My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 25 doesn't need to be that complicated.

Peng Yuanchao took out a small glass bottle containing penicillin powder from his pocket, carefully scooped the tiny bit of gold dust from the gold pot into the bottle like he was rubbing oil, and then sealed it.

Zhou Jingming still had some mud and sand scooped up with his short-handled pickaxe, and Peng Yuanchao didn't want to let it go either. He used a gold bucket to wash the mud and sand out in the cold river twice.

These two times were similar to Zhou Jingming's washing process, except that he also put the tiny gold dust into small glass bottles.

After waiting for the golden foam in the bottle to settle slightly, he carefully poured out some water, then held the bottle up to look at it with a smug expression: "Brother, I think this place is pretty good. How about we set up camp here?"

Zhou Jingming sighed: "Brother Peng, you're a seasoned gold digger, and this is all you've got? Don't you want to find something of higher quality? With this amount of gold, I certainly don't care. How many times would you have to shake the gold dipper to collect just one gram?"

We need to scout the location in the mountains; we can't make a decision so hastily.

Peng Yuanchao became excited: "Can we find something even more tasteful?"

"Finding something with higher taste isn't difficult!"

Zhou Jingming looked at him solemnly: "The difficult part is, even if we find it, can we hold onto it?"

"Yes, why not?"

Peng Yuanchao snorted: "Anyone who dares to take it from me, I'll be the first to fight them to the death!"

Zhou Jingming smiled and said, "Then let's keep looking. Once we find it, you'll be the one guarding it. Don't back down then!"

"You're being a coward, that's underestimating me... Don't worry, I've got your back!"

When Peng Yuanchao said this, he thumped his chest loudly.

Zhou Jingming threw away the cigarette butt he was holding and stood up: "Let's keep looking!"

Peng Yuanchao immediately grabbed his tools and followed Zhou Jingming: "Brother, how were you so sure there was gold there just now?"

Zhou Jingming knew that if he didn't offer some professional advice, he would likely be bombarded with questions in the future.

He thought for a moment and said, "Examining the sand along the river is the most common method for finding gold. Just like you did before, you follow the river and, if you think there might be gold deposits, you can sift through the sand to see what's there."

In our geological team's more professional terminology, it's called "taking soil samples." This not only helps calculate the placer gold content but also helps locate the sand that often accompanies gold deposits—the black sand found in the gold pan during gold panning.

This thing serves as an indicator for gold mines and is also used to determine the extent of gold veins.

During the survey, we often did another thing: tapping on the stones and weighing them.

Generally speaking, the heavier the stone, the more likely it is to contain gold.

As an exploration technician with several years of experience, I've seen some things often and gotten used to them, so I can tell a lot just by glancing at them.

"Of course I don't need to do what you did, searching for things along the way. Besides, there's snow everywhere around here, and the river is so cold. I don't want to suffer like that at a time like this."

"So this is ah!"

Peng Yuanchao gave Zhou Jingming a thumbs up: "Awesome!"

"If you still don't trust me, you can take your time searching, I won't stop you. If you do trust me, don't ask any questions, just follow along!"

Despite this, Zhou Jingming had a different picture in his mind.

If finding Jin Miao were as simple as he claimed, then becoming the head of the Jin gang wouldn't be something anyone could do.

Whether a place contains gold deposits depends on the surrounding topography, water features, and climate, and must be considered comprehensively.

Even if we test the sand along the river, it's not as simple as Zhou Jingming made it out to be.

The reason he was wandering around wasn't actually to judge where there were gold nuggets by looking at the mountain shapes and terrain, but rather to try to recall where people were panning for gold when he came to this river in his previous life.

It's very simple. Where there are teams panning for gold for a long time, there are naturally gold veins, just with varying degrees of quality.

Zhou Jingming was certain there were gold nuggets at that spot because he remembered that in his previous life, a team had been stationed there panning for gold. Moreover, he noticed that no panning teams seemed to have panned there before. It was probably because the riverbed was straight, leading many to believe that gold dust wouldn't easily accumulate there, thus it hadn't received enough attention.

Little do people know that a river channel has undergone countless changes over millions of years and cannot possibly remain unchanged from the beginning.

Finding gold requires not only some essential skills but also a lot of luck.

If you're lucky, you can just walk around the river in straw sandals and find gold in the soles of your shoes when you get home.

If you're unlucky, even if you're fully equipped and experienced, even if you know where there's gold and dig three feet into the ground, you might still not find a single gold hair.

As for the rich mine that Zhou Jingming is thinking about, he can rely on the somewhat vague memories in his mind to go to the mountain valleys and think about where fights have been fought over territory, and where the fights were fierce.

The fiercer the fighting for a piece of land, the more it proves one thing: that place is definitely a goldmine.

This is the place you're looking for.

He doesn't need to go through all that trouble.

In his previous life, when Zhou Jingming first went to the northern frontier to pan for gold, he followed Boss Jin and traveled to various gold-panning valleys. With those memories and the experience he had accumulated from being a gold panner for so many years in his previous life, finding a gold vein might be difficult for others, but for Zhou Jingming, it was not too difficult.

The reason he accompanied Peng Yuanchao on this trip was simply to take a look and get a preliminary understanding of the current situation of this gold rush valley.

They are also weighing what kind of place to choose next, and how to deal with the large influx of gold prospecting teams into the mountains.

The gold vein is of low quality and few people are watching it, but it is destined to be a hard-working venture that won't earn much money.

If the gold vein is of high quality, it is easy to find gold, but at the same time, it will become a place that other gold prospecting teams will try their best to compete for, which puts them in a difficult situation.

Zhou Jingming was well aware of the situation of his team. The only three who were reliable were himself, Peng Yuanchao, and Wu Yang. The rest of the rookies were unlikely to be of any help in case of trouble.

Although he had a gun, other teams might have more, and among the other gold prospectors, there were many ruthless and treacherous individuals, so things were not so easy to predict.

This delicate balance needs to be carefully managed.

After much thought, he still felt that since he had decided to pursue the path of gold mining in this life, he couldn't be timid or hesitant, and he couldn't let himself suffer. He decided to choose a remote, undiscovered rich mine and start mining first, and deal with whatever problems arose later.

With fewer people, there will be less friction, allowing for a more peaceful period of panning and accumulating more gold dust.

For the next two days, Peng Yuanchao did not rummage around aimlessly as before, but instead took his tools and wandered with Zhou Jingming through the valley.

The skill Zhou Jingming had shown earlier had convinced him that Zhou Jingming was indeed more capable than him, so there was no point in making a fuss; he could just watch and see.

The Haiertes River has many tributaries, branches, and channels, which extend into the Altai Mountains like capillaries in the human body.

It wasn't until the afternoon of the following day that Zhou Jingming led Peng Yuanchao deep into the main river channel and turned into a tributary with several large rocks standing at its mouth.

Those stones are the markers.

Further along the river, you can see some old, discarded tools and collapsed dugouts from previous years.

Gold prospectors searched every river channel, regardless of size, when they went into the mountains to look for gold.

In Zhou Jingming's memory, there were also people panning for gold in this river. There weren't many people, but a sensational incident had occurred: several corpses had drifted down the murky river to the main channel, which was the result of a fight over territory.

At that time, Zhou Jingming had already gone to northern Xinjiang to pan for gold. He had been there when he was helping Boss Jin look for mines. He had heard Boss Jin talk about this matter and even went to see it for himself.

As far as I can remember, that fight must have happened around 1987.

When he arrived there in his previous life, the place had already been thoroughly excavated.

Even so, some people are still browsing through it.

(End of this chapter)