EM Holmium Charging
This mod adds a parallel solid-state processing chain where holmium never enters a fluid state. Quality propagates from ore to powder to charged matrix to plate — fully intact at every stage.
Iron plates serve as reusable electromagnetic ion-exchange carriers: they get loaded with holmium ions in an Electromagnetic Plant and thermally stripped in a Foundry, recovering both the holmium plate and the iron carrier. The iron loops back indefinitely once seeded.
All vanilla holmium recipes remain completely untouched. The existing Holmium Solution path continues to work as before for non-quality-sensitive use cases.
Processing Chain
Stage 1 — Holmium Pulverizing
Mechanically crush holmium ore into fine powder to increase surface area for ion exchange.
- Building: Assembler or Crusher (with Crushing Industry Mod enabled)
- Recipe: 1 Holmium Ore → 8 Holmium Powder
Stage 2 — Ion-Exchange Loading
Load holmium ions onto iron plates using sulfuric acid and lubricant as carrier medium inside an electromagnetic field.
- Building: Electromagnetic Plant
- Recipe: 3 Holmium Powder + 2 Iron Plate + 3 Sulfuric Acid + 20 Lubricant → 2 Charged Iron Matrix
- Effective output: ~3 Charged Iron Matrix per craft (due to EM Plant productivity)
Stage 3 — Electromagnetic Stripping
Thermally strip holmium from the charged matrix in a foundry, recovering both the holmium plate and the iron carrier for reuse.
- Building: Foundry
- Recipe: 3 Charged Iron Matrix + 5 Heavy Oil → 1 Holmium Plate + 2 Iron Plate
- Iron output is not affected by productivity — the iron carrier is recovered as-is
Ratios
- 1 Holmium Ore → ~2.67 Holmium Plates (slightly above vanilla's 2.5, as an incentive for the more complex chain)
- Iron Plate consumption: zero — iron cycles between Stage 2 and Stage 3 as a reusable carrier
- Net cost per plate: ~1.1 Sulfuric Acid, ~7.5 Lubricant, ~1.9 Heavy Oil, no iron
Iron Loop
The two iron plates fed into Stage 2 are fully recovered in Stage 3. Over a full productivity cycle (2 loading crafts + 1 bonus craft → 2 stripping crafts), 4 iron plates enter and 4 iron plates return. No iron is created or consumed.
You will need to seed approximately 6–8 iron plates per Electromagnetic Plant as initial working stock. After that, the loop is self-sustaining.
Quality note: Since iron plates are a solid input in Stage 2, they must match the quality level of the holmium powder. To produce quality holmium plates, you need to upgrade the iron in your loop once to the target quality tier. After that, the iron circulates at that quality level indefinitely.
Cost Comparison to Vanilla
| Vanilla (per ore) | EM Holmium Charging (per ore) | |
|---|---|---|
| Stone | 0.5 | — |
| Water | 5 | — |
| Sulfuric Acid | — | ~2.67 |
| Lubricant | — | ~17.8 |
| Heavy Oil | — | ~4.4 |
| Iron Plate | — | 0 (catalytic) |
| Plates out | 2.5 | ~2.67 |
| Quality preserved | No | Yes |
On Fulgora, lubricant and heavy oil are effectively free. Sulfuric acid is the only meaningful cost, requiring oil cracking and iron plates to produce.
Technology
Solid-State Holmium Refining unlocks all three recipes.
- Prerequisites: Electromagnetic Science Pack, Sulfur Processing
- Cost: 500 packs (Automation + Logistic + Chemical + Pruduction + Electromagnetic)
Compatibility
Mod Compat with Crushing Industry.
Note: The Holmium ore-to-powder ratio has changed from 1 ore -> 1 powder to 1 ore -> 8 powder. The Holmium solution recipe has been adjusted accordingly, from 2 (3) powder to 16 powder. However, the total cost of Holmium ore remains the same as in vanilla.
Credits
Mod concept & design by Morlot.
Only the icons were made with Google Gemini AI.