Chapter 1023
After hearing Luo Chong's order, the guard came over immediately, took out a knife and cut a piece, and then took it for experiment.
This stone is very soft, similar to graphite, and can be easily cut with a dagger. It should be easy to mine.
After hearing Luo Chong's order, She Xin and You Fu also asked in confusion.
"Leader, what kind of stone is this? Do you know this?" She Xin asked in confusion.
"Leader, is this new type of metal important? By the way, I remember that the reagent No. 17 used as a developer by the research institute before seemed to be a metal mineral. Is it still impossible to extract metal from it?" You Fu also asked.
Luo Chong took a bite of the food and said, "The reagent No. 17 is indeed a metal mineral, but its properties are extremely unstable. It is not easy to extract it. It cannot be reduced by charcoal fire at all. It must be lightning. It is called barium, which is different from the one you brought."
"Metal that can only be extracted by lightning?" She Xin was stunned and looked unbelievable.
"What kind of metal is this? It won't be impossible to refine it, right? How can we use it then?" You Fu asked with some concern.
"It's hard to say what you brought back this time. I'm not sure what it is, but based on the characteristics of this ore, it is very likely to be a new type of metal material with high hardness and high temperature resistance.
"But there are pros and cons. It is precisely because it is resistant to high temperatures that its melting point is much higher than copper and iron. It may not be melted by ordinary blast furnaces. Moreover, because of its high hardness, it is difficult to process the metal even if it is refined later." Luo Chong explained to the two.
"Ah? Doesn't that mean that this metal is very useful, stronger and sharper than steel, but we can't use it?" She Xin also understood at this time and found the key point of this matter.
"Haha, that's not necessarily true. It may be difficult for us to use this metal alone, but we can make it into an alloy, such as adding it to steel to make a high temperature resistant, high hardness alloy steel.
"Of course, the above are all my analysis and guesses. Whether it is specific or not depends on the experimental results." Luo Chong explained to them again.
"Alloy steel, isn't that the same as the manganese steel used to make railroad tracks that the leader mentioned? But is this really a high-hardness metal? Then why is its ore so soft?" You Fu said to himself with some doubt.
"The ore is soft now because it is just a metal compound, not a single metal. All metal ores are actually metal compounds. The process of refining metals is actually to find a way to reduce them to their essence. This is called a reduction reaction. Heating with carbon is the condition for most metal reductions, but we also have other ways, such as using a replacement reaction to replace it with other metals from the acid."
Luo Chong explained other refining methods to the two again, and the two kept nodding their heads. As long as the leader had a way to use it, it would be fine. Otherwise, it would be a loss for the Han tribe to see such a good metal but not be able to use it.
Luo Chong was eating there, while guessing what kind of metal mineral this was.
Based on the known properties of this mineral, Luo Chong strongly suspected that it was molybdenite. Of course, it could also be rhenium or other rare metals. As for the reason why he suspected that it was molybdenum ore, it was because he knew more about this thing, especially as a person who used to be a full-time researcher of weapons, he was very familiar with metal molybdenum.
In the field of metal materials, the melting point of copper and iron is the dividing line. The melting points of copper and iron are both around 1650 degrees. Metals with melting points exceeding this temperature are generally called refractory metals, or heat-resistant metals.
High-hardness heat-resistant metals are essential materials for making modern guns and cannons. This is very important and directly related to the accuracy and service life of weapons. Just like the bolt-action rifles made of carbon steel by the Han tribe now, they are basically not very accurate after firing three thousand rounds of bullets, because there is no high-hardness heat-resistant metal.
Among the high-hardness heat-resistant metals, tungsten is the most famous, with a melting point of around 3400 degrees, which is twice that of copper and iron. The next one is rhenium, which has a melting point of around 3000 degrees. Going down a little, it is molybdenum (mu), with a melting point of around 2600 degrees. Although it has poor heat resistance, it is still a thousand degrees higher than copper and iron.
