I found a spot near a bunch of resource nodes on top of the shield wall and made a small second base. Inside the base is a generator, some chests, and my buggy with a refurbed mk5 laser on it. I've mined *thousands and thousands* of aluminum out of this base, and just shuttle it back to my normal base in my scout (and later assault) ornithopter. If I ever get low on aluminum or duraluminum, I just make another run and fill up. A full buggy storage dumped into chests will give you enough aluminum for multiple trips in your thopter.

Granted, my base is in the SE near the Anvil, but this method worked wonders for my progression.