How To Get & Make Zinc In Astroneer

Zinc is an essential material in Astroneer that you’ll need for various crafting recipes. However, you can’t create zinc directly—you’ll need to mine a raw material and process it through a smelting furnace. This guide walks you through the entire process of obtaining and crafting zinc from start to finish.

Finding Sphalerite in Underground Caves

The first step in making zinc is locating the raw material you’ll need to process. Head into a cave system on your planet—caves can extend quite deep underground, so make sure you’re prepared for the descent.

Once you’re inside the cave, you’ll be searching for a specific material called sphalerite. This material has an almost amorphous appearance and displays a distinctive purple color. Be careful not to confuse it with the purple mushrooms found in caves—you want the sphalerite mineral itself.

You’ll find sphalerite in abundance at certain underground levels within cave systems. Mine up as much sphalerite as you can carry, as you’ll need it to smelt into zinc.

Processing Sphalerite Into Zinc

Once you’ve collected your sphalerite, return to the surface and head back to your base. You’ll need access to a smelting furnace to convert the raw sphalerite into usable zinc.

Loading the Smelting Furnace

Open your backpack and remove the sphalerite you’ve mined. Place the sphalerite directly into the front input slot of the smelting furnace. Alternatively, if you prefer not to manually load each piece, you can connect a medium storage container to the furnace, and it will automatically process materials from that storage.

The Smelting Process

Once the sphalerite is loaded, the smelting furnace will begin processing. You’ll see the furnace consuming the sphalerite and converting it into zinc. Simply wait for the smelting cycle to complete.

After the furnace finishes cooking, you’ll receive a piece of zinc as output. You can repeat this process with additional sphalerite to create more zinc for your projects.

Summary

Creating zinc in Astroneer is straightforward: mine sphalerite from underground caves, transport it to your base, and smelt it in a smelting furnace. While you can’t craft zinc directly, this simple two-step process ensures you’ll have a steady supply of zinc for all your construction and crafting needs.

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