Phazon Mines

The Phazon Mines are the far southeast area of Tallon IV, located south of the Tallon Overworld and southeast of the Magmoor Caverns. The Mines are the core of all Space Pirate activity on Tallon IV. As the name suggests, the Phazon Mines was created by the Pirates to mine Phazon, a valuable energy source for them. They also had many labs within the mines and a few Metroid quarantines. The sky in this area is a hazy pink, suggesting the Pirates have heavily polluted this area.
In certain elevator shafts that lead deeper into the mines, there are windows that show where one is in relation to the actual Impact Crater. The windows show that the mines are going deeper into the crust of Tallon IV and are going very near the Impact Crater.
==Areas and main rooms==
The Phazon Mines are clearly divided into three parts, named within the game as Level One, Level Two, and Level Three.
===Level One===
The surface level mostly contains security areas and large mining machines. It is here that the Flamethrower is acquired. Several Space Pirate Bio-Imaging doors are placed here, indicating that this is the main HQ level.
====Main Rooms====
*Main Quarry
*Elite Research
===Level Two===
Somewhat deeper; contains various labs, ventilation shafts and one Metroid quarantine facility.
====Main rooms====
*Central Dynamo
*Omega Research
===Level Three===
It is at this level where the actual mining takes place. This level is mostly dark, with few light sources other than Saturnines grown to massive sizes through Phazon infusion. Level 3 contains most Metroids in the Mines and is where the Omega Pirate is held, within the Elite Quarters.
====Main rooms====
*Elite Quarters
*Phazon Processing Center
==Music==
A variety of music tracks play in the different levels of the Phazon Mines. Phazon Area plays as Samus passes through Quarry Access, but it is replaced by Phazon Mines once she steps out into the Main Quarry; the latter is the most well-known of the area's non-boss themes and the only one to be listed in any game's Soundtrack Gallery. As Samus descends to Level Two, the music is replaced by Pirate Yoin, which previously played in the Glacier One base in Phendrana Drifts. Phazon Area returns as the background music in Metroid Quarantine A, still in Level Two, and continues through almost all of Phazon Mines Level Three. Finally, Music Mines Dark plays in the Elite Quarters before and after the battle with the Omega Pirate.
In Metroid Prime Pinball, Phazon Mines is used for both the table based on this area and the Impact Crater table.
==Development notes==
About half of the rooms in the Phazon Mines were built by Zoid Kirsch.Old Game Plus. Metroid Prime, Dev Interview Special. February 8, 2021. Retrieved August 7, 2022. https://oldgameplus.libsyn.com/metroid-prime-dev-interview-special (starts at 9:39)
==Trivia==
*There is also a section of "Phazon mines" on the Pirate Homeworld, there known as Pirate Mines.
*Donkey Kong Country Returns, the first Retro Studios-developed non-Metroid Prime series game contains many references to the Phazon Mines in the cave levels of World 4; including the presence of objects resembling Phazon crystals and Saturnines, as well as minecarts that appear to have Phazon on them. Cranky Kong wonders "just what is being mined in those mines".
==See also==
*List of rooms in Metroid Prime/Phazon Mines
*Pirate Mines
==Gallery==
Phazon mines enter.jpg|Samus enters the Phazon Mines.
Image:Phazonmines.jpg|The Main Quarry in the Phazon Mines.
File:NPC!_MP_Screen_13.png|Samus observes the Main Quarry, and sees the pollution the Pirates have brought with them.
File:Flamethrower2.png|Samus burns a Space Pirate with her Flamethrower in the Main Quarry.
File:NPC!_MP_Screen_1.png|Samus faces an Elite Pirate in the Mines.
File:NPC!_MP_Screen_15.png|Samus using a Rotation Control Unit in Ore Processing.
File:NPC!_MP_Screen_2.png|Two Tallon Metroids in the Phazon infested sections of the Mines.
File:NPC!_MP_Screen_12.png|Samus spots a Plasma Trooper in the deeper areas of the Mines.
File:NPC!_MP_Screen_14.png|A large Phazon corrupted tunnel, the Transport Access.
File:Mines_object.jpg|Andrew Jones "Mines object"
Phazon Mines Sky.png|The sky surrounding the Mines, filled with smog and pollution.
==References==
ru: Фазоновые Шахты
 
Category:Mining
Category:Tony Giovannini
Category:Metroid Production facilities
Category:Industrialized areas