Johannesburg is a city that arose because of gold mining. A few years ago, when the White Rock Ridge gold mines were booming, the sudden arrival of wealth caught the Transvaal government off guard, but fortunately there were not many things to worry about, at least compared to the diamond boom in the Kimberley, these veins must have been in the Transvaal, and the British had no right to claim sovereignty here. However, the chaos in the mining area soon became a headache for the government, so the government decided to start regulating various practices, especially the sale and purchase of plots. In August, the Transvaal government announced its own rules. The sudden population also made the Transvaal government need to plan a place to live and find a place to build a city. However, the Transvaal government was too late, and the surrounding plots had already been bought, and the government needed to buy land from private individuals if it wanted to build the city. Fortunately, the division of the plots of the original farm was very chaotic, and the exploration was not meticulous, and after careful inspection, it turned out that in the middle of the three farms in this area, there was a triangular plot without an owner. Land without owners is naturally governmental. So in this triangle surrounded by three farms, there is one more city, and this is Johannesburg.

Thanks to the gold rush, the city of Johannesburg soon began to take shape, and by the end of 1886 the city was only a few months old and the most populous place in the Transvaal. But since two years ago, as the white stone collar has mined hard veins, and the veins have turned blue, it means that gold mining has become unprofitable, and the stocks of all gold mining companies have fallen, and the gold bubble in Johannesburg has also been blown up.

It was then that Johannesburg, a fledgling city, quickly fell into depression, and gold mining stocks used to be traded on the exchange. And now almost every day. It is the gold mining companies that are listed for sale on the exchange. Even many companies have already mined and have to put up land for sale in order to pay off their debts, and land that was once worth hundreds of thousands of pounds now only costs a few thousand pounds, or even a few hundred pounds, and even millions of pounds worth of gold mining companies, including real estate and smelting equipment, only cost hundreds of thousands of pounds. It is still difficult to find a buyer.

The wind blowing in the wilderness shook the signs of roadside taverns and inns, and a little grass branch was blown by the wind, flying in the empty streets, just two years ago, the city was still so prosperous, and the streets of the city were full of pedestrians and horse-drawn carriages, and people from all over the world came here with dreams of gold rushing, and now, this qiē is gone, and the whole city is in depression. Many people believe that soon the city will disappear. Just like the gold mines here.

In the center of the city is the market square, where there are many, in the past where the carriages gathered, now it is also empty, most of the shops on the side of the square have closed, only a few shops are still open, and the cries of newspaper sellers are heard from time to time in this empty square.

"Sell newspapers! Sell newspapers! The Russian crown prince left Hong Kong and arrived in Guangzhou, China today! Selling Newspapers ......"

For those in Johannesburg who have mined because of the gold mines, the news in Asia is not news, and in the past, there might have been a few people in the bar talking about it, but now, who cares about another continent across the ocean?

"Sell newspapers, sell newspapers! South African Mining Company Acquires Bett Gold Mining Company Wholly Owned! ”

The rest of the news may not be of concern, but this news still stirred people's interest, but people snickered and laughed.

"This fool from Hong Kong has finally been trapped!"

Not really!

Bate Gold Mining Company is the largest gold mining company in Baishiling, because of the experience of the Kimberlite bubble back then, there are many people who are full of confidence in the future, especially those big capitalists, who are still full of confidence here. So taking advantage of the opportunity of the gold bubble, large companies began to buy small companies at low prices, expand their territory, and take the opportunity to redistribute their power. The most powerful is the Bet Gold Mining Company, which is supported by an investment group, and has taken the opportunity to start a large-scale expansion at a low price. However, no matter how large the territory is, there is no good method, and the cost of mining is still high. When things are difficult, that's when inventors show what they can do, and all sorts of inventions come to Johannesburg to try their luck, but these methods are largely in vain, wasting a lot of money on investors. Compared to the rest of the world, gold in Johannesburg is clearly more stubborn, extracted at less than half the rate of gold contained in the ore, and expensive equipment investments have not yielded reasonable returns. As a result, even large companies are seeing their profit margins fall to the point where they cannot survive.

