Just to be clear my game settings were as follows:
Size: Gigantic
Type: Random (looks like scattered got picked)
Star Freq: Occasional
Planet Freq: Common
Hab Planet Freq: Occasional
Extreme Planet Freq: Uncommon
Pirate Bases: Rare
Asteroid Freq: Uncommon
Nebula Freq: Uncommon
Black Hole Freq: Uncommon
Resource Freq: Uncommon
Relic Freq: Uncommon
Crystal Freq: Uncommon
Anomaly Freq: Uncommon
Difficulty: Challenging
Game Pacing: Very Slow
Research Rate: Very Slow
United Planets Freq: Regular
Galactic Events: Occasional
Minor Races: Occasoinal
Tech Trading: On
1 Human 7 AI
There are 3-5 blackholes on the map, plenty of nebula, but no elerium.