Spawners now rarely drop Kervran stones, which can be used in a chemical plant to transmute resources in a process similar to Kovarex enrichment (you get the stone back and can reuse it indefinitely).

Stone can be transmuted into iron ore, uranium ore, etc. Stone itself can be created from nothing. Water can be transmuted into crude oil. Modded resources should be supported as well, transmuting from stone or water.

The more Kervran stones you find, the more simultaneous transmutations you can run; each chemical plant performing transmutation produces the desired resource at roughly the same speed it can be mined.

Transmutation is intended as a nice occasional reward for clearing enemy nests, not as a full on industry.