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The month starts out fantastic for you, and by extension, the Mojave. You’re not blind to the small deficit you’re running but you’re not some ghoul who takes perverted joy in sitting on piles of caps.
60,000 is a hefty sum but the towns of Novac and Boulder are in desperate need of investment or risk falling further behind Goodsprings and Primm. There's also the unspoken fear of these settlements becoming company towns the same way Bonnie Sprints went.
Novac is easier to assign caps for, as the salvage industry there is as good as it gets in the Mojave. With the Brotherhood seizing Helios, it has taken a hit but most of the salvage in the region still makes its way through the area.
To that end, you work with your departments to funnel resources to expanding the facilities of Gibson Scrap Yard. Specifically, specialty equipment is purchased that helps to extract valuable scrap electronics and to break down larger pieces of metal that find their way to the town.
You’re also informed that a NCR special interest is beginning preliminary planning on a small recycling plant in the town that will provide recycled building materials for the Mojave and for export back to the NCR. You make a note to have Yes Man tell Mr. New Vegas to include that in the next broadcast.
Novac is on track to becoming a major industrial center and with continued scavenging efforts further south and as outer New Vegas is fully accessed, this wealth will only increase.
But that’s not where the good news ends, as far as Novac is concerned. It seems that a recent demolition mishap near the REPCONN facility has unearthed a sizeable deposit of copper in the surrounding mountains. It’s unclear how expansive this mineral field is but considering the rarity of the material, the possibilities are endless.
Secretary Lewis has said plainly that while this is an impressive find, much effort would be needed to mine and process the material. Once this is accomplished, the sky is the limit. Already, foreign companies are flocking to stake their claim on the valuable ore.
Boulder City is a tougher nut to crack. As far as you can tell, the town before the war catered to tourists visiting Hoover and the dam employees themselves, the latter serving the same purpose for the NCR. Before everything was blown to pieces, of course. Now, there are a handful of intact buildings serving as roadside inns, bars and one general store.
To fully clean up and restore the town would take many months, if not years, and hundreds of thousands of caps. Instead, the pittance that the town receives goes to improving the already existing services.
The motels expand the number of customers they serve and the saloons improve the food and drink. It’s a marginal improvement but short of a complete makeover for the town, it will be slow growth.
