Io Scandium Works

Io Scandium Works was founded in 2179 to mine the volcanic crust of Io, the most hostile body anyone in the guild works on. Its target is scandium, prized for light aluminium alloys used in ship frames, together with vanadium for battery and steel production.

The company operates two Corehound Deep Core Drills, one Thumper Seismic Mapper and one Sieve Ore-Sorting Rig, a fleet worth about 41.9 million credits. Every machine has been fitted with extra radiation shielding at Rheasilvia Toolworks. Crews drill and sort ore from the sulfur-silicate crust at the Loki Patera margin, where claim FV-0703 grades 160 g/t scandium and 900 g/t vanadium at depths of 2 to 35 metres.

Because of Jupiter's radiation belts, crews work strict eleven-day rotations set by Radiation Safety Officer Sora Lindgren, who is based at the Io camp. Drill Master Bastien Kowalczyk trained the company's first drilling crews. Concentrate and crew are lifted to orbit by Wren Microlifter and transferred to a Nimbus Gas Skimmer for the run out of the radiation zone.