SCME Development Plan

PoC v1 · planning

SCME — Selective Mineral Extraction

Point, extract, sort: the end-state is a laser/plasma head that ablates rock and routes the recovered material, element-by-element, into labeled collection bins.

The working chain: a klystron or other high-voltage source vaporizes the uppermost layer of ore; high-powered electromagnetic fields capture the plasma and sort it into four weight classes while it is still hot — the sort happens in-flight, in microseconds; a spectrometer then tests each container to track exactly what landed inside.

Concept whitepaper (PDF) →

Laser/plasma mining-and-sorting machine routing fractions into separate element-labeled containers
Vision / concept render — target hardware, not an existing build.

From vision to bench

The bench starts with a pulsed HV arc and steps toward the klystron: the same vaporize → capture → mass-sort chain at survivable power. Sorting by mass while the plasma is hot is the hard, load-bearing claim — the window before recombination is microseconds to milliseconds. The per-container spectrometer audit is what bridges weight classes to the vision’s element bins: the manifest tells you which bag actually holds the Au.

Vision element bins

  • Au Gold
  • Cu Copper
  • R.E. Rare Earth
  • Ag Silver
  • W Waste / Dark

In-flight weight classes

  • W1 · Light ≤ ~30 amu (O, Na, Mg, Al, Si)
  • W2 · Mid-light ~30–70 amu (Ca, Ti, Fe, Cu)
  • W3 · Mid-heavy ~70–150 amu (Ag, light R.E.)
  • W4 · Heavy ≥ ~150 amu (W, Au, Pb)
Safety baseline: all vaporization happens inside a sealed, interlocked, shielded chamber with fume extraction through HEPA/carbon filtration. HV supplies are current-limited and kill on lid open; any RF stage (magnetron/klystron) runs behind waveguide containment with leakage monitoring at the operator position.

P1

Planned

HV Vaporization Source Bench

Characterize a high-voltage vaporization source — pulsed HV arc first, magnetron RF next, klystron as the target upgrade — that strips the uppermost layer of an ore coupon into vapor/plasma inside a sealed chamber.

Validates the “vaporize the upper-most layer” step: controlled surface-only removal with measurable plasma production per shot.

P1 — HV Vaporization Source Bench

Schematic

Design Focus

  • Start with a current-limited pulsed HV arc (cheap, well understood); reserve a waveguide flange so a magnetron→klystron RF path bolts on later.
  • Dose energy for µm-scale surface-layer removal per shot — never bulk cracking.
  • Log plume luminosity duration per shot — it sets the sorting time budget for P2/P3.

BoM (Core)

  • 1x pulsed HV supply (current-limited) + electrode head
  • 1x sealed chamber with quartz viewport, witness plates, waveguide flange (blanked)
  • 1x photodiode + fast oscilloscope for plume timing
  • 1x HEPA/carbon extraction stack, lid interlock, RF leakage meter

Test Setup

  • Fire 20-shot series per ore type at 3 energy settings.
  • Weigh coupons before/after; profile crater depth per shot.
  • Record plume luminosity duration distribution.

Acceptance Criteria (target)

  • Repeatable surface-layer removal: ablated mass per shot within ±20% across a series.
  • Measurable luminous plume on ≥90% of shots at the chosen setting.
  • Zero HV/RF leakage above safety limits at the operator position.

Open Questions / Risks

  • What ionization fraction does arc/RF heating actually produce in rock vapor — plasma, or mostly neutral gas?
  • Is a klystron obtainable/affordable at PoC power levels, or does the magnetron path carry further than expected?

P2

Planned

Plasma Capture Channel

Catch the expanding hot plume with electromagnetic fields and guide it into a separation channel before it cools and recombines.

Validates “capture the plasma while it’s still hot” — transport inside the microsecond-to-millisecond window before recombination.

P2 — Plasma Capture Channel

Schematic

Design Focus

  • DC guide coils plus biased extraction electrodes; treat timing as the core dataset of the period.
  • Map transported charge vs delay after the shot and vs field strength.
  • Option: argon backfill at reduced pressure to slow recombination.

BoM (Core)

  • 1x guide coil set + DC supplies, extraction electrode stack + HV bias
  • 2x Faraday cups + charge amplifier
  • 1x timing controller synced to the P1 shot trigger
  • 1x backfill gas line + pressure gauge

Test Setup

  • Measure ion current at channel exit vs time delay after shot.
  • Sweep field strength; record transported charge fraction.
  • Control runs with fields off to isolate ballistic transport.

Acceptance Criteria (target)

  • Measurable ion current at the channel exit, synced to the shot.
  • Transported charge fraction ≥10% of plume charge at the best setting.
  • Field-on vs field-off exit current contrast ≥10×.

Open Questions / Risks

  • How long does rock plasma stay ionized at these densities — is the usable window µs or ms?
  • How much material leaves as neutrals that no field can steer?

P3

Planned

In-Flight Weight-Class Sorter

Split the guided ion stream into the four weight classes with crossed E×B / sector fields while the plasma is still hot — the sort happens in one transit.

Validates “sort to 4 weight classes very fast”: mass dispersion into discrete channels within the P2 time window.

