Nanyang 1931: From piglets to giants

Chapter 16 There is a problem

Zheng Yi and Wu Wenhao originally planned to find a food stall near the company to eat, but before they could even start eating, a colleague from the company told them that Li Xiaoshi had something urgent to discuss with him and asked him to go directly to his house.

"Brother, Chairman."

It was the first time he met Li Jiqian. The old man was actually not very old, just in his early sixties. He had a straight back and was wearing a Zhongshan suit. He looked very energetic.

Li Jiqian did not exchange pleasantries with him, but spoke to Li Xiaoshi, telling him the situation.

Li Jiqian's intention was to let him see whether the project could be launched quickly. If the safety risks were ignored and the project was launched, how big would the so-called risk be?

The two Americans saw him coming, looked at each other, and said with a smile: "Expert? A Chinese technical expert?"

"This... Mr. Zheng? Can you understand our technical plan and design drawings? Mr. Zheng, do you know anything about mercury mines?"

"Mr. Li, I think this is unnecessary. We're very pressed for time. We came to Southeast Asia this time because we had an appointment in the Philippines, and we came to see you two by chance. You're looking for this so-called technical expert...with all due respect, it's nothing but a waste of time."

Zheng Yi was not annoyed. In this era, Europeans and Americans were arrogant towards Asians. It was naked and undisguised. Naturally, there was no need for him to be angry about their attitude.

He is the technical director and is only responsible for the technical part.

He had indeed never had much contact with mercury mines, but as the saying goes, if you master one principle, you will master them all. The principles of machinery are similar, especially mining. In fact, there are similarities in all kinds of mining.

How complicated can the machinery and on-site design be in this era? Without pursuing details and not building it yourself, you can still review it to see what's going on.

And he knew at a glance that mercury mines did have their own special properties, but this special property was closer to chemical industry.

Chemical engineering is his specialty.

"Do you use a combined gravity-flotation process for mineral processing? That seems quite complicated. Chairman, is the ore very complex? If we are in a hurry to start the project, can we start with mineral separation and gravity separation first, and then gradually add flotation later?"

Zheng Yi looked at the two American technical experts and said, "Is that okay? This should be much faster."

The two Americans were stunned, but then they quickly retorted: "Do you think this is something as crude as tin ore?

Mercury ore is very complex, with many associated minerals. Hand sorting and gravity separation are so crude and primitive, how can they work? "

Zheng Yi was also stunned when he heard this. He turned around and asked Li Jiqian, "Is the quality of the ore very poor?"

It shouldn't be like this. In this era, mines of slightly lower quality cannot even be fully explored. Most mines should be open-pit mines.

Li Jiqian: "The quality of the ore is very good. General Bai asked Mr. Wu Xizeng to take a look at it. He said that it is the best quality ore found in China."

Upon hearing this, Zheng Yi looked at the two American experts again.

"If it's high-quality ore, we can use the gravity separator first to deal with it and get the plant up and running. That should be feasible. This will certainly affect the mine's output and cause a certain amount of resource waste."

"But it should be much faster. Gravity separation is much easier than flotation, both in terms of process and technical equipment. Can't we just deal with it for now?

Besides, the remaining ore can be rescreened after the flotation equipment arrives. Isn't that possible?"

The tin mines in Kuala Lumpur don't undergo a beneficiation process. Malaysia's tin resources are so abundant that the fineness of the mined tin can be discerned with the naked eye. Therefore, although Li Xiaoshi and Li Jiqian were miners, they didn't know much about beneficiation and basically just went along with their tricks. However, Zheng Yi wasn't so easily fooled.

When the two Americans heard him say this, they couldn't help but look at each other.

I knew in my heart that I had met someone who knew the business.

But he said, "Well... Actually, according to our understanding, the quality of your mineral deposits is not as good as Mr. Li said. The so-called high quality is probably only in your country. According to international standards... With all due respect, the quality of this mine can only be considered... average."

Zheng Yi: "Oh, is that so?"

"Yes, that's right, that's it."

"Really?"

"Of course, I promise you on my reputation as an engineer."

"Oh, I see."

Zheng Yi did not comment. After all, he had never been to that mine, and there was no ready-made ore here to test.

But if he remembered correctly, at least in modern society, China should be the main production area of ​​mercury.

Although China's mineral resources are not rich, some types of minerals still account for more than half of the world's mineral reserves. According to his understanding, this kind of "Chinese minerals" includes mercury metal.

How come the quality of a product that is considered good in China is considered average in the world?
Of course, he couldn't be sure. After all, what he knew were things from modern society. What if there were a lot of these things in the country, but they were not discovered during the Republic of China?

He really knew nothing about the development of the domestic mining industry during the Republic of China period.

But this time he became wary of the so-called technical design plan of the two Americans and began to examine it carefully.

"I have a feeling these two guys have bad intentions."

"The supporting facilities are quite complete. Are the associated minerals copper and iron? The blast furnace is... Oh, two American experts, if the customer is so anxious, why do you need such a large furnace?"
Mercury's boiling point is so low, there's no need for such a large furnace. As for the associated copper and iron, there's no rush. General Bai is so eager to mine them, probably for foreign exchange, right? Can't he mine the mercury first and worry about the associated minerals later?"

Seeing Zheng Yi frowning, Li Xiaoshi asked, "Is there something wrong?"

Zheng Yi: "There are no problems with ore dressing and ore smelting, but it is too perfect. Mercury is usually accompanied by cinnabar, copper, iron, aluminum and other metals. His design is fine, but such a large blast furnace is obviously used for iron and copper smelting.

There is also mineral processing, mercury and cinnabar, which have been mined in China since the Han Dynasty. The mining difficulty itself is not high, it is just a matter of efficiency.
This plan also uses a combined gravity and flotation beneficiation method, and the benefits are indeed very high, but... it doesn't meet the chairman's request to start construction quickly, even if it means losing money."

Li Jiqian hurriedly asked, "What about safety? What about potential safety hazards? These aren't important. Just look at the potential safety hazards. Is there any way to shorten the construction period?"

"Well, safety..."

Upon hearing this, Zheng Yi lowered his head and studied it for a full hour.

He raised his head and said in English: "Gentlemen, there is a problem with the wastewater treatment design in this design plan.
Even if the chairman doesn't urge the construction to begin, and we follow your plan strictly, if we wait three to five years before officially starting construction, the entire mining area will still seem to have huge safety hazards. Is this an accident? Or... intentional?"

(End of this chapter)