50s: Starting with a storage ring

Chapter 341 Stolen Money
He had no intention of returning the bodies to their families, and it was uncertain whether those six workers even had any families left.

It's been several years and no family members have come to cause trouble, nor has the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) come to our door.

It's almost certain what will happen to those people; Curry and his ilk deserve to die.

Standing at the entrance of the collapsed branch mine, Sun Zhiwei silently murmured, "Rest in peace. I have avenged you. Go to heaven soon, Amen."

Last night, he secretly left the mining area by creating a temporary passage in the basement of his dormitory and rushed to San Francisco overnight.

Based on the mine's records, he found the home addresses of Curry's group.

They packed up the entire family's belongings and the car in the garage and took everything away, making it look like the whole family was moving out.

In the homes of these people, he made an unexpected discovery: each of them had a large number of gold nuggets, with the obvious Swil Gold Mine markings and serial numbers still intact.

This was the money they had embezzled from the mines over the years. Fearing exposure, they did not deposit the gold in a bank, but instead kept it all in their own basement.

Based on the amount of these embezzled funds, it can be roughly estimated that the current gold production at the Swell gold mine is far more than the $20 per month that old Lancaster believed.

$20 worth of gold is only about 1800 ounces. The actual output of the mine is as high as 5000 ounces per month, and the excess is divided up among them.

The mine is currently using equipment that is 7 years old. If the latest automated mining equipment from the Federal Corporation were adopted, the output could be increased by two levels.

At the same time, the number of miners needed at the mine will be reduced by 50%, which will result in considerable cost savings.

But the latest automated equipment is very expensive. He calculated that replacing the entire set of equipment at the Swell gold mine would cost about $150 million.

The seized gold is difficult to retrieve, so he can't afford to pay for it now and can only temporarily mine it using old equipment from 7 years ago.

This time, he seized a total of 672 standard gold bricks from the homes of the six high-ranking officials in the mining area who had been expelled.

Based on each gold bar being 400 ounces, a total of 268800 ounces of gold were embezzled by them.

At the current gold price of $110 per ounce, this gold is worth a staggering $2950 million.

However, were the other deputy managers who were left behind at the mine completely clean? He thought it was impossible.

To maintain stability at the mine, Curry will definitely have to share some of the profits.

Sun Zhiwei speculated that even if the remaining group only drank soup, they would have accumulated at least tens of thousands of ounces of gold over seven years, with an estimated value of around one or two million US dollars.

But now is not the time for liquidation, otherwise, he was afraid that if he ruined the mining area, he would have no one left to take over its management.

No rush. Let's see how they behave later. If they're still so greedy, we'll deal with them in the next batch.

Sun Zhiwei thought to himself, "He's not a saint. If he takes something from me, he'll have to give it back sooner or later."

After using their spatial abilities to collect the bodies of six deceased miners, they continued deeper into the mining area.

Along the way, Sun Zhiwei fully expanded the space and explored the surroundings, occasionally discovering small patches of gold mines.

It's just that there aren't any large veins of ore, so it's not worthwhile to dig a separate mine for them.

They made their way forward for about a kilometer, winding their way down to the work area, which was a hundred meters underground.

This is the mining area where nearly a hundred workers are using picks to break the surrounding gold-bearing ore into pieces.

Multiple conveyor belts work in tandem to continuously transport the broken gold ore to the surface.

The ore is then loaded onto trucks and transported to smelting boilers not far from the mine, where the gold is extracted and finally cast into standard gold bullion. The resulting air and water pollution is indeed severe; a significant portion of the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent each month at the mine goes to the Environmental Protection Agency for environmental damage compensation.

No wonder the yield on gold mines within the Federation is less than 20%, and in Africa, a yield of less than 40% is considered a loss.

Sun Zhiwei used space detection to check the direction of the work area and found that there were still gold mine veins all the way to the end of the space detection.

When was this mineral vein discovered, and who was in charge of exploration?

"It's Zorn Moreno, the head of the technical department. He's been in charge of finding veins in the mining area and has never made a mistake."

Anderson didn't know why Sun Zhiwei asked that question, but he tried his best to say good things about Zorn Moreno.

Zorn was a dull person. Despite the major changes at the mine, he remained silent in the meeting room, behaving like a bookworm.

Sun Zhiwei could also tell that Zorn didn't seem like someone who would collude with the criminals, which is why he didn't take any action against him.

It turns out he's actually quite talented.

"Zorn did a good job." Judging from the abilities of an ordinary technician, he is talented. Even if Sun Zhiwei has a spatial ability, he will still need him in the future.

However, he still wanted to express his thoughts.

"Have someone call Zorn here; I have something to say to him."

Upon hearing this, Anderson called a miner next to him to go and get help, while he continued to stay with Sun Zhiwei.

He just used spatial detection to find a nearly parallel mineral vein on the right side of this mine, about a hundred meters away from the current mine.

That should be a completely new vein, not the same one that is currently being excavated.

However, the vein of ore extends downwards in front of him, and if he hadn't pointed it out, the mine would have completely missed it.

He compared the two mines and found that the grade of the new mine was significantly higher than that of the mine currently being mined.

If it is developed, theoretically the output of the mining area will increase several times.

Soon, Rand Baldwin, the production manager, followed Zorn down into the mine and found Sun Zhiwei and his team.

Sun Zhiwei discussed the formation principle of gold veins with Zorn on the spot. He had done his homework before coming and had memorized the geological journals of the past few years.

"According to the latest theory of ancient metamorphic rock formation, there must be a mineral vein in front of this location."

"Chairman, I think this is completely impossible. The rock walls here are all granite. How could there be gold in granite?"

When Zorn talks about his expertise, he immediately becomes confident and stubborn.

"It's not that there are gold deposits inside the granite, but rather that there are gold deposits in the contact zone around the granite."

"This is the latest geological theory. You can take a look at the geological journals when you have time."

“This new theory is described in detail in the newly published ‘Mining Chronicle’ this June.”

"In short, have someone dig a tunnel in this direction first, it doesn't need to be too long, just 100 meters. If no mineral vein is found, I'll admit defeat."

(End of this chapter)