P3 — In-Flight Weight-Class Sorter

Schematic

Design Focus

  • Sector-style mass dispersion; aperture geometry sets the class boundaries.
  • Calibrate with single-element coupons (Al, Fe, Ag, W) before any real ore.
  • Publish a class-crosstalk matrix per configuration — no silent missorting.

BoM (Core)

  • 1x separation magnet (or coil pair) + HV deflection plates
  • 1x four-aperture exit manifold + insulated collector plates
  • 4x charge integrators (one per class plate)
  • 1x single-element calibration coupon set (Al, Fe, Ag, W)

Test Setup

  • Single-element shots: verify which aperture collects the charge.
  • Binary-mixture shots: measure split between the two expected classes.
  • Build the full 4×4 crosstalk matrix across the operating window.

Acceptance Criteria (target)

  • Single-element shots land ≥70% of collected charge in the correct class.
  • Mass ordering is monotonic across W1→W4 for the calibration set.
  • Crosstalk matrix measured and documented for the frozen configuration.

Open Questions / Risks

  • Does the ablation ions’ velocity spread blur the mass separation — is a velocity-filter stage required?
  • Where does space-charge blowup cap throughput?

P4

Planned

Class Containers and Condensation Capture

Turn collector plates into swappable sealed containers — the “bags” — where each weight class condenses and accumulates run over run.

Validates that sorted plasma becomes weighable, sealable material per class, with known cross-contamination.

P4 — Class Containers and Condensation Capture

Schematic

Design Focus

  • Cooled liner surfaces condense the vapor fast; the removable liner is the bag, sealed on removal.
  • Every container gets a run-manifest ID at sealing time — weighed, labeled, logged.
  • Blank-liner swaps in adjacent positions quantify cross-contamination.

BoM (Core)

  • 4x removable liner containers + seals
  • 1x cooling loop (TEC or water) for the liner stations
  • 1x precision scale (mg resolution)
  • 1x label printer + manifest logging setup

Test Setup

  • Multi-shot accumulation runs (100+ shots) per configuration.
  • Weigh deposit per container; compare against P3 charge integrals.
  • Blank-liner runs to measure adjacent-class contamination.

Acceptance Criteria (target)

  • Measurable deposit in the correct container after a 100-shot run.
  • Adjacent blank liners collect <5% of the active liner’s mass.
  • Container swap-and-seal under 2 minutes without opening the sort path.

Open Questions / Risks

  • Do reactive condensates (oxides) change composition between plasma and bag?
  • What fraction of ablated input mass is actually recovered across the four bags?

P5

Planned

Per-Container Spectrometer Audit

Test each sealed container with a spectrometer to build a per-bag inventory of the atoms/molecules that actually landed inside.

Validates “have a spectrometer test each bag”: trust in the sort comes from measurement of every container, not from assumption.

P5 — Per-Container Spectrometer Audit

Schematic

Design Focus

  • Spark/LIBS emission directly on the liner deposit — no wet chemistry.
  • Manifest schema: run ID, class, detected elements, line intensities, estimated mass.
  • Cross-check physics: heavy elements must trend toward W3/W4 manifests.

BoM (Core)

  • 1x fiber-coupled CCD spectrometer + collimating optics
  • 1x spark/LIBS sampling head + container fixture
  • 1x reference deposit set from single-element runs
  • 1x manifest software + storage

Test Setup

  • Audit all four containers after every accumulation run.
  • Calibration-ore runs: compare manifests against known input composition.
  • Blind audit session: operator labels manifests without run identity.

Acceptance Criteria (target)

  • Dominant elements correctly identified per container in ≥85% of audits.
  • Measured composition ordering consistent with weight-class assignment.
  • Repeat audits of the same container agree within stated tolerance.

Open Questions / Risks

  • How badly do deposit thickness and matrix effects distort quantification?
  • Can the audit run near-real-time, or only as an offline batch step?

P6

Planned

PoC v1 Demonstration and Whitepaper

Freeze a reproducible configuration, run blind end-to-end demonstrations — ore in, four audited containers out — and publish the whitepaper.

Validates the full vaporize → capture → mass-sort → contain → audit chain: the minimum credible proof before scaling power toward a true klystron stage.

P6 — PoC v1 Demonstration and Whitepaper

Schematic

Design Focus

  • Freeze layout, field settings, timings, and manifest schema as v1.
  • Pre-register pass/fail gates before the blind runs — no post-hoc criteria.
  • Whitepaper covers physics basis, configuration, results, failure modes, and the klystron upgrade path.

BoM (Core)

  • Integrated frame + HV/RF shielding enclosure with documented part numbers
  • Verified P1–P5 modules with calibration records
  • Blind ore batches with sealed assay ground truth
  • Document pipeline producing the PDF whitepaper from the run data

Test Setup

  • Three demonstration days, ≥20-shot series each, blind ore batches.
  • Compare all four container manifests against sealed assays.
  • Log every failure mode: missed plume, lost capture, missort, audit miss.

Acceptance Criteria (target)

  • All four containers show the expected mass ordering on each demo day.
  • Manifests match ground-truth assays for dominant elements.
  • Whitepaper published with data, crosstalk matrices, and failure modes.

Open Questions / Risks

  • What is the energy cost per kg sorted — and does any bound make it economically sane?
  • What result would actually justify buying or renting a klystron?