The moon, with no road network, no neighboring towns, and a thin atmosphere, means that no exploration activity can extend too far, and once they are out of the support of the lunar base, the possibility of them encountering accidents will be greatly increased, and it will also lead to the risk of difficult rescue.

And the only solution, according to the exploration department, is to open a sub-base.

However, the sub-base is not said to be opened, in the eyes of the exploration department, all ores and energy are obtained for free, and it is only a matter of time before you want to open a sub-base.

But in fact, even if a sub-base is opened, if no one maintains it, even if it is controlled by Nana, it is expensive to maintain daily production, and it is impossible to make ends meet, unless some huge mineral deposits are discovered, Cao Chuan will not consider establishing a sub-base.

So, in the end, their need became to build a temporary camp, so that everyone could use the temporary camp as a springboard to run farther away.

Hippar Valley, more than 100 kilometers from the lunar base, is home to the Exploration Department's temporary camp.

"Ah, we are really unlucky, we thought that the exploration department deserved the spaceship the most, but we didn't expect that because the main exploration mission in a short period of time was focused on the moon, we were actually issued 20 lunar off-road vehicles."

Many employees who are driving spaceships and dreaming of conquering planets everywhere complained.

"Well, be patient, who told us that our performance was too bad? I'd be embarrassed if I did give out spaceships or anything. Another employee said.

"And ah, now we are much better than the other day, a few days ago, we couldn't even get out of the base 50 kilometers away, and it took a lot of effort to find a slightly larger mineral deposit."

While the employees were chatting, there were several people standing at the front of the team, including Cao Chuan, Sophia, the temporary head of the exploration department, and Qiao Canal were observing the surrounding environment, and at the same time turning on the detection instrument, combined with the map presented on the instrument, to analyze whether there were any resources.

Cao Chuan didn't want to come along, but because he couldn't quickly teach everyone the alien geology he got through the rule simulation, his employees were not peerless geniuses with an IQ of 250, they had excellent memories and outstanding comprehension abilities, and he had to take the lead himself while distributing the information to the employees of the exploration department.

At this time, the geological structure presented on the instrument became a little different, Cao Chuan glanced at it, and said casually: "Huh? Looks like another iron mine has been discovered? "It's no surprise for a long time, just because in the first half day, they have discovered more than 5 mineral deposits, and iron ore alone accounts for 4.

"It's the most common element in the universe, but I don't know how big it is?" He muttered, and as the instrument repeatedly scanned, showing a more complete geological structure, Cao Chuan finally saw clearly that the mineral deposit discovered this time stretched for dozens of kilometers and was a giant iron mine.

"Huge is 100 million tons of reserves...", he said to himself, remembering that the largest iron ore on the earth is only 1.5 billion tons, compared to the discovery of 100 million tons of iron ore reserves is enough to open a small unmanned sub-base for continuous mining.

The rest of the staff, even Sophia and Qiao Canal, because they had not yet thoroughly mastered the geology of the alien planet, only realized what kind of discoveries he had made from Cao Chuan's demeanor.

Qiao Canal and Sophia took a look and found that it was iron ore, and it was a giant iron ore, "It's not a loss to be an honorary advisor, and in this time, he led us to find a giant iron mine of 100 million tons, so that we have found 5 mineral deposits with mining value." Sophia's tone was a little strange, and there was a sour smell in the air.

Qiao Hehe, who knew Cao Chuan, saw that the atmosphere was a little delicate, and hurriedly came out to play a round, "Eldest sister, since the honorary advisor has been recognized by the board of directors, he must be extraordinary, and this kind of thing is normal." ”

Sophia didn't speak, probably because her self-esteem was hit, and she just took the employees of the exploration department out for a walk around at random, and found a lot of mineral deposits, and in the previous month, the exploration department she was in charge of worked hard but found nothing, the contrast was too great to accept.

Qiao Canal had no choice but to announce to the employees that the discovery just now shifted the topic: "Everyone, we have found another 100 million ton giant iron mine, plus the previous one, we have found 5 mineral deposits with certain mining value, go back and celebrate well!" ”

Hearing the good news, the employees present showed joy on their faces and began to cheer.

Then several active employees went out to investigate the site, they went deep above the deposit, first to find out if there is an open vein, and if not, according to the track of the deposit presented by the instrument, through the equipment to drill down to obtain the ore.

After a while, the employee who had gone out to investigate ran back and said breathlessly, "We brought back the ore that was excavated." ”

With the ore, further analysis can be done to obtain the specific type of deposit, the degree of enrichment, whether there are other associated ores, and so on.

Everyone saw that the ore brought back by the employees was dark gray, a typical iron compound with high purity, and the previous discoveries were dominated by this iron compound, and because of the wide distribution of this iron compound, most places on the moon were dyed dark gray.

The results of the test were a pleasant surprise.

"Oh my God." The employee in charge of the inspection suddenly shouted, "It's not pure iron ore, there are other associated mines." I did not expect that there would be high-density massive titanium in the iron ore bred in this lava environment. ”

The curiosity of the employees was fished up and they came around, knowing that titanium is a rare metal among conventional metals, with a large distribution, but high value and large consumption, it has always been one of the more scarce materials in the lunar base.

"With titanium, the strength of all our metal products can increase several times!"

"The smelting cost of high-purity titanium must be very low, and now we don't need to purchase titanium from the earth!"

There are even employees who are calculating whether to persuade the trade department to find a way to trade titanium on the earth, according to the cost of about 10 million yuan for a round trip, and then calculate the price of 50,000 yuan / ton of titanium, uh... It doesn't seem like there's going to be any money.

The employee's face was suddenly extremely disappointed: "Do you have to find rare metals such as gold, iridium, platinum, or super-heavy elements to trade?" ”

Another employee comforted: "Don't worry, the moon is so big, we still have a lot of opportunities, and we will definitely be able to find something worth trading." ”