Chapter 181 Strategic Reserves
January 13, 21 years.
In the Rongkrang Mountains in Hongsavadi.
Weng Xuehai, Bakang and others led the exploration team, and after nearly half a month of exploration, they drilled 173 points and finally roughly determined the distribution, thickness and reserves of the vein.
"I didn't expect that our mineral exploration team didn't find this super large mine." Bakang joked.
In fact, he was not wrong, because it was the construction team of the space base that discovered the mine, so the credit for this mine should go to the construction team, not the exploration team.
Weng Xuehai was more open-minded: "This kind of thing is normal. Forget about the luck of a blind cat catching a dead mouse. We should just keep working hard. Sooner or later, we will find other large mineral veins."
Wu Gang, who got the mineral layer distribution map, finally breathed a sigh of relief, because the mineral vein did not extend towards the space base. He only needed to find another place to store fuel.
At this time, Wu Cong, who was in charge of the mining department, also rushed here.
He looked at the mountains. Even though there was a railway passing nearby, it was still overwhelming.
"Boss, what are the arrangements for this place?" Bakang asked curiously.
Wu Cong spread his hands and said, "What else can we do? We have to mine it. Right now, the iron ore in China is all imported from Australia and India. This is not a good sign."
As the head of a mining company, Wu Congke knew that the three major groups currently had their own steel mills, and that they were not small in scale, with a combined annual output of 18 million tons of steel.
Next year, the production capacity will be expanded to 33 million tons of steel.
Steelmaking and ironmaking equipment can be purchased, but iron ore is a consumable. It would not be a good thing if we rely on imports for a long time.
Although Qingye Group successfully forced India and Australia to sell a batch of iron ore at a low price with its new drugs.
But the other party must be making some calculations in their mind, such as expanding their production capacity for you at a low price first, fattening you up after a few years, and then rip you off sharply.
Hongsavadi and the other three controlled areas did not have any large iron mines before. Once the iron ore supply is cut off, the profits of the steel industry will definitely be reaped by the Australians.
China's steel companies are unable to be self-sufficient in iron ore, resulting in their profits being reaped by iron ore suppliers such as BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Vale.
Wu Cong has seen part of the company's long-term plan, which requires the construction of many large-scale infrastructure projects.
In the area controlled by the Homo Sapiens Company, at least 300 to 500 million tons of steel will need to be consumed in the next 10 years.
With such a huge steel consumption, if the Sapiens Company relies solely on imports, it will not be able to sustain it no matter how rich it is.
Therefore, it is necessary to develop our own steel industry.
But the problem comes back again. The steel industry requires a large amount of iron ore, but no large iron mines have been found in the previous controlled areas, and most of the iron ore has to be imported.
Now that this huge iron mine in Mount Longgeran has been discovered, it must be mined.
Weng Xuehai, who was present, reminded: "Mr. Wu, mining is mining, but the associated minerals must be handled well. This is a huge fortune."
"Of course, I will organize a secret seminar after I go back to discuss a reasonable mining plan." Wu Cong is also very clear about the value of this mine.
According to preliminary exploration data, the total reserves of magnetite are approximately 870 million tons, with an average grade of 34.6%.
In addition, if all the associated titanium, vanadium, molybdenum and rhenium are mined and refined, approximately 180,000 tons of titanium, 110,000 tons of vanadium, 30,000 tons of molybdenum, and the most valuable 320 to 350 tons of rhenium can be obtained.
If all the iron ore in this mine is mined, it can be used to smelt about 300 million tons of steel, which can basically meet the minimum requirements of the current controlled area.
Together with other small mines in the controlled area, by piecing together what is there, another 100 million tons of steel can be smelted.
In other words, with the Mount Longgeran vanadium-titanium magnetite mine, Sapiens Company basically does not need to worry about the threat from international iron ore suppliers.
Now, taking advantage of the low international iron ore prices, they are importing large quantities unscrupulously.
The Longgeran Mountain vanadium-titanium magnetite will definitely not be mined . Instead, infrastructure and supporting facilities must be built to prepare for the expansion of production capacity at any time in the future.
As long as there are enough iron ore reserves, international iron ore suppliers are nothing but a group of paper tigers.
In fact, all the iron mines in Hongsavadi have been sealed up to build up strategic reserves.
When it comes to preparing for a rainy day, Sapiens Company attaches great importance to it.
Whether it is food, energy, fertilizers, or minerals, a complete strategic reserve system has been established to cope with possible external blockades in the future.
Wu Cong, who had been inspecting the mining area for two days, was about to take his people back to the company when he unexpectedly met the head of another company.
"Mr. Wu, your mining company has made a fortune this time." Achindo, the head of Mandalay Special Smelting Company, greeted him with a smile.
Wu Cong smiled and shook his head: "It's just hard-earned money, and this mine is probably going to be used as a strategic reserve."
Achindo did not keep the secret. After all, they were all family members. He directly stated the purpose of his visit: "I have read the exploration report. I don't need iron ore for the time being, but I urgently need titanium, vanadium, molybdenum and rhenium, especially rhenium."
Wu Cong, who knew a little about the uses of metal, immediately guessed what it was: "Turbine blades? Or aircraft engines?"
Aqinduo nodded and said, "Our metallurgical technology is not very good. The performance requirements of some special parts are very high. In order to meet the requirements, we can only work hard on the materials."
Wu Cong was not surprised by this statement, and he replied with a smile:
"They are all for the company's service. We keep these rare metals as reserves. Since you need them, we will naturally cooperate with you. We also need to process these associated minerals."
"That's great." Achindo was overjoyed.
Recently, he has been troubled by the issues of smelting special alloys and looking for imports of rare metals.
Titanium, vanadium and molybdenum are relatively easy to deal with, but rhenium is not only as expensive as gold, but also has very few channels to purchase it, and is basically monopolized by Europe and the United States.
In lightweight, high-temperature resistant alloys, rhenium has a finishing touch.
Rhenium is a very important raw material in many jet aircraft engines and ultra-high temperature resistant parts.
Although high-temperature resistant alloys can be produced without rhenium, the performance will be much worse.
The special alloy technology of the Homo sapiens company is already very poor. If it cannot use good raw materials, the alloy performance will be even worse.
Obviously, the discovery of the vanadium-titanium magnetite mine in Mount Longklang and the reserves of more than 300 tons of rhenium is like discovering a freshwater lake in the desert for Mandalay Special Smelting Company .
After discussing for a long time, the two decided to return to Mandalay together.
Weng Xuehai, Bakang and others led the exploration team to continue exploring the entire Longgerang Mountain.
After all, this mountain range is about 370 kilometers long from north to south, 50 to 80 kilometers wide from east to west, with a total area of 24,000 square kilometers, which is roughly equivalent to about 0.4 Tongliao.
With such a vast area, and a large part of it being unexplored, the potential for mineral exploration here is enormous.
The exploration team, stimulated by the vanadium-titanium magnetite mine in Mount Longgeran, plans to conduct a thorough investigation of the entire Mount Longgeran.
Although they say they don't care who discovers the largest mineral vein first, they actually care very much in their hearts.
Prospecting for minerals is their specialty. In their professional field, they cannot compare to others' successful results, so they always feel unconvinced and unwilling to accept the result.
