Overview

Specialists in rapid ore extraction, OreTek wasted no time in developing equipment suitable for mining operations in the lunar environment. A key requirement in the early years was that technology include as few moving parts as possible, reducing the potential for wear and tear from magnetic lunar dust. OreTek responded by developing the OreTek pickaxe, but also several directed energy miners, designed to use heat to crack open rocks for ore extraction.

Following a string of accidents, and more than one rampage, the need for safer mining tools became apparent. The answer from OreTek R&D was a more specialist mining tool that utilized frequencies specific to the electronic structure of the target metals (gold, silver and lead). The resulting high-energy beams, referred to as Rayminers, while by no means safe in any reasonable meaning of the word, did not result in the mix of dismemberments and vaporisations caused by earlier tools.

Flash-heating precious metals to the point of evaporation (approx. 3000 C in the case of gold) would cause the containing rocks to crack open. The adoption of these new tools by all lunar mining operations halved both the number of workplace injuries and hull breaches in mining facilities. The MKII added to the efficiency of the mining operation by using the same graviton technology as the Cyclone gas extractor to draw in the metal gasses.

The bright beam of the Rayminer MKII is due to the glow of superheated dust particles in the air. While not generally lethal, the beams can cause third and fourth degree burns on unexposed skin as well as the instant evaporation of any tooth fillings, prosthetics or jewellery containing significant amounts of the target metal. Overlapping the mining beams is believed to carry a 0.0043% risk of causing a miniaturised black hole and is thus discouraged.

Resources

Name: Iron ore
Base Price: 30 DFCC

Description: One of the most common metals, iron is present as several oxides such as hematite and magnetite. To be usable, these oxides need to be reduced to produce raw iron.

Refined Into: Iron bars, Stainless Steel Bars
Used In Crafting: Cyclone Gas Extractor MKIII, Shard-bound nanolinks, Molecular terminal, Bioelectric interfaces, Molecular capacitors, Liquid metal alloys

Name: Gold ore
Base Price: 75 DFCC

‍Description: While gold is a noble metal, and is generally found in its raw form, electrolytic refining is required to condense it into bars.

‍Refined Into: Gold bars
Used In Crafting: Magwell, Plasma Magwell, Solenoid, Plasma condenser, Shielded plasma condenser, Low-loss wiring, Simple electronics, Hyperreactive coils, Rail Coil

Name: Lead ore
Base Price: 30 DFCC

‍Description: Commonly encountered as the sulfide Galena, lead ores require extensive crushing before being reduced using carbon to form lead bullion.

‍Refined Into: Lead bars
Used In Crafting: Simple electronics, Casing components

‍Name: Silver ore
Base Price: 40 DFCC

‍Description: Mostly present as the sulfide complex acanthite, silver ore requires electrolytic processing to be purified into raw silver.
‍Refined Into: Silver bars

Used In Crafting: Alucard Biofluid Sampler, Li-ion battery, Fibreoptic wiring, High-energy mirrors, Energy microcell, Sterile implements, Basic medical supplies