While copper ore and even iron ore are just about everywhere once you reach Vermillius Gap in Dune: Awakening, you likely won't just stumble into some carbon ore by accident. Instead, you'll have to venture out further. If you've been exploring the second region and hoping for the best, you won't have any luck.
Below, I'll go over exactly where you need to go to start finding carbon ore deposits so you can process it into steel ingots. Bear in mind that, to make steel ingots, you need to combine carbon ore with iron ingots, so make sure you're collecting and refining some as you go.
Where to find carbon ore in Dune: Awakening
You'll find carbon ore nodes near the drum sand in southern Jabal Eifrit Al-janub and in the hills near the border with Hagga Rift. Jabal Eifrit Al-janub is just north of the Anvil tradepost, making for a convenient fast-travel location once for collecting carbon—providing you've visited it once already. Like erythrite crystals, which you'll find further east in Hagga Rift, you'll need at least a MK.2 cutteray to be able to mine carbon ore.
Carbon ore tends to spawn in a belt around the southern cliffs near the open dunes, so go around the perimeter and be on the lookout for white chunks sticking out of rocks. It's not as abundant as copper or iron, so you'll need to search thoroughly. There are a lot of enemy outposts in the area too, so I recommend bringing proper armour over a Stillsuit.
Once you've got carbon ore, you can use an ore refiner to turn four carbon ore and one iron ingot (yes, processed iron) into one steel ingot. Given you need quite a bit of carbon and already processed iron ore into ingots beforehand, it's an expensive and time-consuming process if you need steel in bulk. Don't worry, it's worth the wait since acquiring steel unlocks the next tier of gear quality, letting you craft MK.3 tools, new gear, and other handy equipment.
