10090 New Urban Farmers Chapter 137: Mining in This Way (First Update)
Ren Tian! The initial mining machinery at the Houhongtan Mine has been fully assembled. This system is efficient, transporting raw materials from the mountain to the foot; some blasting devices; some excavating equipment. It can be said that, with manual excavation, the machinery here is quite complete.
Mining is now possible!
Zhang Guodong was also excitedly waiting for this day.
The sonic boom caused the rock at the foot of the mountain to loosen, covering an area of several tens of square meters. This was achieved using low-pressure deep blasting, not by blasting the rock into pieces. The blasting only shook the base of the stone and dispersed the rock to facilitate mining, thus preserving the jade's integrity as much as possible.
However, jade mining is completely different from quarrying stones. Which raw stones should be preserved as they may contain gold and jade, and which are waste that can be forcibly removed—all of these require expert guidance.
Three members of Liu Neng's team were engaged in this work. These three had participated in the initial exploration and survey of the Hongtan jade mine, so they were quite familiar with the area.
I know this all too well!
Zhang Guodong was in good spirits on the first day, but by the end of the day, he felt that the progress of the quarrying was so slow that it seemed that more than a dozen people could only extract less than two tons of raw stone in a day!
Zhang Guodong was a little depressed.
Most of these are stones!
Even if some of these rough stones contain topaz or golden jade, they are only a very small portion!
Then Zhang Guodong touched and sensed it. Sure enough. There was probably less than a pound of jade that could be mined from the two tons. The gold and jade would probably be even less, and these potential jade stones were scattered throughout the two tons of raw stone.
"Mining jade is this difficult?" Zhang Guodong was somewhat unwilling to accept the slow progress. But it turned out that Zhang Guodong was a complete novice. Given the limited manpower and resources, this pace was already quite good.
Fortunately, Zhang Guodong quickly shifted his attention to "jade, thread, and other scrap jade pieces".
The scraps were carelessly scattered everywhere, resembling a pool of jade slag, but it was right here that Zhang Guodong discovered the essence of jade!
The jade essence is pitifully small and scattered. It's surrounded by rocks, and it would take a lot of effort to completely extract it from the rock layer. And you probably wouldn't even collect half an ounce of jade scraps a day. The jade essence is even rarer—this is even more outrageous than jade mining!
Zhang Guodong was pondering this.
If he were to collect the jade essence himself, he would be exhausted to death. It was Zhang Guodong who brought in Liu Neng, who was feeling uneasy.
Liu Neng was quite excited; the daily output was all money! He and Zhang Guodong had an agreement: for every two truckloads (ten tons each), the profits would be split 40/60! They were separating the raw stones. He had already figured out how to handle these rough stones; he planned to sell them directly instead of cutting them himself.
Unlike Liu Neng, Zhang Guodong planned to cut off one part on the spot and sell the other part.
Liu Neng felt that cutting off this part was a waste, but he didn't dare to refute Zhang Guodong's words, so he just left it as it was.
"Mr. Zhang, what can I do for you?" Liu Neng rushed into Zhang Guodong's bamboo house.
Zhang Guodong and Liu Neng each received a bamboo hut. The rest of the people slept together. Originally, Ji Zai planned to build five bamboo huts, but in the end, eight were built. The power of the masses was immense, and no one had to sleep outdoors anymore.
The bamboo house was very simple, with just a bamboo chair (made from readily available materials), a bamboo table for placing things like books, and a bamboo bed. It was surprisingly comfortable sleeping on the bamboo bed with bedding; it wasn't as shaky. Sprinkling lime powder around the bamboo house kept mosquitoes out and kept it dry, which pleased Zhang Guodong.
He gestured for Liu Neng to sit down.
Liu Neng had only half his butt on the chair when it creaked. This guy was much heavier than Zhang Guodong.
"I called you here because I have a business deal to discuss," Zhang Guodong said bluntly. Then he took a cloth bag from the bamboo table and poured some small jade stones onto the bed.
"Jade scraps?" Liu Neng asked in astonishment. "Mr. Zhang, what is this?"
