Treacle

Treacle or molasses is a thick, black or dark brown mineral oil that is extracted from the ground in various parts of Terra, or produced from cane sugar. The substance is exceedingly sweet, and is most often refined into pure sugar, or used as a sweetener or fermenter.

Ground treacle is extracting by sinking a drill into subterranean treacle fields and pumping out their contents. These fields appear throughout the world, though the largest by far are in the Suldanor province of Kalistan. Treacle can also be made by mashing and boiling the stalks of the sugar cane, though this is much less efficient as ground mining. More than 3/4s of Terra's treacle and treacle-derivitives are derived from ground mining as opposed to sugar cane or other natural means.

Once obtained, treacle can be refined into a number of further products, most notably sugar. Treacle mined from the ground is usually immediately refined into a finer product, either First Molasses, Second Molasses, or Blackstrap Molasses. This is then shipped down pipelines or in tankers to an on-site refinery where it is further refined into pure sugar.

Molasses is also used to clear metal of rust, ferment rum, bitumen for paving roads and waterproofing, and as a component of explosives used for mining.