1850 American Gold Tycoon

Chapter 58 Mercury!HG!HG!
Deng Wenkang discovered mercury, to be precise, he discovered it together with an Irish immigrant named James G. Fair.

Mercury deposits were discovered in the New Almaden, New Edri, and Sulfur Flats areas.

In addition, they also discovered a new gold vein near the Bell River 160 kilometers northeast of San Francisco!

Deng Wenkang rushed to San Francisco overnight to tell Liang Yao, who was still asleep, the exciting news.

Knowing that the mercury mine was finally discovered, Liang Yao lost all sleepiness in an instant, and got up from the bed very excitedly.

As early as more than three months ago, he sent people to search for mercury mines, and now it finally paid off.

He valued mercury mines more than gold mines, and he was willing to take part of the shares of Xiangshan Gold Mining Company to reach a cooperation with Vanderbilt.

And mercury, that is, mercury, he wants to monopolize it!He won't allow anyone to get their hands on California's quicksilver!

The reason why California is a gold mining mecca is not only because it has abundant reserves of gold, but also because it also has abundant reserves of mercury, which is rarer than gold.

At present, the main method of gold panning in California is to pan for gold in ore washing tanks or shallow gold pans. Although the ore washing tanks have greatly improved the efficiency of gold panning, they still use water power and manpower in the final analysis, not even mechanization.

Even the largest Xiangshan Gold Mining Company, that is, their ore washing tanks have been made bigger, more, and more manpower, and they win by scale, not by technology.

And with mercury, he can use the chemical method, which is the mercury gold separation method, to wash the gold.

This method is also very simple, add liquid mercury to the base of the gold panning machine, and then pour the gold sand slurry containing gold into it.

Due to its chemical properties, even the smallest gold can combine with mercury to form mercury gold.

This means that lean ore can also be effectively panned to extract gold from it.

It's just that mercury gold is not [-]% pure gold, and further purification is required to obtain gold with higher purity.

The method of further purification is also very simple and crude, that is to directly heat the mercury gold to vaporize the mercury directly.

However, this method is more polluting to the environment. Even if the equipment can be used to capture part of the mercury vapor, there will still be a lot of vapor that will directly enter the atmosphere, but environmental protection is not an issue that Liang Yao needs to consider now.

This simple gold panning method has existed since ancient times, and the technical difficulty is not too great. The bottleneck lies not in technology but in raw materials.

As long as the mercury is mastered, other gold mining companies want to use this method to mine gold, so they can only exchange gold with him for mercury.

After all, rich mines are relatively rare. Except for a few lucky ones, more people can only pan for gold in poor mines.

Mercury can greatly improve the efficiency of extracting gold from lean ore.

"How many veins were found?"

Liang Yao went to the study and lit the whale oil lamp. It was four o'clock in the morning and it was still dark. He needed the help of lighting to see the map clearly.

"Fell."

Deng Wenkang called Feier by name. He wasn't smart, but he wasn't stupid either.

In the past six months, I have dealt with foreigners every day in the mine. Although I can't speak English very well, there is no problem in simple conversations.

"Mr. Liang, the ability to find the mercury mine is entirely due to your personal perseverance and courage. It would have been a long time ago if other people hadn't found the mercury mine, they would have given up halfway."

Fell made thirteen marks on the map with a pencil.

Except for the land ownership in the sulfur flat area, these discovered mercury mines do not belong to Liang Yao.

The remaining two places: the New Almaden area and the New Eddri area are all within the scope of the land he purchased.

He just needs to investigate whether the Sulfur Flats area is an unowned land or an owned land, and if it is an owned land, he can spend some gold to buy it.

It would be even better if it was an unowned land. He would directly send someone to stand down on that piece of land, build houses on the spot and open mines, and this piece of land would belong to him.What America lacks is people, but it has land.

"These places are rich in mercury, but the map can only be seen roughly. We also accidentally discovered a gold vein near the Bell River. Although it is not a rich mine, the gold reserves are also very considerable."

After speaking, Feier looked at Liang Yao expectantly, as if expecting something.

