Mercenary I am the king

Chapter 829 Technical Challenges in Gold Mining

The day after Hakim and Makul were killed, at dusk.

Song Heping stood on the observation platform at the highest point of the gold mine, holding a small piece of gold he had just received from a gold miner between his fingers.

The gold weighed only two or three grams, had an irregular shape, and its color didn't seem to be very pure.

These are gold nuggets washed directly from the river.

The setting sun cast his long shadow, like a sharp military dagger stuck in the scorched earth.

He examined the gold in his hand for a while, then turned to the Ferrari beside him and asked, "Six kilograms?"

His voice was very soft, and the Ferrari beside him couldn't help but sigh.

"Yes, the yield is very low."

Ferrari wiped the sweat from his brow: "From this morning until now, the two mines combined have produced a maximum of six kilograms per day. I asked the foreman here, and that's under good conditions. If production is bad, it's only three or four kilograms, based on the current gold price."

"I know the price of gold."

Song Heping interrupted him, weighed the ore in his palm, and then suddenly clenched his fist.

With the current gold price at 280 RMB per gram, even at the best production levels, the daily profit would be 1.68 million RMB, which translates to approximately 50 million RMB per month.

The exchange rate is currently 1:6.72, which means that the monthly income from these two mines is 7.5 million US dollars.

That sounds like a very lucrative profit.

However, upon closer examination, after deducting labor costs and the expenses of maintaining this mercenary force, it is estimated that they will actually lose money.

Moreover, the price of 280 yuan is calculated based on the international market price of 99.9% gold, while the gold produced here does not reach 99.9% purity.

Ferrari said, "Insufficient purity, outdated technology, and low miner efficiency are all reasons for low yields. There's no way around it; we're using the most primitive gold panning methods here, relying entirely on manual sorting. It simply won't yield high yields and is very wasteful of resources. With this kind of brutal mining, we probably won't make much money even after the mines are depleted."

He immediately gave Song Heping a breakdown of the costs: "According to your expansion plan, we need at least three thousand people here to meet your current deployment needs. Each of the two mining areas will have one thousand mercenaries to protect the gold mines and establish forward bases. The base at the Atron Oasis headquarters will need one thousand people as a reserve force to ensure timely replenishment and support in case of problems at the two mining areas. The salaries and wages of these three thousand people alone will cost more than three million six hundred thousand US dollars per month. Then there's our weapons and equipment, food and drink, training..."

He shook his head and continued, "I know we still have some savings, but just like in business, we have to balance our income and expenses. If this problem isn't solved, the gold mine's output won't increase, and sooner or later we'll run out of money."

With each word he uttered, his tone grew colder.

"Besides, given our current situation, we haven't been back to Mexico for a long time. We won't do anything without putting in the effort; those drug lords are probably itching to make their move and won't just give us a share of the money for nothing."

Ferrari is Song Heping's strategist.

In the company, I am both the administrative director and the financial director.

In private, the two are very close friends who can talk about anything.

His words were straightforward and hit the nail on the head.

"That's right..."

Song Heping nodded in agreement: "I've also been thinking about Mexico lately. Currently, our main source of income is drug trafficking from Mexico. If we can't control the trafficking network, those guys from Mexico would probably have kicked us out and gone solo long ago. The reason we haven't done so yet is firstly because I scared them back then, and secondly..."

He laughed: "The videos we posted online also had a certain deterrent effect."

Ferrari said, "Even so, I don't think we can keep this under control for long. None of those drug lords are easy to deal with. If we still carry the stigma of being terrorism lords, going back to Mexico would be extremely risky. If we don't go back, we won't be able to maintain order. I've been having a headache over this lately."

"Is there any way to increase production?" Song Heping asked.

Ferrari said, "Of course, but it requires skilled technicians. Don't underestimate gold mining; it's a technical job."

"Yes, I've heard some things about the gold rush."

Song Heping knew Ferrari was right.

Gold yield is directly related to ore content and gold mining techniques.

Gold is distributed very unevenly in nature, mainly concentrated in certain specific areas of the Earth's crust, such as gold-bearing veins, riverbed sediments, and ancient riverbed gravel. Placer gold refers to gold particles found in sediments at the bottom of rivers, lakes, and other bodies of water. They are usually formed from gold-bearing rocks upstream through weathering, erosion, transportation, and deposition.

Placer gold varies in size, shape, and purity; some exist as tiny particles, while others may form larger nuggets or flakes.

The first step in gold panning is to sift the collected sand and gravel to remove most of the soil, stones, and other impurities.

This is usually done by sieving or washing with water, using sieves of different particle sizes to gradually sift out fine sand containing gold particles.

Gold has a much higher density than ordinary sand and gravel, so it can be separated using the principle of gravity. A simple and effective method is the "gold pan" method, which involves placing the sifted fine sand in a tilted metal pan, adding an appropriate amount of water, and gently shaking the pan. This allows the lighter sand and gravel to flow away with the water, while the heavier gold particles will settle at the bottom of the pan.

In addition, equipment such as spiral gold panning machines and shaking tables can be used to further improve separation efficiency by adjusting the water flow speed and tilt angle.

For gold particles that are too small to be separated directly by physical methods, chemical extraction becomes a necessary means.

This typically involves using a cyanide solution (such as sodium cyanide or potassium cyanide) as a leaching agent to dissolve the gold from other minerals. Subsequently, the gold is reduced from the solution through electrolysis or a displacement reaction to form metallic gold.

The two gold mines I currently control are in an extremely primitive state, from the first screening stage to the last chemical refining stage.

What's here is placer gold, not metallic gold at all.

Every day, the workers would hand over the gold dust they sifted from the river directly to the foreman, who would then hand it over to Ferrari.

Apart from the first step, there are no other steps at all.

Therefore, the gold produced from these two mines is pure placer gold with extremely low purity, and it wouldn't fetch a good price if sold to buyers.

Previously, Hakim and Makur were in charge of these two gold mines. Asking these native African warlords to optimize the process to improve the gold content was simply a joke.

They don't care about purity at all; they just sell the gold they get, or smuggle it to Chad or Libya, without any thought for optimizing processes or technology.

Now that I've taken over, I certainly can't act as recklessly as Hakim and Makul.

Suddenly, he thought of Old Hou.

"I have an idea!"

"any solution?"

Seeing Song Heping suddenly smile, Ferrari immediately became interested.

"Tell me."

"Do you remember Old Hou, the one I saved last time?"

“I’ve heard you say that your former business partner in Iligo is now working for him.”

“That’s right, but my partner Lao Yao is in China now, not in Africa. He’s helping us find a drone manufacturer to replicate the Raven drone.”

Song Heping remembered the promise Lao Hou had made.

He's currently in Ghana, working in gold mining.

So close to the City God Temple, I completely forgot to ask for a good fortune stick!
He slapped his forehead and said to Ferrari, "Find Lao Hou. That guy's in Ghana. He has a gold mine there. He even thanked me last time for saving his life and offered to give me the mine. He's from Shanglin. I heard a lot of people from Shanglin are panning for gold in Africa, and they're quite skilled. Just find him!"

After saying that, he took out his phone to call Lao Hou for help.

But as soon as I took out my phone, the screen lit up.

Song Heping frowned when he saw the number.

Ferrari asked, "Whose call is that?"

Song Heping said, "How could it be him?"

(End of this chapter)