Chapter 180: Titans Gather
To handle the payment transfer and collect the complete historical data from BHP-Billiton's Exploration Center, Guo Fengchun stayed behind in Melbourne with a few assistants, awaiting instructions from Yanjing at any time.
Meanwhile, Hu Zhenchi, Zhao Hepu, Li Tang, Alice, and others boarded a plane and returned directly to Yanjing.
On the flight, Zhao Hepu ordered a bottle of champagne, his round face beaming with joy.
"I don't get many chances to go abroad—especially for an international acquisition like this. It's my first time being involved. First move, and already a success—this calls for celebration! Come on, cheers!"
Everyone raised their glasses and drank in one go. The atmosphere was lively and harmonious.
But Hu Zhenchi wasn't quite so cheerful. He set down his glass of champagne and turned to look at Li Tang, voicing something that had been bothering him the past few days.
"Li Tang, we originally negotiated the price at five million USD, but you insisted on increasing it during the meeting—bumping it up to eight million. At the current exchange rate, that's more than 20 million yuan!"
It was foreseeable that once the head office found out they turned a 40-million-yuan deal into a 70-million one, they might look at them very differently.
Executives often focus on the final numbers without delving into contractual nuances.
So what if you added a royalty clause?
From their perspective, a three-million-dollar price jump was alarming.
Every time Hu thought about it, he grew uneasy.
Li Tang believed they'd made a very smart trade, but not everyone had his level of foresight.
He understood Hu's concerns.
During negotiations, Hu hadn't objected or expressed doubt. That alone showed that Hu valued the bigger picture and had good judgment.
Now, in private, his questioning was understandable.
Li Tang turned and explained with a smile:
"Mr. Hu, the situation caught us all off guard. Before the meeting, none of us could've predicted their move. I didn't mean to steal the show. I've always followed your lead—absolutely."
The negotiation team was led by Hu.
Yet Li Tang had taken over the decision-making mid-talk without any prior signal.
With the wrong personality at the table, things could've blown up then and there.
Luckily, Hu was open-minded and understood the stakes.
Hearing this, Hu eased up. His tone softened.
"They caught us all off guard with that condition."
"My thinking was this: three million USD is roughly what we'd have paid if we'd agreed to a 5% royalty on 30,000 tons of copper," Li Tang explained.
"But if we end up discovering a ten-million-ton copper deposit, that royalty could have cost us ten billion yuan!"
"You make it sound like we earned ten billion," Hu chuckled, half annoyed, half amused.
"More or less," Li Tang laughed, easygoing as ever.
There was no way to fully explain this.
In a real historical case, Fernando had to pay nearly 40 million USD just to remove a 2% profit royalty clause.
This was a 5% gross revenue royalty.
If they discovered a massive mine and wanted to renegotiate later, the cost wouldn't be 40 million—it'd be 400 million USD.
Right now, the yuan was still valuable at home, but abroad, dollars flowed like water.
Foreign companies wouldn't hesitate when it came time to collect their dues.
So, paying three million more now to avoid trouble later was just smart risk management.
He wasn't worried about doubts or criticism. If the deal succeeded, those critics would eventually eat their words.
Once back in Yanjing, Li Tang had to follow Hu to report to Lang Hemin and Niu Fu—
to explain how a 40-million-yuan deal had become a 70-million one.
An exploration license costing 70 million yuan?
No matter how you sliced it, that was a wild move.
"Seventy million? And that's not including exploration costs?"
Even Niu was speechless. He looked to Lang with a hint of helplessness.
"You figure out the funding," Lang said casually, lounging in his chair.
He didn't interfere in daily operations—only made judgments on big matters.
And on this project, his stance was clear:
full support.
The board had already approved it by vote.
"BHP-Billiton gave us one month to pay the full eight million USD," Li Tang said calmly.
"We still need time to process the license transfer in Mongolia. It's fine."
"You said you could raise fifty million?" Niu asked, eyes narrowing.
"You sure you can gather that kind of cash in such a short time? Nonferrous Metals News reported that your Gongcun project was short on funds."
"I'm sure." Li Tang nodded firmly. "I can handle it."
"You planning to sell your Gongcun shares?" Niu probed. He'd heard rumors.
"If I have to, yes," Li Tang said, a little reluctantly.
"That Gongcun mine is worth more than fifty million. Zise Mining paid over 100 million for the Jinyin Cave project, and that was for just 54 tons of gold.
Gongcun has a million tons of copper and 100 tons of gold—it should be worth at least two to three hundred million."
Niu paused. Seeing Li Tang's helpless expression, he felt a twinge of sympathy.
He thought for a moment and suggested,
"Our group is actually interested in Gongcun too.
But we're not skilled in smelting low-grade gold ore, and we're tight on funds—supporting this Mongolian project is already stretching us thin.
How about I contact Huajin Group? Their GM, Cheng Muyan, mentioned your project recently."
"Mr. Cheng called me too—he's definitely interested," Li Tang said, grateful for Niu's help. It was clear the man genuinely wanted to support him.
"Right now, it's not just you who's short on money.
This Mongolian copper-gold project also needs massive funding.
Overseas mining is no joke—it's like burning cash!"
Niu lamented.
"In a few days, there's a Mining Association conference. Come with me.
After the event, we can talk to everyone about this project. I'm sure many companies will be interested."
…
The conference, organized by the Mining Association, was high-level.
Most major mining CEOs attended in person.
Especially China's leading copper mining firms—
they brought entire teams. Their top management was fully present.
On stage sat officials from the Mining Association and key industrial bodies.
In the front row, placards read: Huajin Group, Jiujiang Copper, Tongdu Nonferrous, Zise Mining, Wukuang Group—all industry giants.
From the second row back sat mid-sized and smaller firms—dozens in total.
The agenda was clear:
Address the chaos in the copper concentrate smelting market.
The Mining, Nonferrous, and Metallurgical Associations had joined forces to issue a warning:
Stop undercutting each other.
Recently, raw copper concentrate was in short supply.
Some smelters, desperate to stay in business, had taken contracts with sharply reduced processing fees.
This sparked a chain reaction.
Spot market treatment charges (TCs) for copper concentrate plummeted across the board.
Unlike Japan, South Korea, or Western nations—which used long-term contracts—
Chinese smelters largely relied on spot pricing.
This race to the bottom devastated most copper smelters.
Profits were halved or worse.
A group of mid-sized firms had jointly petitioned regulators,
which led to the Mining Association organizing this conference.
The meeting's true purpose was simple:
urge restraint.
But everyone knew that coordination was difficult—everyone had their own priorities.
In plain terms:
friendly fire was happening, and there was no legal mechanism to stop it.
After the officials finished their speeches,
the floor opened to representatives from smaller smelters.
They were not shy about voicing their frustrations:
"Some major state-owned miners have their own copper mines,
sign long-term deals with foreign suppliers,
and still come to the spot market to fight us for orders!
Not only that, they undercut prices drastically!"
"We're inland smelters—we have to take subcontracts and pay an extra 30–50 yuan per ton in freight.
Now we can't even afford to pay our workers. Who's going to take responsibility for their families?"
"Those monopolizing the best domestic mines should stay out of the smelting market!"
"I just checked the data published by the Nonferrous Association—
Half of China's copper concentrate comes from domestic mines.
You big companies still aren't satisfied?
You mine it, you smelt it, and you even sell the final copper products for profit.
Us small companies survive on scraps, and now you want those too?"
"This year, spot processing fees are down more than 10%.
There's basically no profit left!"
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