The base can build airplanes, rockets, and even robots and tractors, but it really doesn't have a background in mining and metallurgy.
Although lunar laser smelting differs greatly from Earth's smelting processes, it still relies heavily on many traditional technologies and can't invent an entirely new ore smelting technique from scratch.
After finalizing the Moon Mining Base plan, New Yuan reached out to well-known domestic steel companies, such as TaiSteel and BaoSteel, to research how to smelt the needed steel and rare metals on the Moon in a simple and convenient way.
The laser smelting satellite, which can provide two to three times the extreme high temperatures of traditional smelting furnaces, indeed drastically reduces the use of chemical raw materials through absolute brute force, but the massive demand for water in metal smelting is unavoidable.