And just when the investors of Bet Gold Mining Company were aware of this problem, they had already acquired 70% of the territory of Baishiling, and the large-scale expansion had exhausted the company's wealth, and with the continuous decline of the company's profits, bankruptcy was only a matter of time. A wealthy man came to Johannesburg, who had made a huge fortune in China and was going to invest his money in the gold mines of South Africa.

"An opium dealer wants to buy gold mines!"

When the news came out, the Bate company immediately sent someone to contact it, and at the same time as the two sides negotiated, the newly registered South African mining company had bought all the land outside the Bate company for 200,000 pounds, and in the gold mining club at the intersection of Commissioner Street and Raffard Street, after a month and a half of negotiations between the two sides, the directors of the Bate Gold Mining Company finally agreed to the South African mining offer - 635,000 pounds, Purchased all the land of Bet Company and the ore crusher in the plant equipment.

On the surface, the South African mining company bought £4.15 million worth of land and equipment for £635,000, but in reality, as we all know, that land is now worthless, and as for the million-pound worth of equipment, what good is the equipment when gold mining is unprofitable?

"This rich fool will definitely kill himself in two months!"

While the people of Johannesburg and Cape Town were swearing by this, Belfrey, the "rich fool" or "opium merchant" of the mouth, was driving to Bate's factory in an open-top carriage, and he occasionally cast his eyes on the grasslands outside the carriage, and the man seemed to be lost in thought.

"Mr. Belfrey,"

Seeing that the chairman was silent, Johnson, the manager of the mining company, looked at him with some trepidation, he was no stranger to gold mines, in fact, he was also the manager of a gold mining company, but his gold mine went bankrupt and owed tens of thousands of pounds in debt, there were many people like him in Cape Town, but not everyone was as lucky as him - he was hired as the manager of a new company.

But because of this, he is a little anxious about the future, this Mr. Belfrey in front of him may be a rich opium dealer, of course, this is a rumor from the outside world, but what can make people rich in the Far East except opium?

"Huh?"

Coming to his senses, Mr. Johnson was surprised that he had chosen him among the many candidates for manager of the mining company because of his credibility - after the company went bankrupt, he sold his house to pay off his debts, rather than fleeing South Africa with the last of the company's assets and continuing his life in a colony, as many people do.

"You should understand that with the current technology, the gold mine in Baishiling actually has no mining value!"

I know!

Wu Yuming said silently in his heart, unlike others, he has a mission, he came here to buy the gold mine in Baishiling, this is the task assigned by the Commander, and now he has completed this task, and at the lowest cost, but as Johnson said, the gold mine here has no value.

Perhaps, one day, "Belfrey", the English name he used when he studied in the UK, will become a joke in the whole of South Africa, and of course a legend in South Africa, provided that there will be more advanced technology to extract low-grade gold ore, as adults believe.

When entering Baishiling, which has become the company's property, Wu Yuming saw mountains of slag scattered on the roadside along the way, which seemed to witness the prosperity of this place.

"Sir, that's the slag left over from the amalgamation method in the past, and the slag still contains gold, but it can't be extracted by the amalgam method."

What Johnson called the amalgamation method is actually an ancient method, which was documented for gold mining as early as the late 10th century. Because there are many factors that affect the dissolution of gold into mercury, especially the interference of impurities in the mineral fines, sometimes very strict, nevertheless, the extraction rate of this method is not high, and it is completely useless for gold mines with a grade of less than 5 grams, which is why the decline of the Baishiling gold mine is reversed.

Nodding, Wu Yuming knew that there was only slag extracted by the amalgam method, even in various gold mines, there were millions of tons of low-grade ore, if there was a new technology that could extract the low-grade ore of the Baishiling gold mine, it could naturally be applied to the extraction of slag, looking at the mountains of ore and slag, Wu Yuming's expression became more and more rigorous.

For him, this is a problem, he doesn't know where the "new technology" in the mouth of the adults is, almost every inventor has returned from this place, is there any other way? If so, how would those people sell the gold mines?

For Wu Yuming, who is full of doubts in his heart, the only thing he needs now is to wait, wait for the call back from the adult, I believe that the adult will have a good way, maybe there will be some new invention there for the adult.

Looking at the empty gold mine, Wu Yuming let out a long sigh, now that the gold mine has been bought...... The rest is left to fate!

(More tomorrow!) Ask for a commuter pass! (To be continued......)