Miriani

Meteoric Rise In Bardenium Prices As Mining Market Crumbles

After weeks of teetering at the brink of collapse, mining company stocks took an unprecedented turn for the worse, especially in the area of bardenium extraction and refinement. But this was not the only external sign of the troubles the mining sector has been having lately. It has been reported that re-arm dealerships have raised their prices dramatically in response to the growing weakness in the bardenium resupply market. Recent price checks have placed the increase to almost double the current cost.

Due to the continued persistance of pirates and general disinterest in the risk of asteroid hauling amongst civilian pilots, supplies of cardenium and bardenium have fallen to record lows. In order to maintain a positive profit margin, the Forty Sectors Mining Consortium, which holds a near-monopoly on the bardenium supplies market in conjunction with the Interstellar Shipbuilding Corporation, has increased the cost for all weapons grade bardenium sold to private pilots.

The impact of this change could have widespread repercussions for the alliance defense against the CTN and Praelor threats. Garrit Bradshaw, the head of the Forty Sectors Mining Consortium stated in a holovid interview this morning, "Look, we can only do so much. If [alliance private pilots] aren't going to bring us what we need, we're going to have to go get it ourselves. That means buying asteroid haulers. Buying hauling equipment. Hiring people to haul the asteroids. Buying warships to defend the haulers from those damn pirates, CTN and everything else. Hiring people to man those warships. And then we have our regular costs on top of that. We do what we have to do, and I don't care if [pilots] don't like it." It is noted that attacks on civilian asteroid haulers are often the result of marauding pilots. Mining corporations are exasperated at the alliances' refusal to intervene.

Sources in the board of directors of the FSMC point towards a one hundred and twenty-eight page document being circulated in the upper echelons of FSMC executives outlining their pricing strategies in the future. It is thought that the current increase in price was controversial within the company itself due to the possibility that sales of bardenium will decrease in favor of the use of energy weapons and the more economic regular-quality bardenium, but it seems that this price increase is part of a structured price increase which may decrease or increase with supply.

"We're not going to subsidize this anymore," Bradshaw said. "We're having trouble staying afloat as it is."

Dated: 08/19/2355