There are many benefits to refining minerals in space, especially for minerals mined from space. Sending unprocessed ore back to the surface through the space elevator is equivalent to transporting useless slag waste back together. The price of unprocessed ore itself is not high, and coupled with the transportation cost of the space elevator, it is difficult to be price competitive in the international market.
Although the space elevator transportation cost is low, it is not impossible.
Future Mining itself has its own smelting plant, and there is no need to rely on selling unprocessed ore to make profits. Processing ore into finished steel products meets the criterion of maximizing profits.
What's more, there's no need to worry about pollution in space. Throwing non-toxic waste slag into the atmosphere can be burned directly, which is much more environmentally friendly than those garbage disposal stations that destroy the molecular structure of materials through ultra-high temperatures. Toxic waste can be packed directly into packaging boxes, equipped with low-power rockets and thrown in the direction of Mercury.
In addition, the vacuum environment makes it much easier to smelt metals with extremely active chemical properties at high temperatures such as titanium in space than on the surface.
Therefore, Jiang Chen provided Yang Yuan with the interface, specifications, and dimensions of Star Ring City's external space station as early as last year, and asked him to instruct the future mining research department to design a set of ores that can be connected to Star Ring City. processing unit.
As expected, Yang Yuan lived up to his expectations and quickly brought Jiang Chen to the laboratory of Futureman Mining.
In the center of the laboratory warehouse, there lies a machine that is about the size of four large containers. People standing next to it are like ants next to a rubber. The boxy shape is very similar to the movable iron houses that can be seen everywhere on construction sites, but it is an enlarged version n times. Of course, this thing is not a tin house, but an accessible space station.
At one end of the space station, there is a raised interface with a section size of 6x4 meters, which can be connected to the outer orbit of the Star Ring City and serves as a channel for material and energy exchange. The ore is imported into the space station through the cargo channel and processed by special smelting equipment to produce finished ore ingots.
On the side of the space station, there are the trademarks of Future Heavy Industries and Future Mining, as well as a circled "fe" logo.
"This ore processing unit is a prototype we customized for Future Heavy Industry. The drawings were designed by us and made by them through 3D printing technology. The smelting minerals are a variety of iron ores. The maximum daily processing efficiency can reach 120,000 tons , the annual steel output is more than three million tons!"
When he said this, Yang Yuan's face glowed with excitement.
With a highly automated design, a workshop only needs to be equipped with four workers to complete production. The next-generation electric smelting technology is used to replace the traditional steelmaking process. The recyclable carbon fixation technology can maximize the utilization efficiency of each kilogram of coal, and can produce hundreds of types of high-quality carbon steel, tool steel, and high-strength A-shaped steel. Just now.
Combining the core technology of Futureman Mining, this ore processing unit is tailor-made for outer space steelmaking. It has led the world in the field of automated steelmaking for at least twenty years. It is no exaggeration to call it the crystallization of technology!
"This prototype has passed the performance testing test in a vacuum environment. It can be used as long as it is transported to Star Ring City via synchronous orbit and connected!"
"At present, the titanium ore processing unit has completed the design stage. It is expected that the design drawings can be sent to Future Heavy Industry tomorrow, and the prototype can be built by the end of the month."
After listening to Yang Yuan's report, Jiang Chen only asked one question, "How long will it take for mass production?"
Yang Yuan hesitated for a moment, but quickly gave an answer.
"Before the end of the month, the iron ore model processing unit production line has been built. Future Heavy Industries can deliver us ten units of equipment by the end of the month, and our remaining ten units of equipment will be delivered in the middle of next month. A total of twenty processing units, we are in The annual output of the steel plant in Star Ring City can reach more than 30 million tons!"
"As for the titanium ore model, we have to wait for our drawings to be sent over and have them reviewed by engineers from Future Heavy Industries before we can design the production line."
…
"Okay, let's talk later."
Ye Qinghua hung up the phone, leaned on the chair, tapped his old fingers on the armrest rhythmically, and fell into silent contemplation for a long time.
