Cx4
Your order Dr. North to put a hold on the vehicle plating and begin immediate work on analyzing this new ore. He's thrilled at the idea, and admittedly shuts himself in the lab with a half dozen assistants and twenty pounds of the unrefined material.
Late August, 20175*,3
There's a few minor explosions and odd flashes of light from the research lab, and one of the lab assistants ends up in the infirmary with some minor burns and an incinerated lab coat, but Bruce North comes through before your triannual report.
He's spinning a coin sized lump of greyish, slightly glittery, material between his fingers, and presents it to you with a nearly childish glee, referring to it alternately as "Northium" or "Brucinite". To hear him tell it, Brucinite is the first step in truly understanding one of the most fundamental parts of the Stargate program, the Stargate itself. To date, the alloy composing the Stargate's structure has never been fully understood, and all attempts to gather significant samples have failed. Dr. North, however, is confident that this new material is one of the elements comprising the Stargate alloy, and its properties are fascinating.
In its ore form, the chaotically aligned Brucinite crystals are highly reactive. The lattice collapses when stimulated by sufficient kinetic or electric energy, creating a tiny shockwave of energy. If a big enough initial pulse is applied, the secondary action can chain react and vastly amplify a blast. Powdered Brucinite, freed of its matrix stone and mixed with RDX, would increase the explosive yield approximately seven fold. That, however, is not the most fascinating part. While it can't be electrically smelted due to its reactivity (as his burned lab assistant will attest) it can be refined in a crucible if sufficient temperatures are applied. The process is difficult and slow, but the resulting material is a room temperature superconductor, and Dr. North believes that, with the proper gel matrix, it might herald a revolution in hyper-capacitors.
The ore itself, in its unrefined state, is of minimal hazard. To get it to chain react you'd need an explosive or thermal impulse on par with a small nuclear warhead.
A- Perfect! Let's sink some money in and start expanding our mining operations as soon as possible!
B- Continue mining from the single test rig, but don't expand until after your report at the end of this month.
Also, do you want to try and change the name of this wonderful new material?