Republic of China: Guandong Ginseng King

Chapter 315 Gold Mine Production
The weather in the north is cold, and many gold mining areas often have a "permafrost layer" two or three meters below, also called old frozen soil or old layer.

Even if the ground is not frozen, it is still very hard and difficult to dig.

Experienced gold miners often use fire attacks.

In the gold panning industry, using fire to attack gold is called "fermenting", which means using fire to roast for a long time.

Gold retting mainly relies on smoke, and hot retting is used to drive away the old layer.

Therefore, wood cannot be used as firewood for fermenting gold, as wood will burn out quickly and will be of no use.

"Go, cut more thorny seedlings and ferment them." Old Hu waved his hand, signaling the metalworkers to start working.

The thorny vine is a herbaceous vine that generally grows in wasteland and ditches and ponds.

There are barbs on its stems and leaves. If you get scratched by them accidentally, it will be very painful and burning.

This kind of thing doesn't cause much fire, and is the best way to ferment gold in the gold panning industry.

When the metalworkers heard this, they immediately took their tools and started cutting the vines nearby.

Old Hu jumped into the sieve and piled the rice seedlings cut by the gold workers at the bottom of the sieve.

Don't underestimate stacking the seedlings; this job requires considerable skill and the plants need to be stacked together.

After lighting it in this way, it will only produce smoke but no flame, and it will ferment strongly and last a long time.

No matter how old the frozen layer is, it can't withstand this kind of smoke.

When the rice seedlings were stacked and lit, only blue smoke was seen coming out everywhere, but no fire.

There are some old hands in metalworking. One look at the smoking posture and you know that Lao Hu’s skills are impeccable.

The stalks of rice under the ground will burn all night, and there is no need for everyone to just stand there and watch.

So the chief cabinet and the foreman gave the order and everyone went back to the big house to rest.

Smoke rose from the censer all night long. When everyone came over the next day, there was still a bright red fire at the bottom of the censer, but there was no flame at all.

Everyone was full of admiration and gave Lao Hu a thumbs up, "This job is really not something that ordinary people can do. The boss is really good at it."

"Big boss, take a look at the base of this wall, what do you think?" someone asked, pointing inside.

Old Hu glanced at the wall and said with a smile, "The Kara (stone) is flat, but it is still far from the sand."

The crowd was not convinced and continued digging with tools. After digging about ten feet deep, they saw ridges on the rocks underground.

Lao Hu glanced at it and nodded, "Kara doesn't let it go, this time it's not far from the sand."

Sure enough, after a while, sand was dug out from the bottom of the pit.

"Kara can be divided into male and female. If you open it and see that the stone has a big bottom, it is a female. If the two ends are equally thick, it is a male.

If the mother and child are facing one way, it means that the groundwater used to flow towards the back, and there must be gold there.

If you are digging in a ditch, you don't know the direction of the water flow and it is difficult to judge whether there is gold.

So go find Mukala and you will get a lot of gold." Old Hu explained to everyone while directing them to work.

Everyone was very impressed by what Lao Hu said.

When the bottom of the pit saw sand, they followed Lao Hu's instructions and dug horizontally along the golden line.

The excavated ore is lifted into large baskets and placed on the chute, where it is flushed with water.

A chute is a long tool made of iron plate with densely packed small holes on it.

The chute is placed at a certain angle along the hillside, and a wooden chute with grids is placed under the iron chute.

After the ore passes through two chutes, the gold content sinks to the bottom and the mud and sand are washed away by water.

After the ore sand is roughly selected in the chute, it can be finely selected with a gold dustpan to obtain gold sand.

Experienced gold diggers identify the properties of ore sand based on its color, taste, and mineral composition.

"Red is the best, yellow is the second, green is the third, and white and black are the lowest." This is to identify the different components and gold content of the ore by color.

“The richest gold is the mineral seedling, and it tastes slightly sweet.” This means that when the gold content is high, you will taste a slightly sweet taste, so the “tasting” method is popular among gold diggers.

In fact, gold panning is a highly technical job.

Experienced gold miners can accurately judge the quality of gold mines.

Moreover, the washing method can be determined according to the different properties of the ore.

At the Sandaogou Gold Mine, more than 200 gold workers, led by Lao Han, Lao Hu and others, are busy digging, carrying, washing and selecting sand every day.

At night, the gold sand was handed over to the counter for accounting.

According to the prior agreement, the gold sand earned by the metalworker was divided into 40% and 60% respectively, with the metalworker getting 40% and the cashier getting 60%. At the end of the year, the accounts were settled and dividends were distributed together.

Of course, many goldworkers among them wanted to secretly steal the gold, accumulate a certain amount, and then secretly take it away.

The methods used by goldsmiths to hide gold are endless, but Lao Han and Lao Hu are both masters in this field and can easily see through them.

Anyone found hiding gold will be severely punished.

At the same time, the important entrances and exits around the gold field were guarded by special personnel armed with rifles.

If anyone tried to secretly transport gold out, the guards would shoot them directly.

The gold sand content of the Sandaogou gold mine is higher than Lao Han and his team expected. In the first month of the gold mine's operation, more than 80 kilograms of gold sand were delivered.

“Sir, this is only the first month, and many of the metalworkers are not yet proficient.

After a while, when you get used to the work, you will be able to submit more."

That day, Qu Shaoyang happened to come to the gold field for inspection. Old Han quickly reported to Qu Shaoyang and took Qu Shaoyang for a tour of the gold field.

"This mineral vein is indeed good, with abundant gold. Our biggest problem right now is the lack of manpower.

If we can have more manpower, we can produce more gold.”

Old Han is in charge of more than 200 metalworkers, but he still doesn't feel satisfied and always wants to expand the scale.

"Brother Han, it's not easy to recruit people right now, so let's leave it like this for now.

Later, I will ask if there is a machine for washing ore sand. If there is, we can get one and save a lot of manpower."

In fact, at this time, there were already gold mining ships abroad.

Before, Qu Shaoyang was unsure how much gold sand the gold mine could produce, so he didn't dare to arrange for the machine.

Now that I've seen the sweetness, I might as well think about getting a machine.

"Oh, if you hadn't mentioned this, I would have forgotten that the Mohe Gold Mine copied the wooden machine used by the Russians to pan for gold, and it works pretty well."

When Old Han heard this, he slapped his forehead and said.

"We call that thing a wooden donkey, and it uses water power to wash things, without any manual labor.

The metalworker is only responsible for digging and carrying sand, and the wooden donkey can do the rest of the work.

A machine like that can replace hundreds of metal workers." Old Han quickly introduced it to Qu Shaoyang.

Qu Shaoyang was also very happy when he heard this, "Okay, I understand. I'll think of a way to get one of those machines."

Qu Shaoyang wandered around the gold field for a day and saw that everything was in order. He was very satisfied with Lao Han and Lao Hu.

When he had some free time, Qu Shaoyang also chatted with Qu Jiang and Ermaozi alone for a while.

Qu Shaoyang told Qu Jiang to keep an eye on the gold sand and accounts in the cabinet and make sure no one tampered with them.

The gold field starts working in mid-March every year and lasts until late September or early October.

Even if the time spent in half a year is as short as this month, the gains are still considerable.

The location of the accounting office is crucial, and Qu Shaoyang only trusts Qu Jiang.

(End of this chapter)