The jade scraps were so mixed and fragmented. They were so small that they were basically thrown away after being cut open.
Zhang Guodong laughed and said, "That's right, this business is related to this. I want these scrap jade pieces, but they must be cut like this, and the top piece of stone cannot be too much. They must meet this standard!"
Zhang Guodong had already had the jade cutter largely process the scraps on the bed. It took quite a bit of time to discard 99% of the stones, mostly small jade fragments with a pale yellow tinge or a golden thread. However, these jade fragments were so small that probably no one would want them!
“I’ll give you 600 yuan for a kilogram of this jade slag. Of course, you can also exchange it for the raw stones in my share. How about this deal?” Zhang Guodong said.
Liu Neng thought he'd misheard—trading raw jade for jade scraps? Who in the world would be that stupid? Uh...it seemed like the man was right in front of him: "Boss Zhang, you're not serious, are you?"
"certainly!"
“Not only the jade slag from this Hongtan mine, but also jade slag from other mines all over the country, as long as they meet this standard, I will accept them all!” Zhang Guodong said with a raised eyebrow.
You heard me right!
He felt himself swallowing hard.
There's a lot of this kind of waste jade slag, but everyone just throws it away. If we really collected it, we could easily collect ten or twenty tons a year!
That's a deal worth tens of millions!
"Want to do this business? Cash on delivery," Zhang Guodong continued enticingly.
Liu Neng immediately replied, "I'd do this business with Boss Zhang even if it meant going through fire and water!"
It would be foolish not to do it! These jade scraps are pure discarded stuff. He could buy them for 400 yuan per kilogram and probably make quite a bit. He could earn several million yuan a year. Why wouldn't he do it?
Liu Neng's smile became even more obsequious.
After discussing it, Liu Neng brought some jade slag as samples.
Then he rushed out to contact familiar jade merchants. Liu Neng wasn't stupid; he was thinking, "Boss Zhang can't possibly be playing me. He's already taken 60% of the ore's profit; how could he possibly..."
But Liu Neng had his eye on those tens of millions in profits.
You don't know the cost of daily necessities until you're in charge of the household. He wanted to start a legitimate business but didn't know what to do. This was an opportunity he certainly wasn't going to let slip by.
He immediately contacted some jade merchants to keep an eye out for scrap jade materials. He planned to wait a while, then haul them back from various places and resell them for a fortune. Besides, it would allow him to deepen his cooperative relationship with Zhang Guodong. It was a win-win situation.
In this regard, Liu Neng, despite being a nobody, certainly had more connections than Zhang Guodong. Although some jade merchants he knew were quite skeptical of Liu Neng's words, they might as well try ordering a ton of jade, and Liu Neng would personally come to collect it. That's 40,000 yuan! Money for free.
Losing money is just a small loss, but making money can be a new way to make money!
And so the acquisition quietly began.
At this time, people at the Hongtan mine also began to pay attention to these waste jade slags. Zhang Guodong didn't care about them. With a wave of his hand, he handed them all over to Liu Neng to collect. The jade slags were Liu Neng's responsibility.
On the eighth day, twenty tons of raw stone were successfully mined and piled up like a small mountain.
These raw stones must be processed immediately!
Zhang Guodong walked roughly around the pile of raw ore. Then he returned and called over Liu Neng, who had been itching to get his hands on it. He said, "That's about enough for two truckloads. Let's divide the ore. You get four, I'll get six. I'll keep some for cutting, and you can buy the rest. One ton, even at 800,000 yuan, it's not a bad deal for you!"
Liu Neng nodded eagerly. The price wasn't high! He could still make a profit.
Zhang Guodong didn't stand on ceremony and started by picking out two tons of pieces, some large ones weighing about 300 kilograms, and others small ones weighing only about one kilogram.
Even Liu Neng, who was nearby, was puzzled as to why Boss Zhang was selecting rough stones so quickly. He thought Zhang Guodong should take his time, since choosing a good rough stone would mean making a huge profit.
But this made Liu Neng somewhat grateful to Zhang Guodong.
Zhang Guodong's actions are essentially taking care of him indirectly.
