The Antarctic Continent is covered by a massive, multi-million years old Ice Sheet, with average thickness of 1.5 km, somewhere reaching more than 4km depth. A great part of the Antarctic Continent's bedrock surface is positioned under the sea level, with many subglacial lakes.

All economic activities (especially mining), are restricted till 2048 on the Antarctic Continent and all other territories beyond the 60th deg. parallel south, according to an ammendment to the Antarctic Treaty System's international agreement. The reason is Antarctic to remain clean and beautiful, as it is in the moment.

Our company Grainis ltd. Hydrogen Bulgaria invented a technology which could offer developing a large-scale zero-waste mining industry at Antarctica, without any change at all in its virgin look or clean and wild environment .

This technology is based on 14-year long work in our labs, on experiments for low-cost generation of hydrogen and hybrid-hydrogen fuels as the Stoichiometric Oxygen-Hydrogen (SOH) and Modified OH (MOH) Gas Compositions, produced out of water, by a special Low-Power Water Electrolysis (LPWE) method, at a cost, close to zero, producing zero harmful emissions - https://fuels.alle.bg .

This technology will give an opportunity for unlimited power and heat generation out of glacier or seawater, in freeze-cold regions on Earth, no matter how cold they are, for supplying various Ice-Melting and Rock-Melting Projects of gigantic magnitude, and creating comfortable and even luxury conditions for work and living of all the personnel.

Our technology offers the following :

- Building one or more Climate Domes, made of  Basalt-Fiber Composite (BFC) Assembly-Modular Elements - https://basalt.alle.bg , on the Antarctic Ice Sheet - https://dome.alle.bg ,

- Drilling out, under the Dome one or more 5m-diameter, 2,000m deep Elevator Shaft(s), with the help of hundreds of specially-designed ultrahigh-temperature (2,500 deg.C) flame SOH Gas Burners, down to the Bedrock base under the Ice Sheet ,

- The Elevator Shaft(s) must be cut off the ice in zones with zero-milimeter move of the Ice Sheet. Accordingly, preliminary standard or SOH-Gas Thermal Drillings (regular mechanical drills oftenly freeze and  stuck in the ice ) will be made, for measuring the local ice movement, 

- Full Elevator System with Rails, Ropes, Cables and Heated Cabin will be installed in the Shaft. 

- The Shaft Tube's Surface around the Elevator System will be kept in a continuous -5deg.C temperature condition, in order the ice tube to remain frozen.

- Excavating in insulating a large Work Hall in the ice sheet, at the bottom of the Shaft, on the Bedrock plot, and equipping it with a SOH GPP and a BFC Factory. A Cooler will keep the ambient temperature between the ice and the insulation strictly in the -5deg.C zone.

- Start of Drilling down the Bedrock with a system of many SOH Gas Burners, cutting-off Shafts and Mining Galleries. 

- SOH Gas Rock Drilling is 100% Dust-free, Detonation-free, Earthquake / Icequake-free, Non-Toxic, Safe and extremely Cheap.

- There will be a preliminary-control mechanical thin-auger drilling for detecting eventual Methane-gas or Petrol LEAKAGE.

- After ensuring there is no dangerous leakage in the range of the control drill, the SOH burners will be switched on for keeping on cutting the wide shaft and gallery.

- All the Basalt or else Rock (Ryolith, Andesite, Gabbro, etc.) Granule Waste will be transported to the BFC Factory for their processing into BFC Assembly-Modular Elements for building more BFC Factories down on the Bedrock Site and multiple Climate Domes up on the Ice Sheet surface. 

- The surplus Elements, if any, will be loaded in Containers and exported around the Globe.

- If other valuable mineral should be discovered during the drilling process, a new specific Factory will be delivered and built for processing the discovered mineral into final or semi-final concentrated raw materials or end products. 

- There will be a new Gas-Scrubber System installed for servicing this new processing, if any harmful emissions are being produced. The final by-products will be 100% drinkable water, breathable air and clean Rock Granules. 

- Basalt Rock is a 100% clean rock. All the harmful substances content has been incinerated and escaped during the ultra-thermal volcanic processes happen about 100 million years ago, forming the todays basalt rock plates.

Here is a tentative schemating picture, explaining the process :

There will be one or more Evacuation/Rescue Capsules, made out of extremely strong and thermally-insulating BFC modules, assembled at the bottom of the Shaft, for emergency rescue situations, for example Earthquakes, Landslides, etc., followed by Ice Movement and Damage, or full Destruction of the Elevetor Shaft. 

These Capsules will be used both for Personnel's Evacuation and for Rescue Movement across the Ice Sheet upwards to the surface. 

The Standalone Rescue Capsule will be a Sphere, equipped with its own, small, SOH Gas Generator inside, producing unlimited quantities of gas, power and heat, out of molten ice. This gas will be used for melting into hot water, or cutting the ice into blocks, by many Ultrahot, 2m-Long Flames, produced by SOH-Gas Burners , thus opening a vertical way for the Capsule to easily move upwards, by a special technology,  to the Ice Sheet's Surface, without any extraneous help. 

Capsules will be also equipped with powerful, long-distance Lazer Devices producing directional Lazer Beams for choosing the exact direction for the Capsule's route across the ice, and also for signalizing the people on the surface above, where the Capsule is located. 

Capsule's 3D-Movement and precise direction will be effected by several computer-controlled push / support Pistons, which activity will be fully complied with the data given by the Laser Beam device. 

Wider (~5cm) holes, smelted in the ice by the lasers, could be also used for dropping communication cables, antennas, etc. narrow-diameter things up and down through them.

The Elevator Cabin itself will be built as a kind of such a Sphere/Capsule, as an eventual rescue option in case of emergency.

Both Rescue Capsule and the Elevator's Cabin will be carefully designed and equipped with concentrated food, medicines, instruments, etc.  and everything else needed, as Safe Shelters for a long period of several months living of a group of people inside the Capsule.

Capsule will be actually a perfect Autonomous Vehicle ( "Ice-Mobile" ) for all the Antarctic researchers, to "drive" freely and safely across the body of the thick Ice Sheet and Glaciers.

It'll be also a possible option, when reversed upside down, for boring deep vertical Elevator Shafts from the Ice Sheet's Surface, downwards to its bottom.

We believe our technology will be accepted as a fully harmless and useful base for mastering the entire Antarctic Continent without any pollution, creating a Multi-Trillion, Zero-Waste, 100%-Clean Hydrogen-Based Economy, building Giant SmartCities - https://smartcity.alle.bg , under Climate Domes, connected by ultrasonic Hyperloop or else transport systems.

We also believe we'll turn Antarctic into a giant green garden some day in the close future. Much cheaper, safer and easier, than if we have to do this on Mars or on the Moon, for example.

Sofia, 24/04/2019

grainis@abv.bg