Chapter 115: As Long As You're Not Blind
Li Zaiqiang noticed another major change in his son—he had completely shed his rebellious nature and had become genuinely mature.
"You're the technical advisor for the project, representing Zise Mining,"
he said, putting on a serious face despite his joy.
"Your input is highly valued. So here's what I'll do—I'll gather all the technical staff immediately and call a meeting to decide the next steps. For now, we'll proceed with your approach."
In the eastern zone of the Qinglong Copper Mine, there were two main ore bodies with obvious surface mineralization.
In the best exposed areas, once you cleared the weathered surface layer, you could see the host rocks—quartz porphyry, quartz sandstone—within which copper minerals enclosed by pyrite appeared as fine veins or mesh textures.
You could see with the naked eye that these rocks contained ore. With careful observation, you could even spot tiny traces of native gold.
Magnetic surveys had already shown large-scale anomalies surrounding the outcrops.
Once electrical surveys were launched, the inversion data clearly revealed ore-bearing intrusive rock bodies. They looked like massive pancakes spread flat across the land—ore bodies several kilometers wide.
This was a huge mineralized body.
Every day, Li Zaiqiang and the technical team of the 101 Geological Team made new progress and new discoveries.
"Let's drill immediately! Arrange the boreholes as if we were already in the detailed exploration phase. We need to define the size of these two ore bodies as soon as possible!"
Without waiting for any further input from Li Tang, Li Zaiqiang boldly made the executive decision to fast-track the work.
But once they started drilling, they realized how quickly the 5 million yuan budget vanished.
Each hole was around 200 meters deep, and every hole cost over 100,000 yuan. The funds burned away like dry leaves in a fire.
Soon enough—they were out of money.
However, with this limited funding, they did discover ore—and not just any ore. A large deposit.
Working late into the night, Li Zaiqiang compiled a mid-term exploration report.
He hadn't realized until he crunched the numbers: the current drilling results already outlined a copper reserve of over five hundred thousand tons, plus associated gold, silver, and other precious metals.
And this was just the result of drilling in a corner of two ore bodies.
If they fully explored both mineralized bodies, the total copper reserve might exceed ten million tons!
This deposit… could potentially surpass Qu Long Copper Mine in size!
Tao Mingzhi, head of Zise Mining's technical department, had been stationed with the 101 Geological Team the whole time, supervising their work.
He'd grown numb to all the good news—every day brought new reports of ore.
But when Li Zaiqiang handed him the mid-term report, Tao was stunned. His jaw nearly hit the floor.
"You mean to tell me… in this short time, you've outlined 500,000 tons of copper?"
"Yes,"
Li Zaiqiang confirmed.
"With the current completed drill holes, we can confidently outline 500,000 tons. And the average copper grade is very high. Some zones even reach 0.64%, which is well above the industrial threshold."
"That's incredible!"
For a moment, Tao was speechless. It just didn't seem real.
"The mineralized porphyry body is directly exposed at the surface, so our work progressed quickly,"
Li Zaiqiang added.
"Looking back, it almost feels surreal—like finding a world-class copper deposit was just that easy."
It used to be that finding even a medium-sized deposit of 500,000 tons required luck, skill, capital, and maybe even ancestral blessings.
Finding a large copper deposit was seen as nearly impossible.
But now, with Qinglong Copper Mine… it felt like the only requirement was not being blind.
"I'm taking this report back to Jian'an Province immediately,"
Tao said, snapping out of his awe.
"I'm going to report to the chairman in person."
This was huge news. He needed to present it directly.
It was also a golden opportunity to make himself look good.
He turned to Li Zaiqiang and Li Tang, visibly excited.
"You two, come with me to Jian'an Province. If you're there to present the findings, it'll be even more convincing."
"Sure,"
Li Zaiqiang nodded.
"At this point, our team has been out in the field for a long time. Everyone's been cooped up in the camp, taking turns going into town just to see the outside world. They're exhausted. Now's a good time to give everyone a short break—go home, rest, or stay in Tibet for some time off."
Li Tang, however, shook his head.
"I won't go to Jian'an. But I'll accompany you back to the provincial capital. From there, I'll fly to Huazhou Province. Minister Tao, you might not know this, but I've also been involved in a bauxite project in Huazhou. I've been out of touch for a while, and I have no idea what's going on over there. I would love to celebrate this good news with you all, but I need to check on things."
"Fair enough. Let's all head back today,"
Tao agreed.
They left a few local guides to guard the camp while Li Zaiqiang led most of the team back to the provincial capital.
Those with money flew back to Guizhou to see family.
Those short on cash either braved long, grueling bus rides or stayed in the city to rest—taking hot showers and eating fresh fruits and vegetables to replenish their bodies.
Li Tang arrived in the capital the next day and caught a flight to Huazhou Province.
Meanwhile, Li Zaiqiang and Tao Mingzhi went straight to Zise Mining headquarters and entered the chairman's office.
Zise Mining had just completed its shareholding reform—a historic moment for the company. But there was no time to rest. Their next big goal: get listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Everyone in the company was working nonstop—financial performance, environmental compliance, mineral reserves—all of it had to be reviewed, revised, and rewritten.
Chen Jinhe was overwhelmed, often skipping lunch just to keep pace.
When he heard that Li Zaiqiang and Tao Mingzhi had arrived to report on the Qinglong Copper Mine, his fatigue lifted. He set aside his current meeting and welcomed them in immediately.
Seeing their sun-darkened faces and dusty clothes, Chen stood to greet them and poured them tea himself.
"Here to report on Qinglong?"
As a geologist at heart, Chen sometimes found company operations and capital dealings exhausting. But exploration and mining—that was his passion.
Hearing updates about mineral deposits was the one thing that relaxed him.
"Yes,"
Tao said, unable to contain his excitement.
"We've gained a lot of insight from the project so far."
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