My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 133 A Golden Nest Has Been Unearthed

The terrain of the destination is a ridge rising from the high mountain on the south bank of the river. For about a hundred meters at the end, it slopes upwards in a wave-like pattern into the river, forming an open pincer shape with the main mountain.

Right in this narrow passage, there is a sizable grassy slope and a long, narrow pond connected to the river.

Zhou Jingming's small notebook records the results of the sand testing and exploration here: Haxionggou, on the south slope, has a scattered alluvial placer gold deposit, about three kilometers long, in a pincer-shaped gully, located in the middle of the river, with a grade of 5.

Of course, he couldn't and wouldn't have written such obvious things in his small notebook, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to take them with him.

This is information he extracted from the contents of books by flipping through his small notebook on the train to Altay, relying on his memory.

The notebook records that in the lush forests of Haxionggou, the mountain peaks along the river stand out from the others, with only some shrubs and rocks and mostly wild grass, making it a good pasture.

It contains descriptions of cattle and sheep, as well as descriptions of Kazakh herders.

In his notebook, he usually used cattle, sheep, camels, etc. to refer to placer gold veins, and used the number of herders as a measure of quality. Wherever the herders' tents were pitched, that was the best mining spot...

Much of the content is fabricated; it's just a way to hide the location and condition of certain mineral deposits.

Of course, only good mineral veins are worth recording like this.

To ensure authenticity, he would also record some rumors in it.

For example, on the banks of the Khayertes River, where the river flows gently, there is a towering cliff that locals call the Maiden Cliff. Legend has it that a couple whose marriage was thwarted jumped off the cliff, becoming a Kazakh version of the Butterfly Lovers.

In addition, a grand Aken singing and dancing festival is held at the summer pastures of Shayhenbulak in August and September, along with exciting horse racing and girl chasing competitions.

To others, it was just a travelogue about mountains and rivers, about what they saw and heard in the mountains, with no mention of gold. Only Zhou Jingming knew that it contained many descriptions of the location of gold mines and exploration data.

The term "alluvial gold deposit" is a professional term; in simpler terms, it refers to gold deposits that have been transported and deposited by water. These gold veins are mainly formed in alluvial layers of rivers since the Quaternary period.

Its distribution is closely related to the development history of rivers.

During the long geological evolution process, the river carried a large amount of gold-bearing debris, which was deposited in areas where the flow rate slowed down, forming gold-rich ore bodies.

These ore bodies are typically distributed in layers or lenses, are shallowly buried, easy to mine, and have distinct regional characteristics.

Large-scale alluvial placer gold deposits exist in China, including the Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest regions.

These deposits are usually located in the middle and lower reaches of rivers or in river valley plains, but the thickness and grade of the ore body vary considerably.

The mountain valley that Zhou Jingming chose is located more than ten meters above the current river surface, where mineral veins are situated, and is divided into three terraces.

In terms of thickness, the thinnest part is only about one meter, while the thickest part can be two or three meters.

The recent heavy rains have also affected this area, causing the riverbed to be cut down by more than one meter.

In the grassland of the mountain valley, there is a long, narrow pond that connects to the river at the mouth of the channel. Now the water level has dropped considerably, and the exposed silt is covered with wild grass, which has actually made the mining site have more ore that can be extracted.

Zhou Jingming led the group to the gentle slope and grass in the mountain valley, plopped down on the ground, and threw the sixty jin of flour he was carrying onto the grass: "This is it, we'll dig our dugouts here."

The items weren't heavy, but carrying them for so long was really tough. He found that even when he was sitting down, the muscles in his calves were as hard as rocks, mainly because he had climbed many hills and slopes along the way.

At first, I was sweating profusely, but the sun dried me off quickly. When I touched my face, it was covered with a layer of salt. The back of my clothes became stiff with a large white salt stain, as if it would crumble if I squeezed it.

Their bodies were severely dehydrated; they hadn't urinated at all all day.

Others are not doing much better either.

Even Wu Yang, who usually has the best physical strength, collapsed to the ground and didn't want to get up, appearing somewhat listless.

