Naquadah

Fictional record. This page describes a mining commodity from a fictional setting, not a real material. Information is based on the cited canon, with adaptations and interpretation distinguished where necessary. It is kept separate from the real MineArchive corpus — see Fictional.

The super-heavy, super-dense mineral of the Stargate films and series: the material the Stargates are made of, a store and amplifier of energy, and the basis of nearly all Goa'uld technology.

Where it occurs

Mined on many worlds. The film's unnamed planet, Abydos in the series, was worked by enslaved humans under Ra; the Goa'uld ran naquadah mines across their domains, and the Ancients had set their gates on naquadah-rich worlds in the first place. Populations transplanted to mine it were often abandoned when the deposits ran out.

How it's obtained

Slave labour in open workings on Abydos, under the Goa'uld's Jaffa guards. Refined naquadah in weapons-grade form is so dense that two Jaffa are needed to lift a few bricks' worth, and the refined metal served the Goa'uld as currency.

Properties

Super-heavy and superconducting, extremely hard, quartz-like in its raw form, and able to store and release great amounts of energy, which is why it multiplies the force of an explosive packed with it. It gives off an energy signature that the Goa'uld, former hosts and Jaffa can sense, since the metal is also present in their blood. The Stargate itself weighs some 29,000 kilograms of it.

Why it's valuable

Without naquadah there is no Stargate and no Goa'uld empire. Ra's plan in the film is to send a nuclear bomb back to Earth with a shipment of the mineral to make its blast a hundred times greater. The deposits drove the Goa'uld's whole pattern of conquest and transplantation.

Uses

Stargates and starship hulls; power generation and the liquid naquadah cells of staff weapons; enhanced warheads; currency in its weapons-grade form; the Asgard's naquadah-trinium-carbon alloy. Its unstable isotope naquadria stores far more energy and is radioactive.

Canon & adaptations

The film shows the mineral and never names it; the name and almost every property come from the series. The wiki notes that the film placed the source planet in another galaxy, which the series quietly revised.

Recorded claims

Each claim is marked with its basis — explicit canon, MineArchive inference, adaptation only, or fandom interpretation — and attached to the source(s) below. Where tellings disagree, both are kept.

• Naquadah is a super-heavy, superconducting mineral that stores and amplifies energy; the Stargates are made almost entirely of it. (MineArchive inference) ^1,2
• The Goa'uld ran naquadah mining operations on many planets with enslaved labour, and transplanted populations were often abandoned when deposits were exhausted. (MineArchive inference) ^1,2
• Refined weapons-grade naquadah was used by the Goa'uld as currency and is so dense that two Jaffa are needed to lift a few bricks' worth. (MineArchive inference) ¹
• The 1994 film shows the mineral but never names it; the name naquadah comes from the series. (MineArchive inference) ^1,3

Fictional mines producing this

Included only where MineArchive's own research gives a reasonable evidential basis.

• Naquadah mine of Abydos
  The mineral the Abydonians were enslaved to dig.

Sources

1. (interpretation) Naquadah — Stargate Wiki — Stargate Wiki (Fandom), read through the MediaWiki API
2. (interpretation) Mythology of Stargate — Wikipedia — Wikipedia
3. (interpretation) Stargate (film) — Wikipedia — Wikipedia

Record created: 16 October 2026 · Last researched: 16 October 2026