Homo Sapiens

「January 13, 2021.」

In the Longlang Mountains of Hongsawaddy.

Weng Xuehai, Ba Kang, and the rest of the exploration team had been prospecting for nearly half a month. After drilling 173 boreholes, they finally had a rough estimate of the mineral vein’s distribution, thickness, and reserves.

"To think that our mineral exploration team wasn’t the one to discover this super-giant mine," Ba Kang joked.

He wasn’t wrong, either. Since the construction crew for the space base had discovered it, the primary credit for the find went to them, not the exploration team.

Weng Xuehai was more philosophical about it. "Things like this are perfectly normal. You can’t count on blind luck. If we just keep our heads down and do our work, we’ll find other major deposits sooner or later."

Meanwhile, Wu Gang breathed a sigh of relief after receiving the map of the ore seam distribution. The vein didn’t extend toward the space base, which meant he just needed to find another location for fuel storage.

Just then, Wu Cong, the head of the mining department, also rushed over.

He stared at the mountainous terrain. Even with a railway line passing nearby, the prospect was still daunting enough to make one tear their hair out.

"Chief, what are the higher-ups planning for this place?" Ba Kang asked curiously.

Wu Cong spread his hands. "What else can we do? We have to mine it. Right now, our domestic iron ore is all imported from Kangaroo Country and Tianzhu. That’s not a good situation."

As the head of the mining company, Wu Cong knew that the three major groups currently had their own steel mills, and they weren’t small, either. Combined, they could produce 18 million tons of steel annually.

Next year, production would expand to 33 million tons of steel.

Iron and steelmaking equipment could be purchased, but iron ore was a consumable. Relying on imports long-term was not a good thing.

Although Qingye Group had used its new pharmaceuticals to force Tianzhu and Kangaroo Country to sell a batch of iron ore at low prices,

the other parties were surely scheming. For instance, they could let them expand their production capacity with low prices now, only to fatten them up for the slaughter in a few years and fleece them mercilessly.

The Hongsawaddy Branch and the other three fully autonomous regional branches didn’t have any large iron mines. If their iron ore supply was ever cut off, the profits of their steel industry would absolutely be reaped by Kangaroo Country.

Huaguo’s steel enterprises had their profits harvested by iron ore suppliers like BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, and Vale precisely because they couldn’t be self-sufficient in iron ore.

Wu Cong had seen parts of the company’s long-term plans, which required the construction of many large-scale infrastructure projects.

According to Homo Sapiens Company’s plan, they would need to consume at least 300 to 500 million tons of steel for infrastructure construction over the next 10 years.

With such enormous steel consumption, if they relied solely on imports, even a company as wealthy as Homo Sapiens Company wouldn’t be able to sustain it.

Therefore, they had to develop their own steel industry.

But that brought the problem full circle. The steel industry required massive amounts of iron ore, yet no large iron mines had been discovered within any of their fully autonomous operational zones, forcing them to rely on imports for the vast majority of their supply.

Now that this super-giant iron mine in the Longlang Mountains had been discovered, it was a certainty that it would be mined.

Weng Xuehai, who was present, reminded him, "President Wu, mining is one thing, but the associated minerals must be handled properly. They represent an enormous fortune."

"Of course. I’ll organize a confidential seminar when I get back to discuss a rational mining plan," Wu Cong replied. He was also very clear about the mine’s value.

According to preliminary survey data, the total magnetite reserves were approximately 870 million tons, with an average grade of 34.6%.

In addition, if all the associated titanium, vanadium, molybdenum, and rhenium were mined and refined, they could yield approximately 180,000 tons of titanium, 110,000 tons of vanadium, 30,000 tons of molybdenum, and, most valuable of all, 320 to 350 tons of rhenium.

If all the iron ore from this mine was extracted, it could be smelted into about 300 million tons of steel, which would basically meet the minimum requirements of Homo Sapiens Company for now.

Combined with the other small mines owned by Homo Sapiens Company, they could scrape together enough to smelt another 100 million tons of steel.

