Emperor: Ministry Tabs/ Industry/ Iron Smelter

## Desirability

D8 thru DX undesirability will "jump over"
Residential/Military Wall blocking effect

### Products & Usage:

Iron's only use is Weapons production during the Iron Age. Alternately, excess production might be sold or used as  Homage, though Weapons are more valuable.

Iron Smelter require Inspector service. It can be damaged/destroyed by nearby Fires, Floods, Military attack and Earthquake.

### Placement info

Iron Smelter prefer ore, grass & rocky areas, dislike trees & dirt. Click the Infobox Feng Shui link for more information.

There should be 4 accessible Iron Ore Deposits within 20 Cross-Country walking tiles of the Iron Smelter's spawn point. The ratio of 4:1 is ideal, but 3:1 will work if the Iron Ore is closer. The reason 4:1 works best is due to the Miners not releasing their last visited Deposit until they get a new assignment after re-spawning. Thus, they will never return to their last Deposit. This means that 1 Miner will head for the 4th Deposit every other rotation. If that Deposit is on the opposite side of the Map then production may be reduced to 7 Iron/year. Ensuring that 3 of the 4 Deposits are within 15 Cross-Country walking tiles is usually enough compensation.

### Production info

Given full employment and a steady supply of Iron Ore; will produce 1 load of Iron Bars in 1 month +4days(10.66 Iron/year). To ensure full employment set Industry to a high priority in the Industry Dialog(Hotkey[3] pressed twice).

### Distribution info

There is only one Deliveryman for each Smelter. Ensure the Deliveryman is able to deliver the product and return within 1 months. About 28 road tiles maximum one way, or 56 road tiles total distance.
A *Disconnected Industrial Block* may be used, see Infobox **Consumers** for details.

### Metal Age transition note

Iron or Steel may replace Bronze for Weapons if designer so sets up the mission continuations to allow the later Commodity. Sometimes if missions are played through the transition years, there is a chance of the commodity/structure change given mission setup parameters.

Bronze Smelter for Bronzeware production can coexist with Iron Smelter Weapons production until Lacquer/Lacquerware becomes available. After the Lacquerware transition it is best to delete or set the Bronze Smelters to **Not Working**, unless a trade city can buy your Bronze. Alternately, using the Bronze for  Homage may be advantageous.

Steel availability will remove both Bronze and Iron Commodities; Smelters disappearing at the start of a continuation mission. Iron Smelters sometimes transition into Steel Furnaces requiring Wood to be productive.

### Right Click Dialog

The dialog can be accessed by Right Clicking the Iron Smelter graphics in the City View Map area. Useful information is contained here.

* Amount of Raw Material available for processing (0units to 400units)
* Percentage complete of the current processing.
* Current number of Employees(# needed) & the **Working/Not Working** button.
	+ The Button can be used to micromanage employment. When initially placed the Smelter can be turned off after the 3 Miners are spawned. No sense in wasting employment since there isn't any raw material to process, yet. Just remember to turn it ON later to start producing Iron Bars.

## Miner

The Smelter issues Miners based on storage's 'potential fill'. At 200units of ore, only 2 Miners will be allowed on the Map, since a third would overfill the limit of 400units. At 275units of ore, only one Miner will be allowed. At 350units, no Miners will be spawned until the production cycle completes. The numbers used are examples, within a larger range possible, to inform players why a Smelter is delaying the spawning of Miners, until after a production cycle completes.

## Iron Deposit & Ore

### Consumers:

Iron Smelter, Steel Furnace

The *Resource* of Iron Deposits can be mined by Miners from the Iron Smelter. The produced *Raw Material* of Iron Ore is then stored at their facility until it can be processed into a Commodity of Value. Neither the Deposit nor the Ore has any intrinsic Value until their potential can be realized through the refining process.

There are 5 Deposits shown in the image. Only 4 are accessible. The 5th has all 4 sides blocked, thus the miners are unable to reach the deposit.