Sail across the sea

Chapter 399 No one can outsmart this debt

"Xiao Gao, you really have a way with things."

That evening, in the small restaurant of the Gu'nan County Guesthouse where they were staying, Pei Hengxue raised his small wine glass to Gao Fan and said with emotion.

Beside him, Liu Yanlin and another engineer from Zeyan Institute named Lin Aiqiao nodded repeatedly and raised their small wine glasses to greet Gao Fan.

Gao Fan raised his glass and clinked it with everyone's, drank the wine in his glass, and then smiled:

"Please excuse my poor performance. You are all my teachers, scientists who value pragmatism and rigor. In recent years, I have been running a business and neglected my studies, only developing a knack for talking a good game."

Pei Hengxue said, "Xiao Gao is too modest. You're not just talking; you're turning lead into gold. To be honest, we couldn't believe you when you said we could get 3000 yuan per mine for technical services."

"As a result, now a mine receives more than 1 yuan, and these mine owners obediently pay up without daring to utter a single complaint. This ability is something that no one in our Zeyan Institute can match."

During the day, after Gao Fan's two pressure tests, the mine owners who went to Youtang to learn the new technology no longer dared to show their teeth. Instead, they listened attentively to Liu Yanlin and Lin Aiqiao's explanations and watched the operation process. Subsequently, five mine owners signed technical service agreements with Zeyan Institute, requesting the institute to carry out process modifications for them using the in-situ leaching method.

The in-situ leaching process requires drilling a series of injection wells in the mine to inject the leaching solution. Then, guide holes, collection channels, and collection pools need to be drilled at the foot of the mine. The location of the injection wells and guide holes is crucial, taking into account the distribution of the ore body and the condition of its floor to prevent leakage or reabsorption.

In addition, factors such as groundwater also need to be considered. The rare earth mother liquor cannot be allowed to flow into the groundwater body, nor can the groundwater be allowed to flow into the collection ditch. How to achieve a balance of water levels involves calculations that even Gao Fan could not understand.

Considering the difficulty of the technology and the potential profits from its adoption, Gao Fan directly instructed Zeyan Institute to raise the technology transfer fee to 100 yuan per ton of output. If a mine could ultimately produce 100 tons of oxide, it would need to pay Zeyan Institute a service fee of 1 yuan.

To avoid the hassle of collecting payments later, Gao Fan's solution is a prepayment system. The engineers at Zeyan Institute will assess the mine's output in advance and collect the service fee in one lump sum based on the expected output, with any overpayment refunded and any underpayment collected later.

Of course, everyone knows that refunding more is fine, but paying less is a different story.

If the mine's final output falls short of the estimated quantity when fees were charged, the mine owners may seek a refund from Zeyan Institute. However, if the output exceeds the estimated quantity, the mine owners will almost certainly pretend not to know, and Zeyan Institute is unlikely to engage in a protracted dispute with them over a few hundred yuan.

The technical service fees quoted by Zeyan Institute surprised all the mine owners. Previously, Zeyan Institute charged 30 yuan per engineer per day, and two engineers working for five days would earn 300 yuan. Now, the fee for a single mine is over 1 yuan, and for larger mines, it could be as high as 2 or 3 yuan, which is simply outrageous.

Furthermore, the prepayment system is equally unreasonable. My mine hasn't even been mined yet, I haven't earned a single penny, and you're already taking away money for the next ten years? Isn't that extortion?
Faced with the mine owners' questions, Gao Fan told Liu Yanlin and Lin Aiqiao to only answer with one sentence: "Take it or leave."

That's right, that's exactly what Gao Fan said. Liu Yanlin and Lin Aiqiao are both cultured people, so they certainly wouldn't speak so vulgarly. However, with Gao Fan's words as a foundation, the two felt confident, and although they spoke more tactfully, their attitude remained unwavering.

Ultimately, some mine owners chose to wait and see, citing as reasons that they needed to discuss it with their partners or wives. The other mine owners, however, yielded and signed cooperation agreements with Zeyan Institute. Zeyan Institute will send engineers to the site as soon as possible to conduct surveys, assess production output, and determine the cooperation price. After receiving full payment from the mine owners, Zeyan Institute will guide them in the mine's renovation, which will take some time.

In fact, even if the technical guidance fee for a mine reaches 1 yuan, mine owners can afford it. Even if the new technology only increases production by 1 ton of ore, the profit is enough to offset the guidance fee; the rest of the increased production is net profit. Who can't do the math?
If the bookworms at Zeyan Institute don't know the market and are willing to offer a low price, everyone will be happy to get a bargain. Why spend money when you can get something for free?

But now the people at Zeyan Institute have become more cunning. Well, maybe it was that insidious special envoy who was behind it. If we can't get any benefits now, we'll have to pay up when it's time to pay, won't we?

Seeing that the mine owners had actually signed the contract, Pei Hengxue and the others were overjoyed, and they wished they could join hands and dance the Three Little Swans to pay tribute to Gao Fan.

"Assistant Gao, I'm truly impressed. This is what you call business acumen. Our leaders at Zeyan Institute... uh, I mean, we people really don't understand market economics at all."

Liu Yanlin had a few too many drinks and started talking without thinking, almost cursing Pei Hengxue to his face.

Gao Fan said, "That's how the market economy works: big shops bully customers, and big customers bully shops. If you're low-key, people will take advantage of you. Conversely, if you put on airs, the other party will have to back down."

“Our Zeyan Institute is a provincial-level unit, and Director Xiao is a deputy director-level cadre, which is higher than the county magistrate of Gunan County. As for Director Pei, Engineer Liu, Engineer Lin, and you are all great scientists. Giving lectures to these small mine owners is a huge honor for them. Is it too much for us to charge them ten thousand yuan?”

"Not much, not much!" Pei Hengxue laughed heartily. "Just considering that you, Special Envoy Gao, personally took charge, charging ten thousand yuan per mine is not much at all."

Everyone laughed; the joke about Gao Fan being the special envoy was definitely not over yet.

“Gunan’s goal this year is to produce more than 3000 tons of rare earth oxides. If all the mines are handed over to us for renovation, and we charge 100 yuan per ton of production, we can earn 30 yuan.” Lin Aiqiao took a bite of her food and started doing the math. She was shocked by what she found.

"The technical service fee we collect is prepaid. Based on the output over the next five years, it will amount to 150 million yuan," Liu Yanlin said enthusiastically.

Pei Hengxue said, "The accounts can't be calculated like that. There are more than 100 mines in Gunan County, and not all of them are willing to be upgraded. Today, Lao Liu talked until his throat was hoarse, and only 5 mine owners signed contracts with us. I don't think the future promotion work will necessarily be so smooth."

Gao Fan smiled and said, "Director Pei's words have reminded me. Let's go to the county tomorrow."

(End of this chapter)