What fictional mineral is mined on Pandora in James Cameron’s Avatar?

Unobtanium is the fictional mineral mined on Pandora in James Cameron’s Avatar.

In the film, the Resources Development Administration seeks unobtanium because it is extraordinarily valuable to humans. Its importance helps explain the corporation’s aggressive mining operation and the conflict with the Na’vi, whose home and sacred sites are threatened by extraction.

The word “unobtanium” is an established engineering joke rather than a mineral name invented only for Avatar. Engineers and science-fiction writers have long used it for a material with ideal properties that is difficult or impossible to obtain. Avatar turns that humorous term into a central economic resource in its story.

Unobtanium is not the same thing as the biological or spiritual elements of Pandora. The film also features the Na’vi, the moon’s wildlife, and the planetary network associated with Eywa. Those concepts are sometimes incorrectly treated as different names for the valuable ore.