Zhang Anguo, King of the Great Shang Confederation, had a map of South Africa's minerals in his safe...... The mineral points above are all accurate to within 100 meters.

South Africa is rich in mineral resources, especially solid mineral resources.

Almost all of the world's proven minerals are found in South Africa, and many of them are among the highest in the world.

South Africa is the world's largest producer of platinum and gold, and the world's largest producer of vanadium, vermiculite and chromium is the largest producer.

The production of diamond, manganese ore, coal, asbestos, lead, uranium is also among the highest.

Geographically, the Witwatersrand region is the world's largest gold vein.

The bushland region in the North West and Mpumlanga provinces is home to the world's largest chrome and manganese ore regions, each accounting for more than half of the world's reserves.

More than 80% of the world's manganese ore reserves are located in the area north of the Vaal River in Chuanswa, where there are abundant copper, asbestos, coal, iron ore, platinum, chromium and diamonds.

The southwestern part of Mpumlanga province is Africa's largest coal mining region and is an important producer of marble and fluorspar in South Africa, in addition to producing platinum group metals.

South Africa has many world-class large deposits, such as gold-uranium deposits in the Witwatersrand Basin, iron, manganese and asbestos deposits in the Transvaal Basin, platinum, nickel, chromium, magnetite, vanadium, tin, fluorite deposits in the Bushveld Complex, copper, apatite, vermiculite and magnetite deposits in the Parabora Complex, as well as diamond deposits.

King Zhang Anguo did not want to develop it too early, and in the development plan he and his friends formulated, South Africa could only be regarded as a supply point for trade from east to west...... For the time being, it is still dominated by the development of the new business district of Marbury in the Tianzhu area.

There, the Federal Empire wants to borrow the high-quality iron ore and coal resources of the Tianzhu Continent to develop industry, making it another important steel supply base.

At present, the steel output of the Great Song Dynasty government has reached an annual output of 500,000 tons...... That's more than three times the real historical yield!

However, this is nothing compared to the total population of nearly 200 million.

The Commonwealth Empire's role in advancing their steel production was enormous...... Originally, they had not reached the primary stage of industrial development at all, and in fact did not need that much steel...... An annual output of 120,000 to 15 tons is enough for them.

In fact, this twelve-ton output is not low...... This is 2.5-5 times higher than during the Industrial Revolution in England in 1640!

The entire European countries, including the European part of Russia, produced between 14 and 180,000 tons of iron by the 18th century!

However, the advent of the Federal Empire forced them to follow quickly, and the demand for cast steel wheels for a four-wheeled carriage alone increased the demand for steel, not to mention anything else.

There are iron ore mines in the Great Song Dynasty...... But it was all low-grade iron ore with a high level of impurities.

After the Great Song Dynasty recovered the Jiaozhi region and listed it as a Jiaozhi state, they soon discovered high-quality iron ore there!

The grade is high enough to be used directly to smelt steel...... In particular, after they learned the graphite tong pot steelmaking method on Liuqiu Island, their steel production and quality have greatly improved.

They copied the steelmaking technology of Liuqiu Island without any psychological burden...... King Zhang Anguo and his friends were helpless.

The reason is simple, the substantial increase in the production and quality of steel in the Great Song Dynasty has greatly helped the development of the federal empire.

They could completely throw some simple steel production to the Great Song Dynasty...... For example, some necessary daily necessities, iron pots, kitchen knives and the like; Some basic production supplies, such as shovels, axes and pickaxes, as well as steel bars, rails, etc.

These industries could be completely transferred to the private production of the Great Song Dynasty.

Due to the explosion in the production of steel, the same situation arose as sea salt and spices, and the Great Song government had to abolish the monopoly of steel and concentrate on monopolizing the operation of precious metals...... They want to monopolize steel, but now the production is too large, and there is no cost to monopolize it.

Of course, at any given time, the demand for high-quality iron ore and coal coke, as well as high-quality steel, for the Federal Empire, could rise forever for hundreds of years...... The development of smelting and production in South Africa is also not presumptuous.

