TL;DR: Ore sourcing varies wildly, with Linstanium being disproportionately rare compared to the others. Is this intended or a bug?
Similar to the question regarding wilds fishing lure parts, this is something that has come up embedded in other feedback a few times, but has lingered long enough that it warrants its own post.
Grathorp can be found across severals zones and locations in significant density (Ma’at’s Keep, outside Mao’s Sanctum, Desert Wilds, outside Jungle Temple area, etc) whereas Linstanium is effectively only found in a single location (spider island in the jungle) with a handful (~4) spawns on a long respawn timer.
The other 4 fall somewhere in the middle, with Cryejil spawning only in certain spots in Lamavora, but in very high density with relatively fast respawns. Nahomium is sparse in any given spot but is all over the desert. Obsidian and Knight’s Tear are throughout their respective zones, with a handful of spots with higher density.
Potential bugs here seem to be that in the jungle, some of the ore nodes are Grathorp instead of Linstanium, and the desert Wilds seems to be all Grathorp instead of a wider range of possibilities like Lucian Wilds which can have a few different types showing up. (And Lamavora Wilds have minimal ore nodes overall that I believe are always Cryejil or more Grathorp).
Thanks in advance for taking a look!