In other words, with the Longlang Mountain vanadium-titanium magnetite mine, Homo Sapiens Company would no longer need to worry about threats from international iron ore suppliers.

For now, while international iron ore prices were low, they had to import massive quantities without restraint.

The Longlang Mountain vanadium-titanium magnetite mine certainly wouldn’t be mined on a large scale initially. Instead, they needed to build up the infrastructure and supporting facilities to prepare for future capacity expansion at a moment’s notice.

As long as they had sufficient iron ore reserves on hand, the international iron ore suppliers were nothing but a bunch of paper tigers.

In fact, the iron mines throughout Hongsawaddy had already been sealed up to establish strategic reserves.

Homo Sapiens Company placed an exceptionally high value on preparing for a rainy day.

Whether it was food, energy, fertilizer, or minerals, they had established a complete strategic reserve system to cope with potential future external blockades.

After inspecting the mining area for two days, Wu Cong was about to head back to the company with his team when he unexpectedly ran into the head of another company.

"President Wu, your mining company has really struck it rich this time," said Ah Qinduo, the head of the Mandalay Special Refining Company, greeting him with a smile.

Wu Cong just smiled and shook his head. "It’s hard-earned money, is all. Besides, this mine will likely be kept as a strategic reserve."

Ah Qinduo didn’t beat around the bush; after all, they were all on the same side. He stated his purpose directly: "I’ve seen the exploration report. I don’t need the iron ore for now, but I’m in urgent need of the titanium, vanadium, molybdenum, and rhenium—especially the rhenium."

Wu Cong, who knew a little about the applications of these metals, immediately guessed what he was getting at. "Steam turbine blades? Or jet engines?"

Ah Qinduo nodded. "Our metallurgical technology isn’t that great. Some special components have extremely high performance requirements, so to meet them, we have to rely on using the best materials."

This was what Wu Cong had expected. He smiled and replied:

"We’re all serving the company. We’d just be holding on to these rare metals as reserves anyway. Since you need them, we’ll naturally cooperate fully. Besides, we need to process these associated minerals regardless."

"That’s fantastic," Ah Qinduo said, overjoyed.

Lately, the tasks of smelting special alloys and sourcing rare metal imports had been giving him a massive headache.

Titanium, vanadium, and molybdenum were one thing, but rhenium was not only as expensive as gold, but the channels for purchasing it were also extremely limited, mostly monopolized by Europe and America.

In lightweight, high-temperature-resistant alloys, rhenium provides the crucial finishing touch.

Rhenium is a critical raw material in many jet engines and components that must withstand ultra-high temperatures.

Although high-temperature-resistant alloys could be produced without rhenium, their performance would be much worse.

Homo Sapiens Company’s special alloy technology was already quite poor. If they couldn’t use good raw materials, the performance of their alloys would be even worse.

Clearly, for the Mandalay Special Refining Company, the discovery of the Longlang Mountain vanadium-titanium magnetite mine and its three hundred-plus tons of rhenium reserves was like finding a freshwater lake in the middle of a desert.

The two of them discussed for a while and decided to return to Mandalay together.

Meanwhile, Weng Xuehai, Ba Kang, and the others took the exploration team to continue prospecting the entire Longlang Mountain range.

After all, the mountain range was about 370 kilometers long from north to south and 50 to 80 kilometers wide from east to west, with a total area of 24,000 square kilometers—roughly 0.4 times the size of Tongliao.

With such a vast, largely unexplored area, the potential for finding more minerals was enormous.

Spurred on by the discovery of the Longlang Mountain vanadium-titanium magnetite mine, the exploration team planned to conduct a thorough survey of the entire Longlang Mountain range.

Although they said they didn’t care who was the first to discover a super-giant deposit, deep down, they actually cared a great deal.

Prospecting was their profession. To be outdone in their own field by someone else’s stroke of blind luck left them feeling a little indignant and unwilling to accept it.

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