K. We've got no choice!"
"Loring, wait a minute!" objected Mason. "One twentieth! Why, that could
add up to a million credits!"
Shinny's eyes opened wide. "Twenty million! Hey, there hasn't been a
uranium strike that big since the old seventeenth moon of Jupiter back
in 2294!"
Loring motioned to them to sit down at a table. He ordered a bottle of
rocket juice and filled three glasses.
"This ain't uranium, _Mr._ Shinny!" he said.
Shinny's eyes opened wider still. "What then?"
"What's the most precious metal in the system today?" Loring asked.
"Why--gold, I guess."
"Next to gold?"
Shinny thought for a moment. "Couldn't be silver any more, since
they're making the artificial stuff cheaper'n it costs to mine it." The
little man's jaw dropped and he stared at Loring. "You mean--?"
"That's right," said Loring, "copper!"
Shinny's mind raced. In this year of 2353, all major copper deposits had
long since been exhausted and only small new deposits were being found,
not nearly enough for the needs of the expanding system. In an age of
electronics, lack of copper had become a serious bottleneck in the
production of electrical and scientific equipment.
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