mining colony
Ore-harvesting settlement
A mining colony is a settlement established primarily to extract natural resources from a remote or frontier location.
The term appears most often in science fiction, where it describes outposts on moons, asteroids, or other planets: The mining colony on Europa supplied rare minerals to Earth.
Historical mining colonies existed in remote terrestrial regions, though the phrase now carries futuristic connotations.
Such settlements typically feature harsh conditions, isolation, and populations of workers rather than families.
- asteroidSun-orbiting rocky mass
- space stationOrbiting crewed research facility
- outpostRemote military station
- deep spaceRemote regions beyond planets
- oreMetal-bearing rock
excavation · settlers · work crew · frontier · dome · shaft · drill · habitat · resources · underground · extraction · barren · isolation · spacecraft · supply ship · minerals · tunnel · crew
- future habitatsarcology, biodome, domed city, space station, underwater city
- space coloniesmoon base, lunar base, space station, space habitat, orbital station
- outer spacesun, moon, planet, star system, solar system
- coloniesPlymouth, Jamestown, British India, Dutch East Indies, French Indochina
- Sci-Fi Settingsspace station, spaceship, starship, alien planet, moon base
mining colonyfarming village
Agricultural rural settlement
fishing village · manufacturing hub · trading post · resort town · university town
mining colonyhomeland
One's native land
ancestral home · indigenous territory · capital city · mother country · sacred ground
mining colonysovereign nation
Self-ruled territorial polity
metropole · imperial capital · mother country · autonomous region
mining, colony, miners, colonial, colonies, colonist, colonists, colonize, colonized