jpmschweitzerandClaude Opus 4.6
68867894e9
All 36 commodity stubs fleshed out with lore context, production chain descriptions, and economic intelligence briefing voice. Key treatments: fusion_fuel (D-187 8:1 ratio), services (location-bound mechanics), brands distinguished from commodities per D-185. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
1.7 KiB
Metallic Ore
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Name | Metallic Ore |
| Tier | raw |
| Elasticity | unit_elastic |
| Base Price (Tractus) | 10 |
| Bulk Class | bulk |
| Unit | tonnes |
| Production Ubiquity | common |
| Demand Model | market |
| Commission Certified | No |
| Compact Contested | No |
| Shadow Viable | No |
| Panic Threshold (weeks) | 0 |
| Description | Ferrous and non-ferrous ore from planetary mines and asteroid operations. |
Metallic ore is the base input for the Reach's entire metals economy: ferrous ores for structural steel, non-ferrous for copper wire, aluminum, and specialty metals for precision components. Common availability across settled space means most mid-corridor systems have at least one active mining operation. The commodity becomes interesting at the frontier, where terrestrial ore bodies may be unexploited and asteroid belt access varies enormously with system topology.
Smelting consumes 2t of ore to produce 1t of refined metals — a 2:1 drawdown that makes the ore-to-metals ratio a standard measure of a system's metal production efficiency. The process also requires 0.3t of fusion fuel per output tonne, which means smelting throughput is an energy cost story as much as an ore availability story. Frontier smelters pay more to run the same recipe because fuel costs are structurally elevated.
Alloy fabrication draws on both metallic ore (1.5t) and rare minerals (0.3t), making ore an input to two different metal chains. This dual dependency means a single ore shortage cascades into both refined metals and advanced alloys simultaneously. No certification required, no shadow channel. Ore moves as bulk freight and its value accumulates in the processing step.