How's it going, everyone?

For sum, it seemed more efficient to throw away the cheaper metals and just grab another iron from the input.

12 inputs give the material for 1 output, plus 1 extra quicksilver. The quicksilver goes for a ride on the merry-go-round, suppressing the output on its way around.

This gives 1 less metal for the 2nd output. But skipping purification solves this problem and uses up the extra quicksilver at the same time.

It feels clean and efficient - which is usually a good sign for sum - but the numbers still seem big, so I have no clue!