My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 151 Trying to get a bargain isn't that easy.
Wu Yang, holding a hunting rifle, sat by the campfire at the entrance of the mine, smoking. From his vantage point, he could clearly see the surrounding river valley, both upstream and downstream.

This place originally had little vegetation and was very open. As far as the eye could see, there were only bare, half-rocky, half-soil mountain peaks. These peaks had one thing in common: the foot of their slopes was always piled with large mounds of weathered soil and gravel that had rolled down.

The vegetation on both sides of the river is alright, with some poplar trees, birch trees, and some shrubs and wild grasses.

Perhaps because of the injuries to his hip and head inflicted by the golden eagle, Jinwang, who is usually restless and likes to wander around, has been sleeping whenever he has the chance these past few days.

If it weren't for the fact that it could run, jump, and eat when it was moved to a new place, and that it could still bark loudly when it heard a noise, Wu Yang would have suspected that it had been crippled by the golden eagle.

Unfortunately, the cold weather slowed down the recovery of the injury, but Zhou Jingming checked and found that it was indeed recovering and there was no pus or blood accumulation.

Sounds came from inside the mine. Wu Yang turned around and glanced into the cave. He hurriedly added some firewood to the fire to make it burn brighter so that Zhou Jingming and the others could warm up as soon as they came out, and wouldn't get sick due to the large temperature difference between the inside and outside of the cave.

This is the fourth mine they've explored this morning. Every time Zhou Jingming came out of the mine, he would anxiously ask if there had been any discoveries, but the first three were always disappointing. Now that he's seen Zhou Jingming come out, he'll probably get the same result.

So he couldn't be bothered to ask anymore.

It was already noon, so he took out three naan breads and put them to bake by the fire. He then handed Zhou Jingming a military water bottle that had been boiled and kept warm by the fire.

Unexpectedly, as Zhou Jingming took the kettle, he handed him a piece of ore.

Wu Yang paused for a moment, took the ore, and examined it carefully. He found it to be a piece of smoky gray quartz, but there were no tiny gold particles or gold inclusions on the surface.

He asked, somewhat puzzled, "Brother Zhou, there's no gold on here either?"

Zhou Jingming sat down by the fire, offered cigarettes to the two men, and lit one for himself, saying, "I'm 90% sure we can find gold in this cave."

Bai Zhishun asked with a face full of curiosity: "Brother Zhou, what's the trick to prospecting for minerals? Every time we enter a mine, I see you carrying a hammer, tapping here and there, but I can't figure out what's going on."

Zhou Jingming smiled at him: "Finding lode gold is different from finding placer gold veins. The simplest way to find placer gold veins is to dig out the mud and sand deep inside and wash it to see if there is gold. But lode gold is more complicated, especially inside the mine."

When searching for gold in the rock, one should first pay close attention to silicified zones, quartz veins, and secondary quartzites. This is because gold mineralization is closely related to silicification; it can be said that gold cannot be formed without silicon.

Of course, not all siliceous deposits contain gold, but gold-bearing siliceous deposits are mostly smoky gray in color and have a good watery appearance.

Wu Yang and Bai Zhishun were both stunned.

They had almost no concept of geology.

Wuyang is a little better; he can read.

But Bai Zhishun is the kind of person who struggles even to write his own name, let alone understand terms like silicified bands or silica.

Over the past few days, he has only remembered the word "quartz" because it is relatively common.

However, the two of them were also very curious about finding gold, finding it quite mysterious.

Wu Yang couldn't help but ask, "Brother Zhou, what is silica?"

"It is a banded geological formation containing a high concentration of silica! It is usually formed during geological processes."

Its formation is mainly due to factors such as hydrothermal activity or magma intrusion, which cause changes in the mineral composition of the rock, resulting in silica-rich material.

"How come this is getting more and more complicated?"

