Ethromite was a mineral used to power the fusion engines of starships. It was mined in the asteroid belts surrounding Ithor. Mining Station Alpha was one of several small mining outposts dedicated to extracting ethromite ore from asteroidal rock and shipping it back to Ithor. When Mammon Hoole's starship, the Shroud, escaped Imperial forces on S'krrr, he landed on the Ithorian Herdship Tafanda Bay in low orbit of Ithor to have his ethromite supplies replenished.