But what is more interesting is that in Luo Chong's previous life, 80% of the tungsten on the earth was in China, and 80% of China's tungsten was in Jiangxi. The distribution of this strategic resource was extremely unbalanced, and China almost took it all.
But can foreigners not make modern weapons without tungsten? Do they have no weapons to fight?
Of course not! ! !
In the era of World War I and World War II when Western firearms were developing rapidly, the materials used by those Western countries to make firearms were mainly molybdenum steel. Although they did not have tungsten, the rapid-fire weapons made of molybdenum were still excellent.
Of course, the United States during World War II also took away a lot of tungsten mines from China. Most of the international aid that Chiang Kai-shek sought was obtained in exchange for tung oil from Sichuan and tungsten mines from Jiangxi. However, due to the transportation conditions and mining technology at the time, not much was mined out. Western weapons were still made of molybdenum steel as the main material.
During the Japanese invasion of China during World War II, they also plundered China's molybdenum mines in Northeast and North China. Many molybdenum mines were directly dug out by the Japanese army and all transported to China for weapon manufacturing. As for the tungsten mines in Jiangxi, they wanted them, but until the end of World War II, the Japanese invaders did not fully occupy Jiangxi, so those tungsten mines were saved.
However, it was precisely because of the relationship between war and weapons that Luo Chong knew a little more about molybdenum metal. This is why he suspected that it might be molybdenum ore because of the ore characteristics brought by Youfu.
Molybdenum is a very important metal, not only because it is used to make weapons. In the field of machining, molybdenum and tungsten, which are particularly heat-resistant and have very high hardness, have always had an irreplaceable position, especially for making cutting tools on various machine tools.
If the Han tribe can really control a molybdenum mine, then the level of machine tools in the Han tribe will definitely reach a new level.
Luo Chong and his friends were eating and chatting. After about a quarter of an hour, the guard who had just run out to do the experiment came back and brought Luo Chong good news.
The guard came back with a piece of paper in his hand, and on the paper was a small handful of not very pure white powder.
"Chief, I did as you said and put the stone directly on the flame of the calcium carbide lamp. At the beginning, the stone began to decompose and turned into some yellow stone powder, and then it stopped changing. When I put the yellow stone powder on the paper and the temperature cooled down, it really turned into these white powders. By the way, Chief, there is a smell of sulfur when the stone is burned." The guard pointed to the white powder and said.
Luo Chong nodded with satisfaction. At this time, he was 100% sure that this was molybdenum ore, also known as molybdenite, which is actually the crystal of molybdenum sulfide, a metal vein formed by the solidification of geothermal magma flow.
Just now, the guard said that he smelled a sulfur smell when burning the stone, which also confirmed from the side that this was a sulfide ore. As for the remaining white powder now, it is actually an important basis for Luo Chong to judge it as molybdenum, because the crystal of molybdenum oxide, molybdenum trioxide, is white crystals, which can also be said to be white powder. This is different from the oxides of tungsten and rhenium. Only the oxide of molybdenum is like this.
"Good job, you can go down now."
Luo Chong nodded and sent the guard away directly, while You Fu and She Xin stared at the small amount of white powder on the paper. They didn't care much when they heard Luo Chong say it just now, but now they didn't expect that Luo Chong's guess really came true. Those silver-gray ores actually burned out white powder.
Luo Chong immediately said, "See, white powder, you must have burned out this thing when you were doing the experiment, but it was mixed with coal ash, which is also grayish white, and you can't tell it apart at all."
"It really is, leader, then what kind of metal is this? I think these white powders are not metals either?" You Fu nodded, but still asked in confusion.
"How to say this, it is, but it is not, at least it is not a single metal, you know iron oxide, right?" Luo Chong thought about it, didn't know how to explain it, and simply used iron to give them an example.
When the two heard Luo Chong ask this, they all nodded.
"This is similar to the relationship between iron oxide and iron. Iron is silvery white, but iron oxide, also known as rust, is red. The hematite you know is actually a stone formed by the accumulation of rust.
