Chapter 850 - Take the sheep by the hand

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"Gone?" Alfonso shook his head after a moment's pause, "It must have been taken away by that bastard 'Muñoz'! Give it to him, it's not a valuable thing anyway!"

Hearing Alfonso's words, the old butler hesitated for a while, then sighed and said, "The oil painting you put in the study was also taken away by the other party!"

"The oil painting, which was stolen by that bastard?"

"It's your favorite!"

As soon as the old butler's voice fell, Lonrado Alfonso's face turned from white to red, from red to blue, and the green tendons on his forehead jumped even higher!

"Master, are you alright?" Fano worried.

"Damn 'Muñoz', mean bastard, you'd better pray that you don't get my chance in the future!"

A roar of rage sounded in the quiet night! Alarming a crowd of birds, it also alarmed the vast Alfonso estate!

……

"Ahh......h

After sneezing, Liu Dong rubbed his nose, "It must be that this old guy is scolding me, but it doesn't matter!

Looking at' the sheep head and snake head that he placed in the mustard seed space, Liu Dong's face showed excitement.

Originally, at Christie's auction in New York, after missing the tiger head and pig head due to special circumstances, he thought that he basically had no chance with the twelve beast heads of the Old Summer Palace, but he didn't expect to see the traces of sheep heads and snake heads in the study of the Alfonso family just now.

However, what surprised Liu Dong the most was that there were too many precious antiques in the big study of the Alfonso family. If it's something else, forget it. Wait for Liu Dong to meet one of the three masters of the Renaissance. After being revered as the 'painting saint' Raphael's true works by the Western painting world, I couldn't help it anymore!

Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael are the true masters of Western art history, and their paintings or sculptures have become a symbol of the Italian Renaissance and even the entire history of Western art for centuries!

Any one of their works is an art treasure that cannot be measured by money!

So when he encountered Raphael's real handiwork, Liu Dong didn't even think about the consequences of taking it away, so he took it away naturally!

And this painting is also after the "Portrait of the Grand Duke of Medici" that he got in the Netherlands. The second true Raphael!

The content of the painting is that of the Virgin and the Child, which are the most numerous in Raphael's table, but Liu Dong has not seen any description of this painting in the narrative of Raphael's paintings.

But judging from the content of the picture, it is somewhat similar to "Our Lady of the Goldfinch", although it is also three characters, the Virgin, Jesus and John, but the background has been changed to pastoral and blue sky, which can be called "Our Lady of the Garden"!

"If Lonrado Alfonso knew that I had taken his cherished painting "Madonna of the Pastoral", I would probably be angry!"

Thinking of this, Liu Dong shook his head.

He doesn't care what happens to Lonrado Alfonso in the end, he is a bastard if he has a advantage and does not take advantage of it. And he also knew in his heart that the so-called 'Bombast Copper Mine' would definitely not be as simple as it seemed. Otherwise, the Alfonso family would have invested in development a long time ago!

"But no matter what, you have to go over and have a look first!"

After making up his mind, Liu Dong flew to the address that Lonrado Alfonso had told him.

It was only after Liu Dong walked out of Cajamarca Airport, the capital of Cajamarca Province, and came to this city at an altitude of more than 2,700 meters, that Liu Dong understood why Lonrado Alfonso gave up the copper mine.

Not only because it is home to the largest rebels in Peru, but also because the inhabitants have staged more than one march and even rioted because of their opposition to mining!

Moreover, Cajamarca is a major mining province in Peru, and there are many silver, copper, and tin mines here, and there are many corresponding miners, so once the people here oppose mining, it is unimaginable for those foreigners who operate here.

Compared to the advantages of Peruvian miners, miners from abroad are likely to lose money due to political risks.

However, even if there are many risks, Liu Dong's determination to enter the Peruvian mining industry cannot be changed!

Because the resources here are so abundant, and Peru is also one of the 12 largest mining countries in the world.

Mainly copper, lead, zinc, silver, iron and petroleum, etc. The reserves of bismuth and vanadium rank first in the world, copper occupies the third place, and silver and zinc occupy the fourth place. There are 400 million barrels of oil and 7.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The forest cover rate is 58%, with an area of 77.1 million hectares, second only to Brazil in South America. Hydropower and marine resources are extremely abundant, fishery resources are abundant, and fishmeal production ranks among the highest in the world.

In 2001, Peru was the world's largest producer of silver, second in copper, second in zinc, third in tin and sixth in gold.

Such a big mining country, how could Liu Dong let it go!