Someone suggested, "Don't we have tents? Let's just use the tents. It's only going to be done for a little over a month anyway, is it really necessary to go through all this trouble?"

“It’s a problem, not just a problem. Autumn is coming soon, and by October, it could snow at any time in the mountains. The temperature difference between day and night is getting bigger and bigger. If we don’t dig a dugout, people can’t stand it and will easily get sick.”

Zhou Jingming let out a long breath: "Health is the foundation of everything. In the gold mining business, if you want to make money, you have to rely on your physical strength. You can't be careless. Of course, digging dugouts is something for tomorrow. I didn't say you have to dig them now."

Besides, digging dug pits isn't a loss. Believe it or not, the mud and sand we dig here can be used to pan for gold. It's killing two birds with one stone.

The man immediately fell silent.

The group lay sprawled on the grass, too lazy to move. They smoked two cigarettes and rested for a while before finally regaining some strength.

Wang Dong was the first to stand up. He went to the poplar grove he had just passed through to pick up the fallen dead branches.

It's obvious at a glance that he's preparing to ignite a conflict.

Peng Yuanchao was more concerned about the grade of the ore deposit: "Brother, what's the grade of the gold ore in this place?"

Upon hearing his question, Li Guozhu, Wu Yang, and the others all looked over.

Zhou Jingming just smiled and said, "Would the place I brought you here be bad? If you don't believe me, find a spot for yourself. Right here on this grassland, just pick any place, dig a foot deep, and you'll see the gravel layer underneath. Fill a golden bucket and go to the pond below to shake it, and you'll know."

If you find that troublesome, look at the hillside behind you; find a embankment where the gravel layer is exposed and dig a little bit there.

He was simply too lazy to move.

Peng Yuanchao nudged Li Guozhu: "Brother Li, let's go take a look!"

Li Guozhu is the oldest in the group, and everyone has to call him "brother." Among the people he used to lead, some have to call him "uncle."

He blew the half-smoked cigarette butt he was holding between his teeth far away with a "poof," sat up straight, put his hands on his knees, stood up, and followed Peng Yuanchao to the cart to rummage through it and find a gold bucket and a pickaxe.

The two looked around and walked uphill for about seven or eight meters. There, they found a small embankment covered with wild grass. On the embankment, they could see layers of pebbles the size of eggs and fists, mixed with some yellow mud and gravel. Li Guozhu swung his pickaxe and dug a few times, and several large clods of earth covered with stones rolled down.

Peng Yuanchao followed behind, trying to catch it with his gold bucket, but he saw Li Guozhu swinging his pickaxe horizontally towards him and hurriedly dodged, failing to catch it.

Several clods of earth immediately rolled merrily down the grassy slope, rolling faster and faster, bouncing and jumping. After a few collisions, they loosened up, but the pebbles inside continued to roll down, sometimes leaping more than a meter high.

Seeing this, the people below hurriedly dragged their tired bodies to avoid being hit by the stones.

Zhou Jingming couldn't help but complain, "You two old masters really know how to pick a location!"

Peng Yuanchao laughed awkwardly: "I'll be more careful next time... Brother Li, that's enough, stop digging!"

After Li Guozhu stopped digging, Peng Yuanchao scooped up the excavated mud and sand into a small bucket, filled it to a shallow depth, and carried it to the pond at the foot of the slope.

The others were also curious about what kind of good mine it was, so they all followed.

Only Zhou Jingming, after glancing at Wang Dong who was gathering firewood in the woods, got up and went to help him.

Zhou Jingming has absolute confidence in the mining sites that he has personally surveyed and that no one has touched.

Sure enough, after a short while, cheers could be heard from the pond.

Needless to say, a delightful amount of gold was found in that bucket of mud and sand.

You can find fine particles of gold in a bucket of mud and sand dug up from a simple earthen bank. That's an incredible concept.

Peng Yuanchao stood up and looked at Zhou Jingming, only to find that Jin Wang was lying asleep on the grass, while Zhou Jingming was nowhere to be seen.

