[taterbill]

Use trade. I sometimes find that I have radioactives and organics out the wazoo but no minerals. Obviously, I pull out all the stops to find good mineral planets and exploit them, but in the meantime, I can usually keep afloat by trading with my neighbors. If you are on good terms with a race, they will usually trade you 10,000 minerals for 3000 organics plus 3000 rad's every turn, give or take a thousand on either side of the equation. Plus it is good for interspecies relations also. When truly desperate, I have sold technologies for mega-minerals.