Liang Yao knew what Fair was expecting. The Deng brothers had shares in Xiangshan Mining Company for dividends, and the bounty for discovering the mercury mine was insignificant to Deng Wenkang.

And Fair is just a poor gold prospector, but compared with other gold prospectors, Fair is proficient in geology and good at finding mineral veins.

"I will keep my promise."

As he spoke, Liang Yao pulled out a money order from the Bank of China from the table.

"Mr. Liang, I don't want a bounty of 300 ounces of gold."

Phil summoned up his courage and said.

"If you don't want gold, what do you want?"

Liang Yao frowned slightly. If he didn't want gold, he would want more.

"I want Mr. Loan from China Bank, but I have nothing now, and I can't mortgage anything to get a loan from the bank. I want to set up a small mining company to pan for gold."

Phil spoke his mind.

Liang Yao praised the descendant of Irish descent in front of him. He tore up the half-filled money order, crumpled it up and threw it into the trash can.

"How much loan do you want? As long as the amount is reasonable, I can guarantee a loan from the bank for you."

Fair thought for a long time and gave a number: "Sir, is fifty thousand dollars okay?"

Converting $5 into gold is equivalent to more than 1600 ounces of gold.

This loan amount obviously exceeded Liang Yao's psychological expectations. Although he was the richest man in California and even the West, $[-] was not a small amount for him.

The Irish boy's ambitions are quite big.

"5 US dollars, this amount of loan is more than enough to set up a medium-sized mining company."

"gentlemen."

Fei Er hurriedly explained to Liang Yao.

Liang Yao raised his hand and interrupted Fair's explanation: "Well, I will guarantee a loan of 25000 US dollars to China Bank for you, and in order to give you a lower interest rate, I will participate in the remaining 25000 US dollars in my own name. your company."

"Really? Great sir!"

Fair was very excited, he finally raised his first pot of gold, set up his own mining company, and was able to make a big splash in California, a place full of gold.

As for Liang Yao's shareholding, that was exactly what he wished for.His company has Liang Yao's shares, and other gold mining companies and gold diggers must not dare to have any unreasonable thoughts, which can save him a lot of trouble.

"Fair is proficient in mining prospecting. This person is of great use. Why doesn't the leader keep him in our company?"

After Fair left, Deng Wenkang felt very sorry.He has learned a lot from Fair during the days when he and Fair searched for mercury mines.

"Those who can keep him can't keep his heart. Although the twisted melon quenches thirst, it's not sweet."

Fair is not someone who can stay under others for a long time, since he has his own ideas, let him go. "

Liang Yao didn't want to force others to make things difficult for him, he looked at the wall clock on the wall, at this moment Dongfang Lubai was gone, and he didn't feel sleepy anymore.

In the early morning, the cock crowed as usual, accompanied by Nick's screams.

The first thing Vanderbilt did when he woke up was to beat his son. Although he drank some wine last night, he was still thinking about Coney's prostitution.

Liang Yao didn't bother to intervene in Vanderbilt's own housework, and just pretended he didn't hear anything and continued to work at his desk, dealing with trivial matters.

After teaching Kony, Vanderbilt handed Clark, who had just woken up, into the gazebo.

Clark looked at Vanderbilt in horror. He was Vanderbilt's son-in-law, barely half of Vanderbilt's son.

Vanderbilt dared to teach Coney, but he might not dare to teach him.

Clark wondered if he had done something wrong recently.

"Clark, I think there's something I need to talk to you about, sit down and relax."

Vanderbilt sat down in the gazebo and relaxed his muscles.

"Father-in-law, you said"

Clark subconsciously sat some distance away from Vanderbilt.

"I know that you have made a lot of contributions to the Vanderbilt family, and you have spent a lot of thought on Brannan." Vanderbilt said.

"I see all of this and record it in my notebook, but Brannan is dead, we must look forward, I don't want you to be swayed by emotions and lose your rational judgment, understand?"

It turned out to be this matter, Clark breathed a sigh of relief, it turned out to be this matter.

"I see, father-in-law."

Vanderbilt nodded very kindly: "Very well, you are a very capable person, I believe I will not be mistaken. Please remember that if you want to be a successful businessman, you need to remain calm and rational at all times."

(End of this chapter)