now to find the Horta script.
The Horta planet produced pergium, with uranium, sirium, gold, and platinum as byproducts.
"I'm a doctor, not a bricklayer."
It may be worth reviewing the entry for Janus VI in Prime Directive Federation before delving into that world in much greater detail.
Pergium, used in advanced power systesm (TOS:The Devil in the Dark), or Topaline, used in life support systems (TOS:Friday's Child).
Dronium is found in the western regions of the map, while plasmatite is almost exclusively found in the east. That's why Klingons and Kzinti use drones, and Romulans arm their ships with plasma torps. Don't believe me? Just ask SVC. I remember him posting that a few years ago.
Garth L. Getgen
Please don't forget the Beryllium Sphere.
Seriously, I'm going to see how much I remember from a basic chemistry class a couple years ago.
Nickel
Manganese (which I think is an ore, not a mineral element)
Thulium
Thorium
Palladium
Cobalt
Zinc
Sulphur (which, by the way, is critical for sugar production)
Polonium
Calcite
Muscovite
Kaolinite
Halite (rock salt)
Asurite
Galena
Hematite
Chromite
Fluorite
Calcite
Borax (not to be confused with folks who LOVE phasers)
Anhydrite
Wulfentite
Apatite (no, really! It's part of the Phosphates or Vanadates group)
Olivine
Pyrite
Sphalerite
Stibnite
Chalcopyrite
Cinnabar (a most toxic form of lead that featured prominently in Chinese alchemy)
Well, that's a few from Earth. Hopefully it'll help. If you'd like more, I can pull out some books... 
I like Yttrium as an obscure element.
Tritanium.
Latinum is a rip off from DS9.
Chemistry-nerd joke: What do you call a piece of fruit infused with tin? __Snapple__.
Garth L. Getgen
Sigma-positronium needed for grav tech.
I'm not delving into a world, just a small piece of one (that's being crushed into even smaller pieces as we speak).
I just need to figure out which pieces to keep and which ones to let drift away as navigation hazards.
If you're looking for rare stuff, try ores for some of the Rare Earth elements; promethium, lanthanum, thulium, dysprosium, neodymium, etc. Really rare elements to start with, and exploitable ore concentrations are even rarer.
if its being crushed and I'm sure this is fictional, but how about Diamondite or Diamondonium?. just my small contribution.
There was a mineral referenced in a short story back in an old edition of Captain's Log; it was called "Manurite" and it was in the short story "Two views of the Federation."
Manurite.
IIRC, it was the subject of a trade discussion that was about to happen due to its apparent ability to possibly stop a famine on a Klingon agriculture world.
For purposes of this discussion, though, it showcases the brilliance of our hosts; we have established the go-ahead to create new types of minerals, provided they fit in with something reasonable.
With that thought in mind, I had a crazy thought (I know; so what else is new...) Imagine, if you would, a mineral/crystal that's necessary for fusion reactions to take place; a mineral/crystal that's required for both APRs and for Hydran Fusion Beams. For fusion reactions to take place (at least to the limits of our understanding of physics) high pressures and temperatures are required. Pressure is measured with instruments called barometers, so what about a mineral/crystal called "Baromite" as a requirement for making APRs or Fusion Beams?
It's a thought...