Squallia, mining in the deep freeze

Publisher: MongooseThe Squallia System
The first settlement on Squallia was by refugees from Fornice in 453 who were fleeing from the Fornice-Mora population crisis. The settlement struggled along for about one hundred years before it collapsed into anarchy leaving thousands dead and a small population retreated into subterranean shelters where they scratched out a living. The original settlement can still be found at Duke, there are still descendants of the survivors living a subsistence lifestyle based on the teachings of the Holy Order of the Gardener (See the Allell system description)
The system was first surveyed by the Imperial Intersteller Scout Service in the year 610 as part of District 268 entry into the Imperium however there had been several earlier surveys by prospectors which had discovered large commercial supplies of rare earth metals as Neodymium, Promethium and most importantly Lanthanum- all essential for the building of jump coils. Later surveys would also find huge deposits of Tungsten, another essential ship building material.
The first mining operation was set up by the Squallia family in 640 with funding from a consortium based in the Glistern belt. At the time the belt was beginning to develop is considerable ship building capacity and a cheap, plentiful supply of raw materials was needed. The Squallia twins, Aldo and Paulus were aware of the surveys done on Squallia (at that time it was known as Dogs Eye Five) but had no experience in the mining game, they were both traders running the families two A2 merchants. What they were good at is networking. It was said the Squallias could convince water it wasn’t wet so by the time they arrived in the system their two ships were packed with people and equipment ready to stake a claim on the new world.

New Explorations Cartel (Neck) mine number 1

Initially there was some competing interests, the planet was perfect for exploitation- low gravity, easy access to minerals and close to the expanding Glistern market however once they set up operations they found teams from the Sword Worlds and Aslan interests also had their eyes on the planet as well. The Twins, in their usual way managed to negotiate an agreement with all parties that gave them sole rights to mine the planet in exchange for favourable terms on extracted ore and so the Squallia Extraction Company was born.

Today the planet is one of the biggest exporters of refined Lanthunum and Tungsten in the Marches, the Squallia family still holds the overall rights to the planet but now they sub contract the extraction to over thirty different operators, each operator has set up a quasi city state to support their operations, some of which number up to eight hundred thousand in habitants. These are several different governmental types and varied law levels but the common theme is the extraction and processing of metals and the profit that comes with it. Current mineral prices are good and the operations are profitable but in the past and probably the future Squallia has ridden the fortunes of the market up and down.
The benefit of a low gravity planet has allowed the cheap transport of all refined metals to orbit through the SCM owned mass driver facility at Squallia City. Like many mining operations the key to profitability is spending as little as possible getting the product into orbit and SCM has managed that well, it also takes a charge per tonne for everything it launches- another “Squallia Tax” as they have a monopoly on orbital transport.
Automation plays a key part in moth the mining and transportation of materials around the planet. All mines are run remotely with small maintenance and security crews on site. Ore is loaded into bulk transports and transported for refining to either The Neck or Miracle Point and from these two refineries to the SEC launch facility to be containerised. Containers are then launched into orbit for pickup by bulk transports on a daily basis.Price: $5.00
Go to Source