Phazon Mines

Fictional record. This page describes a mine from a fictional setting, not a real place. 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.

Setting	Metroid (Nintendo / Retro Studios)
Location	The far southeast of the planet Tallon IV, reached from the Tallon Overworld and Magmoor Caverns only via the crashed Space Pirate frigate Orpheon.
Type	Phazon extraction and research facility
Worked	Built by the Space Pirates after they discovered Tallon IV's Phazon contamination, roughly 50 years before the events of Metroid Prime (2002), following the meteorite impact -- in fact a crashed Leviathan seed -- that corrupted the planet's ecosystem. – No explicit in-game closure is depicted; the facility's fate is left open once bounty hunter Samus Aran destroys its command structure and the mutated Metroid Prime creature during the game's climax.
Extent	A sprawling underground complex of mine shafts, ore-processing rooms, laboratories and Metroid holding areas, serving as the Space Pirates' headquarters on Tallon IV.
Status	Researched

Overview

The Space Pirates' central mining and research facility on the planet Tallon IV in Metroid Prime (2002), built to harvest the mutagenic substance Phazon and to conduct hazardous experiments with it, including the creation of the powerful Elite Pirates and Omega Pirate.

History

Roughly 50 years before the events of Metroid Prime, a meteorite -- in truth a crash-landed Leviathan seed -- struck the once-lush, Chozo-inhabited planet Tallon IV, contaminating its ecosystem with the mutagenic substance Phazon. The Space Pirates, drawn by Phazon's potential as an energy source and weapon, built the Phazon Mines in the planet's southeast to harvest the substance directly from its source and to conduct research into its effects. The mines became the Pirates' base of operations on Tallon IV, housing several research projects, most notably Project Helix, which infused ordinary Space Pirates with Phazon to create a stronger breed known as the Elite Pirates, and which ultimately produced the far more powerful Omega Pirate. Alongside raw ore extraction, the facility housed laboratories conducting further Phazon experiments, including induced gigantism in local fungi and the injection of Phazon directly into captured Metroids. Bounty hunter Samus Aran, responding to a distress signal from the derelict frigate Orpheon, discovers the mines while investigating the Pirates' activities on Tallon IV, ultimately fighting her way through the facility -- including a confrontation with the Omega Pirate -- on her way to the planet's Impact Crater and the corrupted Chozo artifact known as Metroid Prime.

Workings

Worked as an underground mining and ore-processing operation extracting raw Phazon, supplemented by laboratories conducting Phazon-mutation research (Project Helix) and holding areas for Metroids used in further experimentation.

Closure

No explicit closure is depicted in-game; the facility's Space Pirate garrison, including the mutated Omega Pirate, is defeated by Samus Aran during her passage through the mines toward the game's final confrontation.

What became of it

Left unresolved within Metroid Prime itself; later games in the series do not revisit the Phazon Mines specifically, though Phazon and Tallon IV's fate recur across the wider Prime trilogy.

Canon & adaptations

This record follows Metroid Prime (2002) specifically. Community wikis are the only accessible secondary sources for this material (interpretation tier) -- both consulted here are grounded in the game's own scan-log text and mission structure rather than speculation, but neither is an authorised or primary-canon publication in its own right.

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.

Roughly 50 years before the game's events, a crash-landed Leviathan seed, mistaken for a meteorite, contaminated Tallon IV's ecosystem with Phazon; the Space Pirates built the mines afterward specifically to harvest it. (MineArchive inference) ^1,2
The mines housed Project Helix, which infused Space Pirates with Phazon to create the stronger Elite Pirates and, ultimately, the far more powerful Omega Pirate. (explicit canon) ^1,2
Bounty hunter Samus Aran fights through the mines -- including a confrontation with the Omega Pirate -- while investigating the Space Pirates' Phazon research on her way to the planet's Impact Crater. (explicit canon) ¹

Sources

(interpretation) Phazon Mines — Metroid Wiki
(interpretation) Phazon Mines (Wikitroid) — Wikitroid (Fandom)

Record created: 31 August 2026