King Zhang Anguo took some personnel from the Yindian Group Company and sent them to South Africa for development and construction, which can be regarded as using his own investment to set an example for the industrial development of the Federal Empire.

The army that Huang Poluo couldn't understand was the golden army that King Zhang Anguo had to set up.

The special properties of gold made King Zhang Anguo have to worry about the safety of gold mining and smelting, and simply set up a semi-military and semi-industrial gold army...... In this way, they have both self-protection and production and processing capabilities.

There was only one force, numbering only a few hundred.

King Zhang Anguo of the Federal Empire did not consider gold to be real wealth, however, he had to respect the natural laws of the development of money.

The gold mining and smelting of that gold unit in northern South Africa was very smooth, bringing back about two tons of gold and gold sand every month.

King Zhang Anguo was very satisfied with the miraculous rapid development of South Africa, and he believed that Director Huang Poluo was indeed a managerial talent...... He didn't have the same education as a houseboy, but he still had some advanced management concepts.

It was self-sufficient in food production within two years, and it was able to exchange goods with Liberty Island.

The scale of cotton cultivation is constantly expanding, and I heard that Director Huang Poluo threatened to surpass the Shandong region...... Hehe, such an enterprising local official is liked.

Although the livestock industry is just beginning to develop, in terms of numbers, it will soon produce on a large scale...... Especially in terms of wool.

Needless to say, the fishery products are naturally excellent fishing grounds, almost that year to produce tens of thousands of tons of dried fish products, there dried sea cucumbers and shark fins appeared in the market of the Great Song Dynasty almost the next year, in exchange for them a large number of Great Song products...... It also set off a climax of eating sea and participating in shark fin for the folk of the Great Song Dynasty.

Of course, many of the inexplicable ways to eat were first found on the main island of Liuqiu...... For example, papaya shark fin, fried sea cucumber with green onions, etc...... The folk restaurants of the Great Song Dynasty directly followed suit.

King Zhang Anguo also valued the cultural influence of Huang Poluo's efforts to develop the Federal Empire...... That's pretty sensible, and that's what really puts the roots there.

However, King Zhang Anguo felt bad after receiving a handwritten letter from Huang Poluo.

In the letter, he vigorously described the difficulties in the Nankai area, and then proposed to invest in the Nankaicheng Mining Company of the Yindianan Group in the name of the Nankaicheng government......

Queen Jing said: "He wants to invest not for himself, but really for the development of the Nankai area, and it doesn't hurt to promise him." ”

King Zhang Anguo shook his head and said:

"He is indeed out of public intentions, but to forcibly buy shares with public intentions is moral kidnapping.

If we start this way, other local governments will follow suit, and can we still distinguish between what is public and what is selfish?

If this rule is broken, the free economic market we have built will be destroyed!

The result of breaking the rules with good intentions is the same as breaking the rules with malicious intent!! ”

King Zhang Anguo originally wanted to reply to him and criticize him severely, pointing out that he had a bandit mentality in his bones...... However, this is the traditional practice of jungle society, and if he scolds him personally, it may put too much pressure on him.

King Zhang Anguo forwarded the letter to the Governor of Liberty Island and asked him to deal with it...... That Director Huang was his subordinate after all.

After the second governor received this handwritten letter dozens of days later, he didn't even need to read King Zhang Anguo's instructions, and he was immediately furious...... If the local governments of the Federal Empire do this, then which businessman would dare to invest in your development?!

It's short-sighted...... The Governor of the Second Lieutenant personally replied to him, denouncing him for his short-sightedness and for wanting to destroy the spirit of commerce that had been built up with great difficulty.

In his letter, the Governor gave him a major demerit, and if he committed it again, he would be removed from his position as governor.

At that time, Director Huang Poluo did not expect that the reply he had been waiting for was actually forwarded from Liberty Island...... After seeing it, I was discouraged and full of grievances.

It takes only 20 days to send a message from the island to the new business district of Marbury in Tianzhu by flying scissors, then to Cairo in Egypt with a sea and land journey of 15 days, and then to Liberty Island via Alexandria in 10 days.

Of course, this is done around the clock...... The cost of shipping such a letter is not affordable for ordinary people.