Even though the letter of intent signed between Ziqiong City and Ma Ning is just a one-time transaction.

It can be considered the first strategic trade agreement signed by the rabbits in the Damo Realm to date.

Previously, whether it was Ma Yinglong hemorrhoid ointment, beast-taming techniques, or Happy Stick transactions, they were all overshadowed by this contract.

Even the long-term Happy Stick transaction involving tens of thousands of Spirit Stones, fundamentally speaking, wasn't irreplaceable.

Without mentioning the mining of Spirit Stone veins, just the rabbit's ice vault filled with beast carcasses could sell for a heap of Spirit Stones—not discussing the research losses from selling them, at least when they reach desperation, these things can be exchanged for many Spirit Stones.

To put it plainly, without the Happy Stick trade, the rabbits might progress slower but wouldn't collapse.

A high-paid executive earning ten thousand a month changes to a delivery driver earning seven thousand a month, the lifestyle quality gap is evident, yet struggling for a few years might not eliminate chances of a comeback, grinding through slowly is key.

But the Floating Array Technique is different.

Currently, it's an irreplaceable resource for the rabbits; without it, they genuinely don't know where else to find a finished product utilizing anti-gravity technology.

Of course.

Even the most important matter requires a transition period, so it's worthwhile to focus on other areas for now.

......

Four days after the contract signing, Sheepback City.

It has been exactly eight days since the rabbits took over the city, with less than 48 hours until the Mo Family's first seven days have passed.

In the past four days.

Just like the Fire Camp rushing through the early preparations for the Moon Landing Plan, numerous projects in Sheepback City haven't paused even for a moment.

For instance, right now, the Operations Department outside Sheepback City.

After capturing Sheepback City, it has been temporarily designated as the hub for handing over various affairs within Sheepback City.

"Long Brigade Commander, we're always in touch, take care on your way."

In the command tent, Lin Ziming had just seen off Longxing River, who came to hand over city security issues, when Lei Wenjun rushed over from a distance:

"Colonel Lin, the exploration results of the iron mine are out!"

Upon hearing this, Lin Ziming raised his eyebrows and quickly brought him into the temporarily erected command tent, pulled over a chair, and gestured for him to sit:

"Director Lei, take a moment to catch your breath, how's the scale of the iron mine?"

Lei Wenjun sat on the chair, panted lightly, brushed his unkempt lips with his rough hand, and said excitedly:

"Colonel Lin, good news, it's a medium-sized rich mine, much better than we originally expected!"

Hearing this, Lin Ziming was overjoyed, proactively handed him a bottle of Nongfu Spring, while asking:

"Director Lei, could you explain what...the concept of a medium-sized rich mine is?"

Lei Wenjun took the mineral water bottle, drank a big gulp, the refreshing mineral water sloshed in his stomach, promptly made him let out a satisfied 'ah'.

Afterwards, he capped the bottle, thought for a moment, and said:

"Colonel Lin, a medium-sized rich mine...is actually a compound term."

Saying this, he clenched both hands into fists, lightly bumped his right pinky knuckle against his left thumb, indicating these are two separate concepts:

"On the iron ore quality grade, we classify iron ore with over 50% iron content as rich ore, 35%-50% as low-grade ore, 25%-35% as poor ore, below 25% as ultra-poor ore.

About 97% of our domestic iron ore stands below 35% grade, belonging to low or ultra-poor ore.

Ore with an average iron grade around 55% that can be directly smelted represents only 2.7% of our current total reserves, thus making our iron ore reliant on imports from the kangaroo side.

According to our exploration, Sheepback City's iron mine is of extremely high quality, the average grade is roughly 67%, it's considered top-tier iron ore resource.

The best domestic Shilu iron mine's average grade is just 51.2%, the highest reaching 69%."

Then Lei Wenjun paused, confirmed Lin Ziming understood his meaning, continued:

"As for medium-sized iron mine, it refers to the comprehensive evaluation level of the mining capacity and annual output.

Based on our surveys, Sheepback City's iron mine total reserves are approximately 60 million tons, once mining equipment is fully set up, annual output should be around 2 million tons."

Lin Ziming nodded, he had learned about the concept of reserves over this period.

Five million tons of reserves, despite looking significant, isn't actually considered a large mine in the mining sector—this is evident in Lei Wenjun labeling it 'medium-sized'.

Given the density of the ore is so high, even a football-sized normal ore chunk weighs several kilos.

Currently, the number of Huaxia's iron mines with over a hundred million tons isn't fewer than a hundred, among which the Benxi iron mine in Liao Province has resources amounting to 3 billion tons, with forecasts exceeding 7 billion tons.

Leaving aside the regional distribution, if we average the numbers, every province in Huaxia could have about three hundred-million-ton iron mines.

