Li You's Tang Dynasty

Chapter 645 Gold Mine and Gold Rush

"Ah, look, it's a squirrel!"

In a forest, a group of people is walking. There are about 50 people in this group. Li You and Li Mingda are among them. At this time, Li You is sitting on a sliding pole, Xue Rengui and Su Dingfang are carrying it, beside Li You, Follow Qin Shaoyu, Luo Jin and others!
Li Mingda on the other side was sitting in a bamboo basket, and Yan San carried him behind him.

The group of them went to see the location of the discovered gold mine. This place is in the mountains and forests in the south of the Lingnan Mountains. The forests are very dense. No matter where they look, they can't see too far into the forest.

And because it was the first time they entered such a primeval forest, Li Mingda and the others were very curious. The little squirrels, snakes and other small animals they saw from time to time would scream and marvel.

While walking, the soldiers answered our inquiries, what kind of tree is this?What kind of tree is that?what kind of flower is this?What kind of grass is that?Although the burden is not light, but in the novelty and appreciation, one day has advanced nearly 70 miles,
Surrounding Ruoliaoxian along the forest path that blocks the sky and the sun, there are thousands of acres of virgin forest.

This forest is a typical perennial deciduous broad-leaved mixed forest in the mid-subtropical mountainous acidic yellow-brown soil area.

This forest has a neat forest appearance, early development, tall trees, and thousands of large trees with a diameter of more than 50 cm. The tree ridges are hundreds of thousands of years old. This should be one of the best virgin forest communities in the south of the Five Ridges.

Among them, the trees are vigorous.Rhododendron erinaceus with low and thick branches and dense branches and leaves grows densely around the mountain, forming a narrow and long pure forest belt.

Around evening, Li You and his party arrived at the location of the gold mine, which will be the largest gold mine in Lingnan in the future, but at this time, it was occupied by Li You.

Li You didn't know the reserve of this gold mine, but it shouldn't be a big problem after digging for a hundred years.

But it is a pity that this gold mine is not rock gold, but alluvial gold. Many people do not know what is the difference between rock gold and alluvial gold. In fact, it is very simple. As the name suggests, rock gold is the gold that exists in rocks. Some activities on the earth, such as volcanic eruptions, ancient orogeny, etc., brought a large amount of gold elements from the core to the mantle and crust along the gaps, and then went through sunshine weathering, violent storms, marine deposition, and regional metamorphism. role, forming the most primitive source of gold ore.

In the last [-] million years, the crustal activity was frequent, and folds were exposed, and the gold material was activated and migrated to form a gold field, which is the rock gold we mentioned above.

The alluvial gold is due to the gold near the surface, which has been eroded into sand after wind and rain. After the heavy rain, due to the high density of gold, it will be deposited at the bottom of the river and form sand. gold mine.

I used to want to pick up gold, because I saw a news that a herdsman in Xinjiang picked up a piece of dog head gold, and someone offered 300 million to buy it, but finally donated it. Some people were surprised, why donate, Hey, it's all state-owned, and individuals can't keep it privately. If you keep it privately, you can use it for nothing, confiscate it directly, and then send you in to eat in prison.

The fact that this gold mine in Lingnan can be found is actually because people who came out to look for gold mines found dog head gold near here. Dog head gold is a natural gold nugget with more impurities. It is usually made of natural gold, quartz and other minerals. Composition, because some of its shapes are like a dog's head, so people call it the dog's head gold.

Moreover, most of the dog's head gold is found near the gold mines. For example, there are gold mines in the Altay region. When these gold-bearing ores are weathered and eroded into debris, they will be deposited downstream with the water flow. The gold in these debris is in the Under the complex environment, irregular small gold nuggets will be formed, which is the prototype of dog head gold.

It's a pity that the dog's head gold here is very little, basically all placer gold, but even if it is alluvial gold, the reserve is very large, and it is a fortune.
After arriving at the gold mine, Li You and Li Mingda saw a lot of hard work. At this time in Datang, the main gold panning methods were digging, slipping, and panning.

Dig: Dig out the gold-bearing sand with a shovel and other tools.

Slide: Put the ore on the wooden chute to slide.

Amoy: Use gold pans, boxes, skips, etc. to wash in water.Pay attention to essentials and techniques in sand washing to improve the recovery rate of alluvial gold.

Blowing all the yellow sand to the gold" is a method invented in ancient times to pan for gold by wind. Just like sifting valleys in rural areas, panning for gold and winnowing both use the characteristic of large proportion of gold to find out the method of selecting gold. Drops of placer gold deposits.

Then use a simple fire smelting gold process: put the selected alluvial gold and ore gold in a fire-resistant crucible, add 10% borax, soda or saltpeter (for catalysis and purification), and put Burn it on a charcoal stove until the contents in the crucible melt into shiny golden water, boiling and rolling like egg yolk (commonly known as opening the face, the heat and time can be mastered by experience).

Pour the solution into a conical cylinder with a large mouth and a sharp bottom. After cooling, the contents of the cylinder will be separated into layers according to the specific gravity. Pour it out and knock off the slag with a mallet to obtain a gold-silver alloy. (The content of silver and gold symbiosis is very small).

In the next step of ingot casting, according to the above method, the second smelting is carried out. After melting, the liquid is poured into the cast iron mold of the bar or block, and the ingot is formed after cooling.The gold content is as high as 85%-95%.

Of course, panning for gold in ancient times was very difficult.Gold diggers first dig the sand, and then put it little by little into wooden panning tools for panning. Taking advantage of the specificity of gold, the water washes away the sand and leaves gold dust and gold shavings.These golds are often only the size of a needle tip or chaff.

But little can add up. After Li You arrived at the gold mine, the gold mine had been operating here for nearly three months. As soon as he saw the barbarian patriarch here, that is, You Shaolong, he immediately took Li You into the mine. Hidden treasury.

Li You and Li Mingda saw nearly three hundred catties of gold bricks stacked together in the treasury. You Shaolong told Li You that all the gold mined in three months was here, and there was not a single one. Anyone who dares to hide gold privately will be expelled from the gold panning team, and that person will be abandoned by the entire Liaoren tribe.

Not only this fellow, but also his family members will be abandoned, with a monthly salary of [-] yuan, subsidies for soap, soap, candles, fabrics, etc., and even their children can go to school.

Li You has given a lot to the Liaoren tribe, and the current Li You is the belief of the Liaoren tribe, so Li You can use the Liaoren with confidence and boldly, absolutely no need to worry.

(End of this chapter)