I'm reticent to keep posting this as currently it seems to be a well-kept secret, but hey, I can't help being helpful, so helpful I will be...
Raw material farming instructions. Forget those crap anacondas and the rubbish volcanism sites. Let me introduce you to biological sites with Crystalline Shards!! Step by Step...
1) Go to a Raw Materials trader and trade ALL your G4 raw materials EXCEPT the line with Selenium at the top, down as far as they can go, ideally you want to be carrying ZERO G4 (or higher raw) mats.
2) Plot a route to the first body described below. It's a fair few jumps, but bear in mind you will be doing this only once per 3 months, and that's if you are a HEAVY engineer.
3) Drop at BIOLOGICAL sites after scanning hte planet, NOT Geological ones.
4) Shoot the SEA of shard things and giggle maniacally as you have more G4 raw mats than you can possibly collect. In most cases I had picked up 150 materials before getting so much as a kilometer from my ship.
I KID YOU NOT! WHATEVER YOU ARE EXPECTING YOU ARE NOT PREPARED! It;s like FD said one day "hey, let's put a raw material SUPER farm in the middle of nowhere and see how long it takes to become common knowledge!". Suffice it to say that once you know these sites, you will never want for raw materials (except Selenium) again.
Text follows from the guide I produced for the squadron forum. Our guys have been using htis and cackling like hyenas for some time now. My main issue with making this public knowledge is that it reduces the value of premium synthing dramatically, which is NOT a good thing... Anyway, enjoy...
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Here are the systems and planets to visit to max all true G4s and G5 raws (so everything except Selenium).
The planets are all very low G so expect flying materials, the sites of crystals were all nice and flat and driveable except ONE planet, the one with Antimony, another squadron member pointed out though that site #1 is perfectly fine, so we suggest to go there. Both systems are about 1600ly away from Earth and about 400ly from each other.
HIP 36601, Planet C 1 d. (0.08 G) (154,104 ls) for Ruthenium.
HIP 36601, Planet C 1 a. (0.09 G) (154,099 ls) for Polonium.
HIP 36601, Planet C 3 b. (0.04 G) (154,145 ls) for Tellurium.
HIP 36601, Planet C 5 a. (0.03 G) (154,288 ls) for Technetium.
Outotz LS-K d8-3, Planet B 5 c. (0.07 G) (310,420 ls) for Antimony (go to site #1)
Outotz LS-K d8-3, Planet B 5 a. (0.09 G) (310,420 ls) for Yttrium.
Selenium you should stick to volcanic sites unfortunately.