"The white powder you see now is a metal called molybdenum, and these white powders are molybdenum oxide. You can also understand it as the rust of metal molybdenum, or molybdenum rust for short, but rust is red powder, while molybdenum rust is white powder."
Luo Chong explained in this way, and the two of them said "Oh~" at the same time, as if they suddenly realized something. It turns out that these white powders are metal rust. It is also strange that there is metal rust that is white.
"Then, leader, can this metal called molybdenum be purified? Is it useful?" You Fu asked again.
"Of course it is valuable, and it is very valuable, but it is more difficult to refine the single substance, because this molybdenum is what I just told you, a high-hardness and heat-resistant metal. If you want to melt it, the required temperature may be at least half higher than that of iron, and our furnace may not be able to burn it.
"And this thing doesn't react with carbon in general. It can't produce molybdenum like iron smelting. If we want to use it, we can use the white powder of molybdenum trioxide now. There is no need to purify it again." Luo Chong immediately introduced the characteristics of molybdenum to the two people.
"Then, how to use it? What can these molybdenum rusts be used for? Is there any special effect?" She Xin asked doubtfully.
"No, you should know the steelmaking steps of the current steel mill, which is to first use coke to refine iron ore into molten iron, and then transfer the molten iron into the ladle. By blowing oxygen-rich air from the top, the oxygen reacts with the excess carbon in the molten iron to form carbon dioxide and then discharge it, so that the molten iron can achieve the effect of reducing carbon.
"Now if we want to refine molybdenum steel, we can directly put these molybdenum trioxide into the molten iron, so that the oxygen in it reacts with the carbon in the molten iron to form carbon dioxide waste gas and discharge it. In this way, molybdenum remains in the molten iron and carbon is discharged, and finally it becomes a high-hardness and high-temperature resistant molybdenum steel of molybdenum-iron alloy.
"To put it simply, we use this molybdenum rust to improve the performance of steel, but this still requires a lot of experiments. We don't know the proportion of molybdenum and iron in the molybdenum steel alloy yet. Which proportion of the formula will produce the best performance of the finished product? This will be handed over to the research institute for experiment."
Luo Chong introduced them to the use of molybdenum trioxide, and the two of them also had an expression of sudden enlightenment.
"So that's how it is, doesn't that mean this mine is very valuable? And it's very useful?" She Xin asked excitedly.
"That's right, with this mineral, I dare not say anything else, the service life of our firearms will at least double or triple, so that it can reach a life of tens of thousands of accurate shooting, and we can also develop some other weapons." Luo Chong also nodded affirmatively. With molybdenum steel, the Han tribe can try to develop rapid-fire weapons.
"That's great, Chief. This mine is very easy to mine, and it's close to the Liuyang River. It's easier to mine than the coal mine in the south. And this molybdenum ore is very soft. You don't even need a pickaxe or a hammer. You can knock down a lot with a military shovel. It's very easy to dig.
"In addition, the location is not bad. After digging it out, it will be 30 or 40 kilometers west to the east bank of the Liuyang River. We can build a dock there and directly transport it to the north and south ends of the Han tribe by water."
Hearing Luo Chong say that this molybdenum mine has such a big use, You Fu was also excited. He quickly took out the map he carried with him to introduce the location of the mine and the convenience of transportation to Luo Chong.
Luo Chong also looked at the densely marked map, then nodded and said, "Yes, you recorded it in detail. Let's eat first. After dinner, we will discuss the layout of various mines and factories in the south. Also, by the end of spring and early summer next year, the cannibal slaves captured in the north will be sent here. There may be 10,000 or 20,000 in total. We also need to discuss how to arrange this person. "
Okay, let's talk about it later."
She Xin and You Fu nodded quickly, knowing that this was not the place to discuss business, so they started to invite everyone to eat. After dinner, they arranged all the accompanying personnel, and then the three of them took the map to the government office of Liuyang County to discuss things.
(End of this chapter)
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