Tried using the mining drill on crystal islands but not getting any shards

Use the mining drill in the volcano on genesis on red crystals and then take the shards to a tek replicator to make loads of element

Useing a hachet is better for more shards outcome, because the shard is substituted by rocks

Go on eldritch island in CrystalIsles this is a little bit dangerous but you gonna have a lot of element shard.

In the lunar biome, the mining drill only works on certain large nodes but gives high yield of shards on those. All the small rocks only give stone with the mining drill, so use Ankylo or Pick on the little ones.