So even if the ore quality of Sheepback City's iron mine is high, frankly speaking, it's still on the scale of a provincial iron mine.

After understanding the relevant data, Lin Ziming, a mathematics flunky, started huffing and puffing as he estimated the steel output, opening with a phrase that would make any math teacher die with regrets: rounding off.

"Annual output of 2 million tons, two hundred divided by three hundred sixty-five... too cumbersome, let's round it to four hundred days.

That's roughly a little more than 5,000 tons per day.

According to an iron content of 67%, it seems you could smelt more than 3,000 tons of iron per day?"

However, to his surprise, Lei Wenjun shook his head resolutely:

"Colonel Lin, if you want to produce refined iron, it's impossible to get 670 kilograms of product from one ton of 67% iron ore.

Because there will still be a lot of iron left in the slag that cannot be completely extracted, and when we talk about the 67% grade, it refers to the iron content in the ore on a dry basis, moisture content is calculated separately.

The specific iron yield in factory production depends on the yield rate, to be conservative..... the iron ore can yield about 2,800 tons of iron per day."

Lin Ziming responded with an 'oh' as if he understood, then suddenly thought of something, went back to his seat, and pulled up a document.

The title of the document was "Fire Camp Phase Three Material Consumption Budget (Second Edited Version)."

Lin Ziming opened the document, scrolled down to a particular column, and murmured:

"The second phase of the Life Experiment Base plans to consume an average of 337 tons daily... the military base's non-military production phase plans to consume 164 tons daily... Chixian City plans to consume 709 tons daily... adding the coal mine and Sheepback City here... it seems barely enough?"

This estimate of steel usage by the command center is not a random, false document, but a reasonable number calculated with much time and hair.

Take Chixian City's planned daily consumption of 709 tons/day as an example, how was this figure calculated?

This brings up the concept of:

Per capita iron accumulation.

The per capita iron accumulation is a representative indicator of industrialization and urbanization of a country or region, tracked and researched long-term by any country.

What does this mean?

To put it plainly, it's how much iron is in all your possessions annually.

For example, if a car uses 1 ton of iron, and a square meter of reinforced concrete housing requires an average of 60 kilograms of steel rebar, if you have both a house and a car, this index increases.

Of course, in actual statistical calculations, the per capita share of state-owned public steel equipment will also be included.

From the perspective of per capita iron accumulation, the Eagle reached the peak iron accumulation at 8.8 tons per capita, Neon's per capita accumulation stabilized at around 10.5 tons, while Thief Country reached 9.5 tons per capita upon completing industrialization, Bald Country... erm, John Bull was at 7.6 tons.

Overall, to complete industrialization, a country's per capita iron accumulation needs to reach 8 to 10 tons.

Once this peak is reached, the value of iron ore drops – because steel is recyclable and developed countries use mainly scrap steel.

Our current per capita iron accumulation is a little over 8 tons, and it is expected that complete industrialization will be achieved by 2027.

This is also why some say the kangaroo won't be hopping for many years — currently, their biggest constraint on us is iron ore, and once we complete industrialization, the punch combination will hit directly.

So don't really think those official media are making empty threats to diminish others, we truly have this capability, it's just a matter of waiting a few years.

It is based on this baseline extended to the accumulation-development function that the core layer ultimately set the daily steel consumption of Chixian City at 709 tons.

After all, the infrastructure of Chixian City can be said to be starting from scratch, so the daily steel consumption could never be a small number.

If Sheepback City's iron mine can achieve a daily iron ore output of over 5,000 tons.

Then under the currently extremely optimized production rates achieved by the Rabbits, the refined steel is entirely sufficient for the development of the current regions, even with a slight surplus.

The iron mine in Sheepback City is a standard open-pit mine, with very low extraction difficulty – the Mo Family has already prepared the work face in advance, and the Rabbits just need to continue working on it.

Additionally, the military base already has military assembly capabilities, leaving some to assemble civilian steelmaking equipment is no hassle, merely using a couple more hydraulic presses.

Therefore, achieving the target of a daily 5,000-ton output is not difficult, especially when compared to that little brother coal mine.

If the coal mine's progress is like a monthly-updated novel writer, then this iron mine is like a 20,000-word daily-updater, churning out a million-word novel in minutes.

And if the iron mine can achieve such daily production, it also means that domestic operations can free up more Bright Portal capacity.

At that point, whether it's using this capacity to transport other materials to the Damo Realm or to bring back the spiritual energy from the Damo Realm, it would merely be a logistical issue.

This is extremely good news, so Lin Ziming quickly reported it to the command center.

And shortly after he reported the relevant matters, news also came from the Mo Family Manor:

The underground tunnel has been drilled to within two meters of the secret chamber and is ready to break in at any time!

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