I spent two evenings with one of the goblins who could read and write in dwarvish going through Konkur's notes thoroughly. I'm glad I did, because it did inform my decision about whether to close the existing mine or keep working it once yields are reduced. In those notes, he said that the deposit we found would be considered a small deposit, and he expects that there are probably between a few dozen to a few hundred of approximately that size on this island alone, though most of them are likely buried very deep underground. In fact, he suspects we'd find many high-quality deposits if we dug deep enough, though the labor would be intensive and limiting in our current state to find them.
He also expects there are quite a few larger deposits on the island than the one we're currently mining. The larger the deposit, according to Konkur, the more pure the maximum quality of ore that it tends to yield. With that information in mind, I'm leaning towards starting more exploratory mining tunnels after this particular mine's yield drops. If we get desperate for metal in the future, we can always return to extracting the low quality ore from our current deposit, but we won't find much more quartz doing that, which is another reason to find a new deposit.
There were notes on processing many different kinds of ore, such as the galena and sphalerite we found, which means I can probably fast track those ores to be smelted. In fact, since all of these are sulfur based ores, I should consider building the smelting facility for these ores in the neighboring craggy terrain, downwind from the city. Both of these ores, and likely the pyrite, will need to be roasted as part of their smelting process, which converts the sulfides of the metals into oxides, and gives off sulfur dioxide gas.
I'd personally like to modify the process a little to try to capture some of that sulfur dioxide to convert it into sulfuric acid. Though that would be a whole process in and of itself. Using an older lead chamber method for sulfuric acid production would require that we have a decent source of ammonia before we can proceed with producing sulfuric acid. Though I can at least build the ore roasting chambers with the idea of recovering the gases kept in mind for future expansion.
Alternatively, instead of using ammonia, we could use the niter we've been slowly producing, though that would mean we won't be stockpiling any more ammunition. If I had to choose between more artillery rounds, or sulfuric acid, for now I'd choose artillery rounds. Eventually, I'd even choose rifles over sulfuric acid produced in this way. I'd much rather build out the hydroelectric facility at our dam, and use that to electrolyze hydrogen and produce ammonia with the Haber process when it comes to that.
Regardless, that's a project for the future. While we could use the sulfuric acid to improve and change a lot of our existing production methods for materials, all those improvements require we have other materials that don't break down under sulfuric acid exposure. So, first we need to actually acquire those materials, like lead.
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I told Karsh about my plan for a new facility for smelting these ores, and he gave me a funny look. Ultimately, it seems like dwarves, and possibly everyone, doesn't really see a concern with just smelting sulfur based ores in a city, other than the smell that it produces being somewhat noxious. I won't stand for it though. The off gas we're producing is the exact same one that I used to chemically attack Rathland's soldiers, so I know first hand that long term exposure is quite bad for you.
So, despite Karsh's insistence that we could just add a roasting component to the smeltery area in the city, I've started building it beyond the lab area, in the craggy terrain on that part of the island. Given how remote it is from the city, I plan on moving the temporary crystal to the lab area during this upcoming spring, so I can progress quicker than I currently am in building this facility.
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Roasting ore, besides releasing sulfur dioxide, often frees other toxic materials, such as arsenic. Which is another reason I've chosen this part of the craggy terrain to build. Basically, the whole area is going to become somewhat toxic as a result of the ore roasting process, so I want it to be in a different watershed than our valley. Even if I reinforce the floor with compressed lightstone, those toxins are going to leech into the ground eventually. So, the hope is that by building it far enough from the city, and a moderate distance from the ocean, that we'll let it slowly leech into the ocean water, and that'll reduce the concentration enough over time that it won't be an issue. Though I might need to decommission the well near the lab if things get bad...
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I had to stop my work temporarily as winter arrived. Today, we gave Shasta the new crystal for Kao, and had an interesting discussion with her after formalities were taken care of. First, it sounds like more dwarven warlords are interested in the next auction. They're already building a larger arena on Kao's island to handle the next auction. Shasta said that while Kao is probably currently a little upset about the extra work they're putting into the auction again, this new crystal more than makes up for the difference, and she doubts there is any actual ill will. Most of the warlords don't like meeting up with each other, as they're generally rivals and most of them don't like all the formalities involved, so it's more of a disdain for the individuals rather than the event itself.
The second piece of info she gave us was quite interesting. Many of the coastal regions facing the ocean and these islands have noticed a distinct lack of any leviathan sightings in the last two years. Normally, there would be a few sightings a year from coastal areas. The northern side of the dwarven continent hasn't noticed any change, and still spots them year round, but the lower portion of the continent, closer to us hasn't seen them. Shasta looked into the matter more, and it seems like winter sightings stopped shortly before contact was made with us, but there had been winter sightings before that.
While people aren't willing to risk it just yet, Shasta suspects that year-round travel might be possible now. The timing does seem to line up with when we started using two additional crystals on our island, the one by the dam, and the one in the temporary bathhouse. Given the extra evidence that removing our singular crystal during the war with Rathland seems to have returned the leviathans to the ocean between the mainland and here even during winter, the evidence that for some reason the crystals on our island seem to be influencing the leviathans' territorial waters seems strong.
That being the case, we should probably consider having a year-round military presence on our island, to prevent an ambush from occurring. Part of the reason the war with Rathland went as well as it did was because the enemy's arrival was predictable thanks to the threat of leviathans. Regardless of whether merchants want to take on that risk, militaries might be willing to, so we should be prepared. Since our population has been steadily increasing though, we should be able to spare a few individuals to work at a small standing military force. As long as we keep people stationed in the artillery bunkers and one of the spotting camps on the mountain, then we'll at least be able to have an early warning and do some damage to any would-be invaders.
Third, it sounds like Goppok Kanaga's territory had impressive crop yields last year, which is probably why so many more warlords are interested in the next auction. I'm hoping he has two more very good years, so that the price the crystal fetches goes up considerably. Though, given the number of participating warlords, I'm probably going to need to hold back more of our salt and paper that we would normally trade, since I'll want to give them as gifts again. Considering how much dwarven currency we got from the last auction, I'm not concerned about cutting our traded goods output affecting our purchasing power any longer.
Considering all the info I gained from our conversation, I'm quite pleased with how everything has gone in the past year. We didn't have any new migrants still, but I'd bet that we'll start to get some applicants in the near future if we continue to have these sorts of good reports about us floating in.