Especially after seeing the high returns brought by a series of minerals in Muñoz's hands, the investment attention to the mining industry suddenly increased several notches in Liu Dong's heart.

So much so that even the mega gold mines gave up and chose to enter the Peruvian mining market!

So even after learning about the situation in Cajamarca Province, Liu Dong still resolutely headed towards Chota, which is located deep in the Andes!

In fact, Jota is not far from Cajamarca, no more than 100 kilometers in a straight line, but the distance in the middle is too difficult.

Originally, Liu Dong could still ride a motorcycle at the beginning, but after entering the mountainous area, he could not even ride a motorcycle, because the mountain was too steep, full of cliffs, and there was only a winding mountain road less than three meters wide for people to walk.

Moreover, the Andes Mountains in Peru are the widest part of the mountain range in the entire 7,000-kilometer-long mountain range, and the height of the mountain is generally more than 5,000~7,000 meters!

"Originally, I thought that the mountains and rivers in Qingzhou's hometown were closed enough, and it was a small thing to compare with here!" Looking at the huge mountain in the distance with white mist and no peak, Liu Dong couldn't help but smile bitterly and shook his head.

Now he finally knows why the Alfonso family put this copper mine and does not develop it, not to mention the political factor, the cost of this road construction alone is not a small amount!

Although Liu Dong doesn't know how much it will cost to build a road from here to connect with the outside world, it will definitely be no less than 500 million US dollars!

After shaking his head, Liu Dong, who had temporarily put down his thoughts, finally climbed the towering mountain beam in front of him, stood on a high place, and looked at Qiaota Town, which was at the bottom of a mountain valley below, Liu Dong was shocked in his heart, and sighed that he had finally arrived, and hurriedly walked over.

Walking here, there are gradually more people carrying guns around, although Liu Dong's yellow face is very rare here, but others see him alone, plus Liu Dong is dressed as a travel friend, so no one came up to ask for a while!

Along the mountain road, Liu Dong came to this ancient town that is said to have existed since the Inca Empire, the town is not big, only seven or eight long streets, the population is not more than a thousand, most of them are farming for a living, if it is not for the fact that there are too many people with guns here, Liu Dong is very willing to stay in this place like a paradise for a while.

With the help of Relic Yuanguang and the description of Lonrado Alfonso, Liu Dong quickly found the location of the copper mine, which is located northeast of the town of Chota, and the surface of the ground is mostly the cornfields of the residents of Chota Town, except for part of the rocky beach, and more importantly, the 'Peruvian National Revolutionary Front' guerrillas have built a military training ground on it!

Therefore, if Liu Dong intends to mine, he must overcome three major difficulties. The first is to build a road, at least a road from Chota to the outer Cajamarca, because only the Cajamarca has a road to the seaports on the Pacific coast of Peru.

Of course, let's not talk about the difficulties in this, after all, if Liu Dong is willing to spend money, he can still do it.

Second, it is basically impossible to persuade the guerrillas of the 'National Revolutionary Front of Peru' to move their station, because this is a group of violent elements who only look at their fists and do not recognize reason! And it is not easy to find a base like Jota, which is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and suitable for stationing!

Of course, if Liu Dong also used his fists to play violence, it would not be very difficult to drive out or eliminate these guerrillas who were not very effective in combat. And in the past, Muñoz did this kind of thing in Colombia to compete for minerals.

Thirdly, and the most difficult, one is to convince the inhabitants of Jota to give up agriculture and give him all mining!

But this goal is obviously difficult to achieve, because not everyone likes to be a miner, even if the wages are high, there will be people who disagree, otherwise there would not be so many demonstrations and riots in Cajamarca because of the mining industry!

And the demands of ordinary people are precisely the most difficult for Liu Dong to solve, and it is also the most headache!

"I'm afraid that Lonrado Alfonso also knew these difficulties and gave me this huge copper mine with rich reserves and excellent taste!" Liu Dong guessed in his heart.

However, thinking about the difficulties in front of him, Liu Dong himself actually has a headache.

He really can't give up the copper mine in front of him, because after checking it through Guò Relic Yuanguang, Liu Dong found that the reserves of this copper mine are probably not only 10 million tons as Lonrado Alfonso said!

Because anyone who knows anything about the mining industry knows that there is a difference between proven reserves and potential reserves!

Of course, Liu Dong did not know how rich this deposit was, because he did not know the specific grade of this deposit from the mouth of Lonrado Alfonso!

Only a rough estimate of how many tons of copper ore the deposit could produce. (To be continued......)