Upon closer inspection, they saw him gathering firewood in the poplar grove. Peng Yuanchao hurriedly said to the group, "Quick, quick, have you forgotten Brother Zhou's instructions?"

Suppressing their excitement, everyone went to help gather firewood, dig an earthen stove, and fetch water.

After fussing around for more than half an hour, a pot was placed on the earthen stove, filled with water and started boiling.

Unlike the Haiertes River, perhaps because no one has been panning for gold in this valley, the water in this river is relatively clear. Although there are animal hoofprints and dung everywhere along the riverbank, it is still much better than the muddy and polluted sewage over there.

But Zhou Jingming still felt it was necessary to dig a small well on the riverbank at the foot of the slope as a drinking water point, as the multiple layers of silt filtration would be better.

That's for tomorrow.

He had warned us before that drinking unboiled water could easily cause echinococcosis. Although everyone's mouths were dry and bitter, they endured it and waited for the water in the pot to boil so that they could drink the salt tea to quench their thirst, replenish the salt that was scarce in their bodies, and also share the few remaining cysts.

Wang Dong stayed behind to wash vegetables and cook, while Zhou Jingming and the others unloaded the supplies from the cart, chose a slightly flat grassy area, and drove stakes into the ground to set up the tents.

It's just a temporary stay; sixteen people will be fine in one tent.

It didn't take long to get things done.

Now I can finally get some real rest.

Everyone gathered around the earthen stove, waiting.

At that moment, Peng Yuanchao took out a small glass bottle from his pocket, handed it to Zhou Jingming, and then gave him a thumbs up.

Zhou Jingming took it and looked at it. Inside were four or five small pieces of bran gold and a tiny bit of gold dust. The color was reddish-yellow and the color was very good.

“This is not even the bottom layer. When we were exploring and testing the sand, we only dug one foot deep, and the surface layer had a grade of four grams per ton. If it were the bottom layer, the grade would be even higher. Of course, there are some places where the grade cannot be reached.”

As he spoke, he handed the small glass bottle to Wu Yang, asking him to pass it around and show it to everyone.

Having worked in the Gold Rush Valley for several months, they were no strangers to gold. But seeing firsthand what was being panned out of the gold pans made them feel more at ease, knowing that coming along was a wise choice.

Peng Yuanchao then added with a smile, "Brother Zhou, would you say you're a traitor to the geological team?"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Jingming rolled his eyes: "I can't be bothered with you!"

Wang Dong was clearly exhausted, so he couldn't cook anything too elaborate. He simply used the smoked mutton that Zhou Jingming had bought in Tiemaike to make a soup, added potato chunks and cabbage leaves, sprinkled in some salt, stirred it a few times, and then called everyone to eat.

Compared to naan, this dish, no matter how simply it's prepared, is still delicious.

Everyone grabbed large bowls, filled them with rice, ladled some soup and vegetables onto the rice, and then slumped onto the grass to the side to start eating noisily.

At that moment, no one was in the mood to talk; all they wanted to do was finish their meal, quickly get into their tents, wrap themselves in blankets, and go to sleep.

That night, everyone slept soundly. It was past nine o'clock the next morning, and they were still unwilling to get up. Traveling this road to Haxionggou felt even more grueling than digging and transporting materials on the small peninsula.

But at least I slept soundly and felt much better.

After a quick breakfast, everyone took their tools and Zhou Jingming divided the men into two groups. One group dug pits to build dugouts, while the other group built a road leading to the pond at the foot of the slope to facilitate the transport of materials and to make it easier to get in and out and fetch water.

This time, while digging the dugout, they actually found a gold mine. In the morning, someone picked out a few gold nuggets from the excavated material, the largest of which was about the size of a broad bean. Around noon, Sun Chenggui found a piece of gold nugget about half the size of a palm from the excavated mud and sand.

This is the largest nugget of gold discovered in months of gold panning.

Peng Yuanchao immediately took out a small balance scale and weighed the flat, hole-filled gold nugget. It weighed 158 grams, and with the gold nuggets he had picked up, it weighed 173 grams.

This achievement energized everyone, making them work even harder.

(End of this chapter)