Mass Effect ‘UNC: Valuable Minerals’ Rare Earth Locations

Mass Effect’s uncharted side assignments often require players to search the galaxy in order to find specific pieces of a collection.
Mass Effect’s uncharted side assignments often require players to search the galaxy in order to find specific pieces of a collection. / BioWare, EA

Mass Effect’s uncharted side assignments often require players to search the galaxy in order to find specific pieces of a collection.

UNC: Valuable Minerals is one such example. This assignment is unique due to its four distinct categories of items players need to find. These can be located either by landing on the surface of a planet and uncovering deposits through exploration or by surveying individual planets from above their atmosphere. Of the four categories, players need to collect 20 individual pieces of heavy metal, light metal, and rare earth with six deposits of gas.

Mass Effect ‘UNC: Valuable Minerals’ Rare Earth Locations

Deposits can be found either by survey from above or happening upon deposits while exploring the planet’s surface. We’ve broken down the locations of each according to how they can be found.

Land (24)

  • Argos Rho: Hydra—Metgos
  • Armstrong Nebula: Grissom—Solcrum (x2)
  • Armstrong Nebula: Vamshi—Maji
  • Armstrong Nebula: Hong—Casbin (x2)
  • Armstrong Nebula: Gagarin—Rayingri (x2)
  • Artemis Tau: Macedon—Sharjila (x2)
  • Artemis Tau: Sparta—Edolus
  • Hades Gamma: Antaeus—Trebin (x2)
  • Hades Gamma: Plutus—Nonuel
  • Hades Gamma: Cacus—Chohe
  • Hawking Eta: Century—Presrop
  • Horse Head Nebula: Fortuna—Amaranthine (x2)
  • Maroon Sea: Matano—Chasca
  • Styx Theta: Erebus—Nepmos
  • Styx Theta: Acheron—Altahe
  • Voyager Cluster: Amazon—Agebinium
  • Voyager Cluster: Columbia—Nepheron
  • Voyager Cluster: Yangtze—Binthu

Survey (12)

  • Argos Rho: Phoenix—Patashi
  • Armstrong Nebula: Grissom—Asteroid
  • Artemis Tau: Sparta—Alsages
  • Hades Gamma: Antaeus—Vemal
  • Hades Gamma: Plutus—Mingito
  • Hades Gamma: Farinata—Nepneu
  • Hades Gamma: Plutus—Clocrolis
  • Hades Gamma: Cacus—Faringor
  • Horse Head Nebula: Fortuna—Therumlon
  • Voyager Cluster: Amazon—Sonedma
  • Voyager Cluster: Columbia—Ontaheter
  • Voyager Cluster: Yangtze—Patajiri

There are 36 total deposits collectively spread throughout the galaxy in Mass Effect. Players only need 20 to complete the Rare Earth part of the assignment, so they shouldn’t have any significant issue completing Valuable Minerals so long as they keep track of where they’ve been.