The two of them were completely baffled by the technical jargon, which was full of concepts they didn't understand. Even after Zhou Jingming explained it, they still couldn't grasp it and were left feeling even more overwhelmed.

Wu Yang waved his hand: "Forget it, don't tell me. It makes me feel like I'm a cow."

Bai Zhishun realized he couldn't even understand what Wu Yang was saying: "Why are you calling yourself a cow?"

Wu Yang reached out and slapped him on the head: "Playing the lute to a cow... do you think a cow can understand it?"

"You should be able to understand, right? Back in the production team era, there was a water buffalo in our village. Whenever we played a loudspeaker, it would moo along with us..."

Bai Zhishun said in a serious tone, "I think it can understand."

"I……"

Wu Yang was at a loss for words, so he could only roll his eyes and sigh.

Zhou Jingming looked at the two of them and couldn't help but laugh: "Actually, it's not that hard to understand. To put it simply, these silicified materials are distributed in bands underground, and their appearance is obviously different from other rocks."

You only need to be able to tell the color; it could be gray, off-white, or black, etc.

Look at this piece of quartz. Isn't it less white than you've seen before? It looks like it's been coated with a layer of soot. This is a gold mining area, and if we dig deeper into this vein, the chances of finding gold are very high.

I went into the cave before and checked it; it's quite sturdy. We brought the explosives, and now that we've brought them, we're going to use them.

Besides, we don't have much rations left. I want to try frying them!

"Then let's just blast it. We don't know anything about it anyway, so whatever you say goes."

Wu Yang knew very well that he had absolutely no need to interfere in this matter.

"Well... let's eat. After we finish eating, we'll take turns going in to drill the blast holes. It's your turn to contribute."

Zhou Jingming threw away his cigarette butt, picked up the scalding hot naan and tore it apart. After a few bites, he had to drink some water, otherwise it was difficult to swallow.

After they had eaten and rested for a while, Zhou Jingming had Bai Zhishun keep watch while he led Wu Yang into the mine.

Without drills or similar tools, they could only dig using chisels, picks, and other similar tools.

Inside the cave is a slanted, smoky gray quartz vein running along the mine wall, winding and twisting like a bolt of lightning. At its widest point, it's about the width of a palm, gradually narrowing towards the top and bottom.

Zhou Jingming only had a rough understanding of mine blasting and was not an expert.

In his past life, when he was cleaning mines, his operations were no different from other gold prospectors. He often blew up mines, relying entirely on brute force. At worst, the mines would collapse completely. After all, there were so many mines, and he believed that brute force could work miracles.

Once he has the capability, he'll only need to assess the situation; there will be dedicated personnel to set up the explosives, so he won't need to personally participate. Later on, it goes without saying that with all sorts of machinery at the helm, setting off explosives becomes incredibly easy.

Now that he's back in this line of work, he regrets not having studied it properly in his past life.

He led Wu Yang into the mine. After observing the area, he marked four points around the ore zone based on his intuition, preparing to dig about 70 or 80 centimeters deep and insert two tubes of explosives into each hole.

After all, it was bombed before, so we need to be careful to avoid it collapsing and making all our efforts in vain.

"Make this hole as small and as deep as possible. If it's too big, it'll be difficult to plug, and it'll lose its power!"

He briefly explained the situation to Wu Yang, and the two of them started digging together.

At this point, he began to miss the drilling machine again.

Digging by hand is really hard work.

These days are good because there are so many opportunities.

But these days aren't good either, because there are all sorts of inconveniences.

After working for a while, Zhou Jingming went outside the cave to rest, and Bai Zhishun came in to continue.

They took turns like this, and it took them more than an hour to finally drill the blast hole.

He then took the prepared explosives out of his backpack, stuffed two tubes into each hole, gently pushed them to the very end with a steel rod, and then covered them with soft mud from the mine, leaving only a section of the fuse connected to the detonator exposed.

He sent Wu Yang, who was with him in the mine, out to retrieve a burning piece of charcoal.

