Smelter, Common Ore

Smelter, Rare Ore

Because of heavy asteroid bombardment several times in its early geological history, the planet's crust has been melted and resolidified several times. This process has resulted in a fairly homogeneous crust without the wide range of mineral and rock types found on Earth. In this respect, New Terra more closely resembles Earth's Moon, though it is much richer in heavy metals.

In fact, any surface rock or handful of soil on New Terra is going to have a fair amount of useful metal in it; it is just that the extraction of that metal from common materials is difficult and expensive, and the concentrations, while considerable, are far below that of even poor ores on Earth. Fortunately, the crust is not completely uniform, and veins of material richer in valuable metals have been found.

The processes under which these veins were formed is unknown, and largely irrelevant to the colonies since they are easily detected without knowing their origin. Two general types of ore are known, each made from a soup of various metals. The first is simply called Common Ore, and it is rich in lighter metals such as aluminum, titanium, magnesium, yttrium, and chromium, as well as a few common heavier metals like copper and iron. So-called Rare Ores are rich in heavier metals including radioactives. Metals in this group include gold, silver, lead, cobalt, nickel, palladium, osmium, platinum, cadmium, zinc, mercury, thorium, and uranium.

The technology used in both the ore smelting structures is similar to that used in the GORF recycling structure. Ores are pretreated to maximize the concentrations of useful metal, then crushed to a uniform pellet size and fed into a fusion-electric smelter and pumped under pressure into a hot cracking column for separation into individual metals. While most metals are extracted in pure form, some, such as uranium and aluminum, require additional processing.

The resulting molten metal streams are solidified into micro-pellets, which are mixed into a synthetic oil-based medium to create a slurry, which can be pumped through pipes, stored in tanks, and easily provided to factory machinery in the form of a constant flow.

While both the Common Ore Smelter and Rare Ore Smelter use similar technology, the smelting temperatures, operating pressures, and cracking column configuration for each is completely different, thus the need for two different dedicated structures. The Rare Ore Smelter also contains special equipment and facilities for handling radioactive materials and toxic heavy metals.

Operational Notes: The Common Ore Smelter refines Common Ore into Common Metals. The Rare Ore Smelter refines Rare Ore into Rare Metals. Each structure can store up to 10000 units of the appropriate type of metals. Cargo Trucks may dock at the smelter to unload ore, or to load or unload metals.

Tales from New Terra

"Don't go that way, it's radioactive!" Actually, all the areas of the smelter that handled radioactives were safely locked behind doors and lots of warning signs, but he felt that such arbitrary warnings gave him the upper hand over annoying visitors, and this woman was definitely annoying. He closed the inspection port and climbed down the access ladder.

The woman looked a little pale. "I'm sorry. I've never been to a smelter before. I was just curious."

He turned his nose up. "You know 'bout curiosity and dead cats and things like that. You stay close to me, and you might get out of the building alive." It was Ernie's opinion that such dire warnings discouraged uninvited repeat visits. He marched rapidly on his rounds, as fast as his long legs would carry him, and the woman trotted to keep up.

"Now, Mr. Ngot, about my request."

He brushed at a nonexistent fly with his hand. "Yeah, yeah, you want gold, and silver."

"And platinum," she said helpfully.

"Gold, silver, and platinum, to make jewelry for the consumer goods store."

She smiled hopefully. "That's right."

He waited a moment, to let her get her hopes up. "Not a chance. We got priorities here, supplying the labs, Spaceport, and the like. No can do."

"But Mr. Ngot. This is a colony priority. I have the endorsement of several Council members on this. Quality consumer goods made from precious metals would have a lasting effect on Morale. It would give people something of value that they would know they could take with them on all the migrations, and possibly even on the starship. Don't you see how important that is?"

He stopped in front of another inspection port ladder and turned back to her. She was giving him those doe eyes, holding her interlaced fingers under her chin, just like his first wife. He hated that. He was just about to tell her off good when he saw the gold nugget glitter.

"What's that?"

She looked down. "What?"

"That, that ring. Where'd you get that?"

She held up her hand so he could see. There was a sizable gold nugget on the ring. It looked too large for her hand, like a man should be wearing it. "It's an heirloom, handed down from my great grandfather. You like it?"

He found himself nodding.

"I can see how a man in your profession might be attracted to such a thing. I was thinking of making duplicates." She paused a beat. "If I can get the gold."

He nodded. "And silver."

"And platinum," she said. "Don't forget the platinum."

"I won't," he replied. "Let's go to my office and talk."

Go to Unit Reference