The microgravity laboratory in cooperation between Huaguo and Xinghuan Trading has begun construction. Leader No. 1 highly praised his efforts. However, Ye Qinghua knew very well that the scientific research project worth nearly 1.5 billion Singapore dollars had nothing to do with him. Not big.
It has been half a month since he came to Koro Island. During this half month, he has been walking around the Xinguo Islands and Penglai City. He just felt like Grandma Liu who entered the Grand View Garden, walking in surprise all the way.
People drive zero-emission pure electric cars, and the undersea tunnel connects the rag-like nine islands into a whole. People of all colors live together harmoniously, not without conflicts, but under the supervision of police drones, few people turn their conflicts into violence.
Yes, police drones, which they once rejected after careful consideration, have almost achieved zero crime rate in major cities in New Zealand.
The old man’s most profound impression about the cities of Koro and Penglai is that drones have become part of the country’s culture. They are the helpers of the police. They rush into the fire scene instead of the firefighters and deliver the express from the logistics center to the buyer's hands within an hour.
Efficiency is everything in this city, but efficiency does not crowd out everyone's life.
This country seems to have never lacked imagination, and everything here is full of imagination that only exists in science fiction. Cities built on the sea, farmland cultivated on the seabed, orbits connecting the sky and the earth, space stations larger than cities...
Ye Qinghua doesn’t know what they will create next, because imagination has no boundaries. He just silently took out his notebook and recorded everything about the city, just like he did when he visited the United States and Europe in the 1980s, and brought it back home for reference.
The old man who was leaning on the chair sighed, took out the notebook with a slightly damaged cowhide cover from his arms, and rubbed the footer of the notebook with his fingers thoughtfully. What he had seen and heard in the past half month was both gratifying and speechless.
A weak and poor new country is undoubtedly more in line with China's interests. But the words weak and poor are obviously far from the new country. In fact, because of concepts such as low crime rate, beautiful environment, Chinese cultural circle, and high-tech cities, Xinguo has vaguely replaced the European and American countries that are in the quagmire of economic crisis and terrorism, and has become the first immigrant of China's wealthy people. volunteer.
At this moment, the door to the room was pushed open.
Two young men, a man and a woman, came in.
"Grandpa, are you looking for me?" The young man in a suit and tie bowed slightly and greeted the old man respectfully.
The woman opened her mouth and wanted to say something, but the old man spoke first.
"Well, I'm a little worried," Ye Qinghua nodded and smiled at the young man, "So, I want to ask how your preparations are."
Ye Ziqi smiled confidently and puffed up his chest.
"Don't worry! I have been preparing for this for the past half month. Even if I am not 100% sure, it is definitely more than 90%!"
Mr. Ye nodded happily.
"This project is very important to our Ye family. Now the country attaches great importance to the strategic cooperation with Star Ring Trading. If our Ye Group can set an example, it will not be too difficult for your third uncle's position to be raised up." It’s a matter of time. When the time comes, our Ye family will be able to produce a provincial and ministerial level cadre again!"
After chatting for a few words with his beloved grandson, Ye Ziqi bowed slightly and left the room.
There were only two people left in the room.
"I..." Ye Yunfei gritted her teeth, suppressed the unhappiness in her heart, and said bravely, "He is not interested in me at all, and neither am I. We are not suitable, and there is nothing I can do..."
After a long time, Mr. Ye sighed and smiled kindly like an old man who loves his granddaughter.
"I won't embarrass you. Marriage is your choice. If you really don't like it, forget it."
Ye Yunfei breathed a sigh of relief, as if a big stone weighing on her heart had been lifted.
It was more uncomfortable for her to lower her face to please a man she didn't like than to kill her.
"Thanks… "
"It's okay, go down."
Ye Yunfei buried her head and nodded, turned around and quickly left the room.
Mr. Ye leaned on the chair, pondered for a moment, and looked at the invitation on the table.
The New Foreign Space Resources Forum will be held on Coro Island in three days. As a representative sent by China, he naturally received the invitation. He has already considered what issues should be discussed on the forum and how to help China gain more benefits.
The one he was a little undecided about now was his granddaughter.
Do you really want to give up like that? (.)
...