The evening of the second day after taking out Hakeem and Markuer.
Song Heping stood on the watchtower at the highest point of the gold mine, holding a small piece of gold he had just gotten from a panner between his fingers.
The gold looked like it weighed only two or three grams, irregular in shape, and its luster didn't seem very pure.
This was a piece of placer gold, washed directly from the river.
The setting sun stretched his shadow long, like a sharp military spike piercing the parched land.
After looking at the gold in his hand for a while, he turned his head and asked Ferrari beside him, "Six kilos?"
His voice was light, and Ferrari couldn't help but sigh.
"Yes, the production is very low."
Ferrari wiped the sweat off his forehead: "From morning to now, both mines together produce at most six kilos a day. I asked the foreman here; this is in good conditions. When production is bad, it's only three or four kilos. Calculating with the current gold price..."
"I know the gold price."
Song Heping interrupted him, weighing the ore in his palm, then suddenly clenched it tightly.
The current gold price is 280 RMB per gram. Calculating with the best production, the daily profit inco is 1.68 million yuan, which ans about 50 million RMB monthly inco.
The current US Dollar exchange rate is 1:6.72, aning that this equates to a monthly inco of 7.5 million US Dollars for these two mines.
It sounds like a very generous profit.
But when you calculate it carefully, after deducting labor costs and the expenses of maintaining this rcenary force, there will probably be a loss.
Moreover, 280 RMB is calculated based on the international market price for 99.9% pure gold, and the gold produced here doesn't et 99.9% purity.
Ferrari said, "Low purity, outdated technology, low miner efficiency, these are all reasons for the low yield. There's no choice. Here, the most primitive gold mining thods are used, relying entirely on manual selection. There won't be high production at all, and it wastes resources. With such barbaric mining, we probably won't make any money before it's exhausted."
He imdiately did so calculations for Song Heping: "According to your expansion plan, we need at least three thousand people here to et the current deploynt needs. The two mines each have a thousand rcenaries responsible for protecting the mine's safety and establishing forward bases. The Atlon Oasis Headquarters requires a thousand people as a reserve team to supplent and support in case sothing happens at the two mines. Just the salaries and wages for these three thousand people amount to over 3.6 million US Dollars a month, not to ntion our weapons, equipnt, food, and training…"
He shook his head and continued, "I know we still have so assets at hand but like any business, we need to balance inco and expenditure. If this issue isn't addressed, and the gold mine's output doesn't increase, eventually we will run out."
With each word, his tone grew colder.
"Moreover, with our current situation, we haven't gone back to xico in a long ti. Those drug lords probably won't share profits with us for nothing."
Ferrari was Song Heping's advisor.
In the company, he was the operations director and the financial director.
Privately, they were close friends who shared everything.
His words were straightforward and hit the mark.
"Exactly…"
Song Heping nodded in agreent: "I've also been thinking about the xico issue recently. Currently, our main inco source is the drug trafficking inco from xico. If we can't control the transportation network, those short guys would have kicked us out long ago to go solo. The only reason they haven't is that I scared them back then, and secondly…"
He smiled, "The videos we posted online have also played a certain deterrent role."
Ferrari said, "Even so, I estimate the deterrent won't last long. None of those drug lords are easy to deal with. If we're still accused of KB affiliations, returning to xico would be very risky, and not returning, we can't keep the field in check. I've been worrying about this recently too."
"Is there a way to increase production?" Song Heping asked.
Ferrari said, "Of course, but we need technicians. Don't underestimate gold panning, it's a skilled job."
"Yes, I've also heard about so gold panning expertise."
Song Heping knew Ferrari was right.
Gold production is directly related to ore content and gold panning technology.
Gold's distribution in nature is extrely uneven, primarily concentrated in specific areas of the Earth's crust, such as gold-bearing veins, riverbed sedints, and ancient riverbed gravels.
Placer gold refers to gold particles existing in sedints at the bottom of water bodies like rivers and lakes. They are usually ford by the weathering, erosion, transportation, and deposition of upstream gold-bearing rocks.
The size, shape, and purity of placer gold vary. So exist as fine particles, while others may form larger gold nuggets or flakes.
The first step in gold panning is screening the collected gravel to remove most of the soil, stones, and other impurities.
This is usually done through sieving or washing, gradually selecting the fine sand containing gold particles using sieves of different sh sizes.
The density of gold is much higher than ordinary gravel, so the gravity principle can be used for separation. A simple and effective thod is the "gold pan" technique. Fine sand is placed in an inclined tal pan, a suitable amount of water is added, and the pan is shook gently so that the lighter gravel flows away with the water, while the heavier gold particles settle at the bottom of the pan.
Additionally, spiral gold panners and shaking tables can be used, adjusting water flow speed and tilt angle to further improve separation efficiency.
For very fine gold particles that are difficult to separate by physical thods, chemical extraction becos necessary.
This typically involves using cyanide solutions (such as sodium cyanide or potassium cyanide) as leaching agents to dissolve the gold from other minerals. Subsequently, through electrolysis or displacent reactions, the gold is reduced from the solution to form tallic gold.
The two gold mines under his control are extrely primitive from the first screening step to the final chemical refining stage.
What appears here is placer gold, not tallic gold at all.
Every day, the workers directly submit the panned placer gold to the foreman, who then hands it over to Ferrari.
Except for the first step, the other steps are completely absent.
Therefore, the gold produced by these two mines is entirely raw placer gold, extrely low in purity, and doesn't fetch a good price when sold to buyers.
Previously, these two gold mines were managed by Hakeem and Markuer, requiring these native African warlord heads to optimize processes and refine gold content was simply an international joke.
They didn't care about purity at all, selling placer gold directly or smuggling it to Chad or Libya without any thought to optimization processes or technical improvent.
Now that he took over, he couldn't just recklessly follow Hakeem and Markuer's ways.
Suddenly, he thought of Old Hou.
"I have a solution!"
"What solution?"
Seeing Song Heping suddenly smile, Ferrari was imdiately interested.
"Tell about it."
"Do you rember that Old Hou I saved last ti?"
"I heard you ntion, your forr business partner in Illiguo now works with him."
"That's right, but my partner, Old Demon, is now in the country, not in Africa. He's helping us find a drone manufacturer to replicate the Big Crow drones."
Song Heping recalled Old Hou's initial promise.
Now he's in Ghana, and he's mining gold there.
This close to the City God Temple, I even forgot to ask for a good fortune sign!
He slapped his forehead and said to Ferrari: "Find Old Hou. This guy is in Ghana. He has a gold mine there. He even told last ti that he owes his life and wanted to give his gold mine. He's from Shanglin, and it's said that many people from Shanglin are gold panning in Africa with decent skills. Just find him!"
After speaking, he reached for his phone to call Old Hou for help.
But just as he took out his phone, the screen lit up.
Song Heping looked at the number, furrowed his brow.
Ferrari asked, "Whose call is it?"
Song Heping said, "How could it be him?"
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