Since future mining operations are to be scaled and formalized, it certainly won't continue as it is now, with only a few miners at each site and no proper dormitories.
These 600 Clones then drove tractors, loaded with large quantities of materials and tools, and aggressively headed to the three mining sites.
First, temporary dormitories and a temporary kitchen were set up, and then the special cement transported from the Main Base arrived.
Before long, a building covering an area of over 300 square meters, capable of housing 200 people, and including water treatment facilities, power kitchen facilities, and dormitory areas, was completed.
From this moment on, the Clones participating in the construction work finally no longer had to live in temporary dormitories.
In this formal dormitory, they could rest, eat, and drink water comfortably and conveniently.
After that, a large number of machines were assembled.
Crushers, thermal cutting tools, mine carts, digging buckets, cranes, hoisting machines, rail connectors, and so on, were all built.
At this oxygen ore collection point, Tom left 180 Clones. Among them, 10 were responsible for logistics, and 170 Clones all became miners.
Unlike the previous extensive mining. These miners now also implemented a formalized, process-oriented mining operation mode.
Specialized miners would use thermal cutting machines to extract large pieces of solid oxygen, which would then be lifted by specialized transport personnel into trailers, transported to the primary screening workshop to remove larger impurities, then to the primary processing workshop to process them into appropriate sizes, and finally, hoisting machines would lift the packaged oxygen onto trains for transport.
Under this whole set of formalized procedures, the efficiency of oxygen ore mining immediately increased by more than tenfold compared to before, and production capacity greatly increased.
The same was true for the other two sub-bases: the iron ore base and the thorin ore base.
When the railway was finally built, the three sub-bases were also put into use simultaneously.
Also completed at the same time was the new power plant located in the Main Base's energy industrial zone.
This power plant uses more advanced power generation technology, reducing the fuel required to generate one kilowatt-hour of electricity by more than 5% compared to before, and operates more stably.
For this power plant, Tom, combining his previous experience and technology in manufacturing generators, specifically developed six large generators with an installed capacity of two thousand kilowatts.
Thus, if running at full power, this power plant could generate 12,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per hour, which is 288,000 kilowatt-hours per day!
A total installed capacity of merely 12,000 kilowatts is insignificant on Earth, even considered obsolete and backward production capacity.
After all, at this stage, power plants on Earth generally have single generators with capacities of over 1 million kilowatts.
That is, one generator can produce 1 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per hour, which is several times more than the total daily power generation of these six generators.
But for Tom at this moment, this power plant already made him very satisfied.
Besides the power needs of the Steel Plant, it could even support all the power needs of the total of four bases Tom currently owned!
Whether it was the lighting in the planting base, the water pumps in the animal husbandry base, the electric trains on the railway, or the kitchen electricity in the sub-bases, all could be supplied by this power plant.
Three of these six generators were specifically for the Steel Plant's needs, two were for other factories and daily needs, and the last one was kept by Tom as mobile power, to be adjusted as needed.
Now, the railway has been laid, the sub-bases are completed, and the power plant is completed.
Tom was filled with joy: "This Steel Plant can finally operate at full capacity…"
Thus, with the Main Base as the center, a total of four bases presented a bustling scene.
Train after train sped back and forth on the tracks, continuously transporting large quantities of ore back to the Main Base.
At the sub-bases, the rested Clones, wearing spacesuits, left the dormitory area, then drove fully charged vehicles from the charging area, heading to the mining sites.
Miners who had been busy for over ten hours drove their vehicles back to the charging area, charged them, and then returned to the dormitory area for a quick wash, where hot meals were served.
After feasting, they rested briefly, then went to the dormitory to sleep.
At the "dock," dozens of Clones operated various machines, hoisting the pre-processed minerals, car by car, onto the train. Once 30 carriages were full, accompanied by the supply of surging electricity and a slight trembling of the earth, the heavy-duty train, with a total mass of over a thousand tons, roared towards the distant darkness.
Upon arriving at the canyon where the Main Base was located, at the dock there, a complete set of mechanized equipment also hoisted these materials down.
Iron ore and various materials needed for steelmaking were transported to the Steel Plant, while oxygen ore and tolin ore were transported to the power plant.
The six generators hummed dully, producing a large amount of electricity. At the Steel Plant, various workshops coordinated in an orderly manner, and large quantities of ore were finally transformed into steel ingots or steel plates, which were transported to the warehouse for temporary storage.
Vehicles from other places converged here like ants, transporting steel ingots and rolls of steel plates, like nutrients, to the construction sites of other factories, and so other factories also began to spring up like mushrooms after rain.
With a sufficient supply of steel, Tom could finally act without restraint.
The first factory built was the battery factory that Tom had longed for.
With the strong support of the chemical industry, this battery factory, also built formally, could produce 10 large-capacity battery packs on average every day, which were then supplied to the machinery factory.
The machinery factory has not yet undergone detailed division of labor; at this stage, whether it's tractors, mine carts, bulldozers, or excavators, they are all produced here.
With enough steel, it also began to operate at full capacity, producing an average of 10 mechanical vehicles per day.
After that, came the planting base and breeding base, and so on.
As the population grew and food demand increased, Tom also adopted a detailed strategy for agricultural facilities.
He built a total of 10 agricultural centers, one specializing in wheat, another in corn, and then soybeans, vegetables, and so on.
In addition, there was a poultry center, specializing in raising chickens, ducks, and geese, producing both meat and eggs, and an animal husbandry center, raising pigs, cattle, and sheep, as well as an aquatic product center, specializing in fish farming.
But none of these factories were what Tom valued most.
What Tom valued most was a factory located at the very core of the base.
The Clone Cultivation Factory!