At times like this, he wouldn't dare use a lit cigarette or match to light it; if he accidentally extinguished it, it would be a real problem. The most reliable option was charcoal.

Before lighting the fuses, he peeled off the outer skin to expose the powder inside, ensuring they would ignite instantly. Then, he took the charcoal and quickly lit the four fuses. He and Wu Yang then carried their tools and hurried outside.

The mine shaft is not deep, only about seventy or eighty meters deep.

At Huo Suo's speed, he could walk out of there, let alone run.

The two crawled out of the cave and called Bai Zhishun to move aside from the entrance and to the side.

To avoid startling Jinwang with the sound of the explosion, Zhou Jingming deliberately moved a little further away, called it to his side, and hugged it.

After waiting for several seconds, a muffled explosion came from inside the cave.

A gust of air shot out from the mine entrance, startling Jin Wang so much that he jumped high into the air, broke free from Zhou Jingming's arms, and ran down the barren slope for twenty or thirty meters, barking wildly.

In the end, I was still scared.

Fortunately, it adapted well to the sound of shotguns, so it won't be exposed to firecrackers too often in the future.

The mine was filled with dust and the smell of gunpowder. We had to wait for the dust to settle before entering, to avoid rushing in and causing an accident if there were still explosives that hadn't detonated yet.

The three of them each smoked a cigarette. Seeing that there was no movement inside, Wu Yang stayed to guard the entrance, while Zhou Jingming led Bai Zhishun carefully into the mine.

The sound of the explosion in the mine would inevitably be heard by others who entered the valley.

No matter who it is, you have to be careful.

Wu Yang is better at this kind of thing, and he's more reliable.

The two inspected the cave passage as they went deeper, and found that the explosion, which they had made based on their intuition, was actually quite effective.

However, the silicified band was buried and needs to be cleaned out to see what was going on.

The two took turns using a light while the other wielded a shovel, moving the blasted rocks to the sides of the cave passage and clearing the narrow passages near the cave walls.

Halfway through the cleanup, Zhou Jingming spotted a piece of quartzite among the blasted rock fragments, with tiny specks of gold scattered on it.

We can now be absolutely certain that this quartz band contains a gold vein.

However, it wasn't as wealthy as Zhou Jingming had imagined.

However, we haven't yet seen the deeper gold veins.

The two continued cleaning.

More than half an hour later, the golden vein on the cave wall came into view.

He shone a flashlight on it and examined it carefully. He felt it was just average and not satisfactory. He then used a pickaxe to dig out some rocks and ore, estimating that when crushed into powder, it would fill about a gold bucket. He then put them in the bag he had brought in and had Bai Zhishun carry it out of the mine.

Wu Yang had been waiting outside for quite some time. This time, when he saw Zhou Jingming come out, he couldn't wait to ask, "How is it? Is it a gold vein?"

Zhou Jingming took out a few pieces of ore from his pocket: "It's a gold vein, but the quality seems a bit off. Let me test it and see."

As the three of them squatted by the mine shaft, breaking up the ore they had brought out, Shen Wei was hiding behind a rock on the opposite hillside, observing Zhou Jingming and his group.

After hearing the explosion, he told the three men to continue panning for gold along the river, while he himself deliberately followed the river ahead of them.

From a distance, he could tell that it was Zhou Jingming and his two companions as expected. He knew they were leading dogs and that someone was guarding the cave entrance. He deliberately took a detour, intentionally keeping his distance and observing from afar. Jin Wang did not notice him.

By the time Zhou Jingming and the other two carried the gold buckets to the river to wash them and returned to the mine, he was certain that Zhou Jingming and his companions had found a gold vein.

He muttered to himself, "I blew up so many mines and got nothing, but you guys come here and get a ready-made meal, you've already got your hands on it."

Trying to snag a bargain? Not so easy!

(End of this chapter)