"Boom ——!!!"

With the explosion of a mountain peak, the course of human history has also entered the year 2050 of the Home Star Era.

It's just that the location of this mountain is a little special, it's in Antarctica.

No one would have thought that it was not the bells that ushered in the New Year, but the explosion of gunpowder from the mines, or the first mines to be blown up in Antarctica.

On the eve of New Year's Day, the Federation signed a new agreement to allow Xinsheng Minerals, a subsidiary of the New Life Group, to mine an iron ore mine in the Antarctic region to meet the extreme demand for steel in the country's rapidly growing domestic development.

Of course, this agreement is opposed by the whole world, but anyone with a discerning eye can find that the most opposition is to some private organizations or purely individual voices, and those opposition at the national level is really verbal opposition.

It is already self-evident that humanity needs Antarctica's contribution.

Economic development in the twentieth century came at the cost of enormous resource consumption and environmental pollution, and throughout the twentieth century, mankind consumed 142 billion tons of oil, 265 billion tons of coal, 38 billion tons of iron, 760 million tons of copper and other major resources.

This is the mode of economic growth that has been carried out by the developed countries of the world over the past 200 years with the consumption of huge resources and environmental pollution.

After entering the 21 st century, when people are seriously reflecting on this mode of economic growth in the developed countries, the developing countries, which account for the majority of the world's population today, have also entered a period of high-speed development; in order to achieve sustained and stable economic development, all countries have successively accelerated the pace of economic development, and the "giant" of economic development must have sufficient resources to fill its stomach, and the more developed science and technology are, the more resources they need.

Therefore, planning the path of development and seeking resources will be a serious challenge facing mankind in this century, and the developed countries now restrict the development of developing countries under the slogan of "environmental protection".

The existing resources are not exhausted, because with the development of technology, new resources are constantly discovered, but compared with the previous resources, the newly discovered resources are becoming more and more difficult to exploit, and the economic benefits are very uneconomical.

The deep sea and the South Pole are the treasures that have not been exploited and utilized on the home planet so far, and contain rich resources for human survival and development.

It's just that the deep-sea resources are abundant, but the mining is too difficult, and the economic benefits are even worse than mining those newly discovered resources, that is, the oil sands with huge pollution, huge consumption and scarce harvest are better than this.

This is not a problem at all, as it contains hundreds of mineral resources and energy sources.

There are "world iron mountains" that can be exploited and utilized by the world for 200 years and huge coal field resources with total reserves of about 500 billion tons. Copper, lead, zinc, molybdenum and a small amount of gold, silver, chromium, nickel, cobalt and other non-ferrous metals are also abundant. The polymetallic manganese ore resources in the surrounding seabed are also very considerable.

The oil and gas of Antarctica are mainly found on the Antarctic continental shelf and the West Antarctic continent. According to the survey, the Ross Sea, the Weddell Sea, the Belinsgaujin Sea shelf area and the Pritz Bay sea area are the main prospect areas and exploration areas with the greatest potential for oil and gas resources. The Antarctic region has oil reserves of about 50 billion to 100 billion barrels, and natural gas reserves of about 30000-5 trillion cubic meters.

In addition, there are huge potential resources such as wind, tidal and geothermal energy in the Antarctic region.

All these resources mean that Antarctic resources play a pivotal role in the global economic development.

After all, on the one hand, it costs dozens of times more than before to mine, and on the other hand, there is oil when you drill a hole, and there is a mine when you blow up a mountain, and everyone knows how to choose.

However, due to a series of problems such as territorial sovereignty and environmental pollution, the resources here have not been effectively utilized.

Some people assert that when the difficulty of resource mining in other parts of the planet increases exponentially, the South Pole will become the only treasure trove of resources on the planet, and it is the kind that can be easily mined.

And the actions of the Federation say that it is time to open the treasure trove.

There was no international meeting of elders, no consultations, and private companies were directly authorized to exploit the resources.

Many people think that other countries are going to condemn the Federation, but other countries have sent their own mining companies to open mines, and these mining companies have one thing in common, they are all private enterprises, and state-owned enterprises are not involved in this matter.

"It's ...... What is the development model of the Moon? If you don't declare the territory you occupy, whoever develops it will be whom? ”

"Isn't it, the treatment of the South Pole before was the same as the moon, the same extreme environment, the same abundant resources, the same people who belong to the world, the same who develops and who uses, but compared to the distance of the moon, the South Pole is closer."

"It turns out that I've been arguing about what kind of space mining, but in the end, I still dig the South Pole? Hey, the last piece of pure land on the Homeland Star is gone. ”

"I'm Antarctica, I'm panicking, life still starts with my poor Xiaoice Mountain!"

"What's this, it can be mined if it is minerals, and now the mineral resources in various places are relatively tight, and it is natural to mine minerals in Antarctica, which is a large-scale pass for the homeland star to enter space, and the people stationed in Antarctica are large companies, and they have been able to do the best in environmental protection."

"Don't you all rest assured, don't you see that those big countries don't object? It's useless to even protest in those small countries, is it useful for us people to protest? If you want me to say, it is better to let the minerals of the Antarctic help the development of space technology, let us enter the cosmic age as soon as possible, and wait for who cares about a South Pole in the universe. ”

"Hehe, I'll put it here, I'll have to fight sooner or later. I don't make it clear now, but I just opened mines in their respective tacit spheres of influence, and when we reach the bordering blurred border area, then we have to rely on force to speak......"

“…… It is estimated that those small countries will not be convinced. ”

“……”

Obviously, the national side has not taken much care of it, especially the Union and the Federation, which are betting that they will be able to achieve space mining in a few decades, so the Antarctica will be opened here.

And Dong Qingchen's side, he didn't plan to join in the excitement, but since he also wanted to establish his own manufacturing plant, the procurement of raw materials must be indispensable, so in Shen Chengfei's plan, the kind of raw materials that are used the most are best in their own hands, so it is very cost-effective to go to Antarctica to open a few mines.

"But we don't have a mining company?" Dong Qingchen helplessly spread his hands.

"But you have money, where is your crazy momentum to throw money away?"

Shen Chengfei analyzed him: "There is also a threshold for mining in Antarctica, although countries take the initiative to develop Antarctica this time, but environmental problems are still in mind, and the smaller the pollution, the easier it is to get the qualification." ”

"I've seen some technology in the database, and that's our competitiveness this time, where we buy a mining company and we retrofit their equipment, and those qualifications to enter the Antarctic are completely fine."

"When our Antarctic minerals are opened, not only will the production chain not be restricted, but the cost will also be reduced a lot, which is very beneficial."

Dong Qingchen pondered for a moment that this is the reason, and compared with cheap deep-sea mining technology, it is much safer to go to Antarctica for mining.