After separating the two tons, Zhang Guodong smiled and said to Liu Neng, "You'll give me eight million for the remaining ten tons, okay?"
"Eight million, that's right, thank you, Boss Zhang!" Liu Neng immediately thanked him. "Should we transfer the money back in the city, or should I bring the cash?"
"Go back to the city, you wouldn't lie to me, would you?"
"Of course not! I wouldn't dare lie to you even if you gave me ten lives, thank you, Boss Zhang!" Liu Neng said immediately.
Zhang Guodong thought to himself that Liu Neng was indeed a good person to thank, but if he sold these ten tons of rough jade stones directly, he would only make about a million yuan. However, if he cut them up and sold them, he could probably make about two million yuan. But Zhang Guodong felt that the quality of these rough jade stones wasn't good enough and they were too scattered. He thought it better to let Liu Neng handle them all together!
We should make the big money ourselves and let others make some of the small money too! We are currently very satisfied with Zhang Guodong and Liu Neng's work performance.
Zhang Guodong simply wouldn't remind him how to sell it or at what price; that was his own business.
Liu Neng harvested a total of eighteen tons, and then immediately contacted Ah Lang, planning to transport the raw stones out via a temporary steel bridge built over the small river.
After all, the Red Beach area is small and has too many piles of raw stones. It's easy for people to spot it.
"Should we start cutting these rough stones now, Mr. Zhang?" The craftsman in charge of cutting the rough stones for Zhang Guodong came up to ask.
"Help me move these smaller rough stones to the front of the bamboo house," Zhang Guodong said, pointing to some small rough stones.
The cutter was surprised for a moment, but nodded without saying anything. In a short while, he moved dozens of rough stones, each weighing less than ten kilograms, to the front of the bamboo house. Then, the remaining rough stones in the area weighed over a hundred kilograms, including eight huge rocks.
Zhang Guodong thought to himself that processing large rough stones was really troublesome, so he would have to start with the smaller ones.
He had some interest in cutting raw stones, so after the craftsman finished moving them, he asked him to assemble a small cutting machine in front of his bamboo hut. It was powered by a diesel motor.
Everyone could see at a glance that Mr. Zhang had decided to cut the raw stone himself!
However, cutting raw jade is not a simple task. A novice is very likely to damage or break the jade. Even the cutting master looked at some raw stones with some regret and wanted to persuade him several times, but Zhang Guodong was so eager to do it himself that he had no choice but to give up!
Zhang Guodong took out a piece of raw stone weighing five jin (approximately 2.5 kg). Thin strands of gold appeared to emanate from the yellow sand skin covering it.
It seems that the stone skin is very thin.
"Mr. Zhang, it's best to polish this kind of small rough stone; it's easy to ruin it if you cut it!" the craftsman said, seeing Zhang Guodong preparing to cut it directly.
"Huh?" Zhang Guodong suddenly understood after hearing the cutting master's explanation.
He thought to himself that it made sense. Although he could sense the quality of jade, compared to an expert, he found it much less enjoyable. Anyway, the mining would take quite a while, so he might as well polish it and take his time.
With a roar from the diesel engine, the cutting machine in my hand started spinning high. The moment the blades touched the raw stone, stone chips flew everywhere!
That friction was a bit too much, I didn't control it well!
continue!
Zhang Guodong's movements were inconsistent, sometimes light and sometimes heavy, which made people very anxious. If he pressed too hard, he might damage the jade, resulting in a huge loss.
But Zhang Guodong quickly grasped the knack. Although he was still quite unfamiliar with it, he finally understood the difference between the concept of "rubbing" and "cutting".
Stone dust flew everywhere. Zhang Guodong was so engrossed in learning about stones that he didn't realize he was covered in it. But he didn't care at all; he thoroughly enjoyed turning stones into jade.
Procedure!
"It's jade! It's jade! Mr. Zhang, please slow down!" The cutting master had been waiting for who knows how long. His eyes widened, and a sliver of golden yellow shone through. He quickly called for a halt.
This is a sign that jade is coming out! I thought to myself, "This shop owner is so lucky, he found jade on his very first piece!"
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