I am farming in the real world.

Chapter 306 Double Happiness
"A small copper mine in exchange for 200 of these refurbished secondhand ships?"

Antoine, the trade representative of the Democratic Republic of Congo, immediately fell into deep thought after hearing Chen Jue's offer.

These black men had repeatedly inspected the ships docked in the port of Rabat, just like the ones in front of them.

Both the thickness of the steel skin and the quality presented after the refurbishment are comparable to new ships from Western shipyards.

Take a fishing boat with a capacity of 10,000 tons as an example. Such a boat would retail for $3 to 4 million in West Africa.

If 200 ships could arrive at once, along with some bulk carriers, it would be a boost to the development of the shipping and fishing industries in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Based on this calculation, the value of these 200 ships delivered in six months must be close to $7-8 million.

Such a deal is quite large for a small country with an annual GDP of just over $600 billion.

More importantly, the purpose of buying the ship is for sustainable development in the future.

West Africa has abundant fishery resources, and even the worst ships need to be equipped with dozens of sailors and crew members.

The 200 boats alone could easily create tens of thousands of jobs, not even counting the subsequent support services such as boat maintenance and upkeep.

After much thought, Mr. Antoine nodded and agreed, saying, "Exchanging small copper mines is no problem, but I need to make it clear to you, Mr. Jue, beforehand about the distribution of copper mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo."

As one of the world's richest countries in copper resources, with copper reserves exceeding 2 million tons, accounting for 10% of global copper reserves, the Democratic Republic of Congo has long been monopolized by mining giants from various countries.

Companies like China Molybdenum, Zijin Mining, China Minmetals, and Huagang have all established their own contracted mines in this West African country.

In addition, Western mining giants such as Glencore, ranked 24th in the Fortune Global 500, also have mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Because the local copper mines are not just simple copper ore, most of them are associated with cobalt ore, making them very valuable for mining and utilization.

High-quality, exploitable mines have long been snapped up by these domestic and international mining giants.

The only remaining issues are some remote areas or low-grade copper mines with high mining costs that have not yet been contracted out.

As a rising star, if Cube Group wants to enter the market and make a move, it can only bypass the large mines and focus on the small mines that the giants have left behind.

Of course, in response to Antoine's questions, Chen Jue, as MC Steve, naturally replied, "No problem, Mr. Antoine, I will personally lead the team to find a suitable mine."

"However, we must agree beforehand that no matter how we operate the mines locally, your Congolese National Mining Company shall not interfere with our normal operations."

"Moreover, all our Cube Group wants is a small mine pit that others don't want, to test our equipment and technology. I think your country should be able to agree to this request, right?"

Faced with such a small request, Antoine readily agreed.

After both parties signed the contract, Chen Jue made a phone call in front of the other party, instructing the purchasing department of the domestic Magic Cube Group to hurry up and acquire second-hand old ships on the market.

As for Ji Xian, who was in charge of this sales business, his excitement grew even more after seeing all 100-plus second-hand refurbished boats that had been towed over sold.

After all, he could earn a 2% commission on this ship just by leveraging his connections in Africa.

This ship sale will bring in at least 800 million US dollars!

For someone like him who has been struggling in West Africa for many years, this is definitely the biggest extra income he has ever received.

In addition, Chen Jue also credited Ji Xian with the commission for the subsequent order of 200 ships.

All in all, that's over $2000 million in commissions. Even if he quits and goes back to China, and his family's shipyard goes bankrupt, Ji Xian can still become a billionaire again! This makes Ji Xian even more determined to stick close to Chen Jue for the rest of his life!

Because this large-scale business of refurbishing second-hand ships is so rare in Africa that it's practically unheard of.

After completing these small deals in Ghana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Liberia, once his reputation grows, Ji Xian can continue to expand outwards using his local connections.

Larger African countries, such as South Africa, Equatorial Guinea, Algeria, and Nigeria, also have similar needs for maritime transport and marine fishing.

Once you open up the sales channels and figure out the path, won't wealth keep flowing in?

"It's fortunate that my father sold the Pearl Shipyard to President Jue back then."

"If it weren't for this connection, I would have been stuck in Africa for who knows how many more years, struggling and despairing," Ji Xian couldn't help but sigh to himself.

After the contract was signed, a celebration banquet was held at a high-end hotel in Rabat, Morocco, where the guy got quite drunk with the group of black men.

Although Chen Jue didn't know how much of the commission this guy was going to give away, judging from how flushed and rosy-cheeked he looked at the table, he knew that Ji Xian had definitely made a lot of money from this trip.

……

After accompanying a group of black men to experience the local drinking culture in Africa.

The next morning, Chen Jue waited at the hotel for the old merchant who had rushed over.

Upon seeing the unusual piece of green chalcedony, the villager with the big nose immediately flew to the site by private jet to see a sample.

The old merchant held the piece of green chalcedony and examined it carefully under his eyes, then took a few deep sniffs with his big nose.

The ecstatic and infatuated look on its face made Chen Jue want to pull out his big iron sword and give it a couple of stabs to bring it to its senses: "So? Can it replace the Imperial Green Jadeite?"

The big-nosed old merchant nodded with his eyes gleaming with greed, saying, "Great job, boss! This piece of green chalcedony contains extremely small amounts of 'emerald' components. It should be a by-product of some kind of jade, or a transitional product before the formation of imperial green jadeite."

"Although the content is low, as long as the amount of green chalcedony mined is large enough, it can be refined using the [furnace]."

According to the analysis of the big-nosed old merchant, the reason why he missed this green chalcedony from Tanzania when testing known gemstones was because the classification of gemstones by humans on Earth is too monopolistic and one-sided.

Take diamonds as an example. In the past, in order to raise the value of genuine African diamonds and form a rating monopoly in the entire industry chain, De Beers in South Africa tried its best to suppress diamonds from outside Africa.

Diamonds mined by Russia, for example, have long been disliked by the Western jewelry industry and have been smeared by Western media as "fake diamonds."

In fact, the ingredients of both are the same; the difference lies in their place of origin, which leads to their different values.

The green chalcedony from Tanzania that we are currently looking at illustrates this point.

Its associated minerals contain components similar to Burmese jade, but they are considered cheap gemstones by the jewelry industry and cannot be sold in the open. Chen Jue, who has the MC system, got a good deal from them.

"Since we can extract emeralds, let's mine as much as we can!" Chen Jue was in high spirits after listening to the other party's analysis.

Ever since the Minecraft villagers spawned in the village, he has been struggling to find emeralds to trade items with them.

Now that there are cheaper and easier-to-obtain alternatives to Imperial Emerald, the Minecraft-specific items and materials that I had been eyeing, such as the Nether Heart and Ender Pearls, finally have a solution.

(End of this chapter)