Go back in time and be a chaebol

Chapter 431: Find a new way (first update, please subscribe)

Soon, the plane landed on the sea.

As the plane slowly approached the pier, Nakajima and the others looked at this strange land with curiosity.

Dongning Province, also known as West Irian Island.

Whether in the Dutch colonial era or now, this is a remote and economically backward area. Although it covers an area of ​​43 square kilometers, it has only a population of 20. Except for half of them being Chinese immigrants, most of the others are Americans. The Lanesians and Papuans, and even some cannibals who drink hair and blood deep in the rainforest.

But what appeared in front of them was a small city with good facilities. In fact, it was a military camp. In the past few years, new cities and plantations had formed around the garrison camps, and immigrants came to these areas as laborers hired by the military.

These areas are now the focus of construction in the eastern region, and this small city called "Jaya" is no exception.

"see it?"

As soon as they landed, Xia Jun who greeted them pointed to the mountain peaks in the distance that were obscured by the sea of ​​clouds.

"That peak is Jaya Peak, and our copper mine is nearby. Now we are building a road into the mountain, but you can't feel the mountain's strength here. You will understand it later on the way into the mountain. "

Soon the group of people got into a car heading to the construction site. In the car, Nakajima noticed that Xia Jun had a pistol on his waist.

Although they were a group of experts in mining and other fields, after a while of surprise, they remembered that indeed, from a geographical point of view, the island of New Guinea did belong to Oceania.

"It's not just that..."

"Look at the environment here. Even the crazy people in the military have given up on mining copper here, but now we have to do it here. ... It's really very difficult!"

Looking at the surrounding terrain, Watanabe leaned into Nakajima's ear and whispered.

"There is also the transportation of ore. This is very important. If you want to transport the ore out with the mountainous terrain here, you also saw on the way here. With such terrain and mountainous terrain, it is very dangerous and costly to use vehicles to transport ore. It’s also very high.”

The car was driving in dense rainforest all the way. The simple road built between the mountains was very dangerous. The farther you went, the more dangerous the terrain became, and Nakajima and others felt heavier.

In this way, the atmosphere slowly relaxed as everyone chatted. Everyone is no longer as strange as they were at the beginning.

"There is also Southeast Asia. The island of New Guinea belongs to Oceania, and Mount Jaya is the highest peak in Oceania,"

"Any more?"

"It should be just these countries!"

"So, the problem that restricts mining now is equipment transportation?"

"And Türkiye."

Unfolding a map, Xia Jun introduced it.

"The altitude of the copper mine is over 4400 meters. As for the mountain road, there are mountains and canyons everywhere along the way. Hundreds of kilometers of mountain roads need to be built to transport mining equipment up the mountain."

But Xia Jun still joked with them.

After driving for six hours, the car finally drove into a camp. The camp was 2400 meters above sea level, and the copper mine was over 4400 meters above sea level!

After settling in for a while, this group of guys who were determined to "roll out" the opportunity to naturalize in Nanyang immediately got busy. They unfolded maps one by one in the simple wooden house.

Gun, this made Nakajima's heart thump, and he felt a little strange. Why is he wearing a pistol?

After driving for an hour, except for simple roads, there was no trace of human civilization anymore, and there was only dense and dark green jungle around.

It turns out to be a country spanning two continents!

"Do you know how many countries in the world span two continents?"

"Russia, Egypt."

"What about a mine railway?"

"The terrain is still terrain. The straight-line distance from the coast to the top of the mountain is less than 100 kilometers, but the altitude has risen from 0 meters to 4400 meters. The terrain is so steep, let alone the railway, even if the road is repaired, the driver will not be able to drive the car. Be careful, transportation is the biggest problem!”

As a mining road expert, Watanabe directly rejected the possibility of building a mining railway. In fact, before they came to this result, the German experts on the project team also came to the same conclusion. This is why , the reason why the company is recruiting dozens of mining experts in Japan at a time — in hopes of brainstorming.

Now, after the terrain map was placed in front of them, everyone was dumbfounded... As for Nakajima and the others, they completely understood why the madman in the military gave up mining here.

"Because even if it is mined, it cannot be transported out!"

It’s not that it can’t be transported, it’s that it’s very difficult to transport it out!

In the next half month, Nakajima, Watanabe and others even transformed into mountaineers, walking along the dense rainforest, through canyons, over mountains, and on foot to the mines on the top of the mountain, trying to find a passage, but in reality It's cruel - the mountains are more dangerous than they imagined, and even building roads has become increasingly difficult. The harsh terrain has become an obstacle to the development of copper mines. Leaving them all in a state of despair.

Once again, after staring at the terrain map he had just surveyed but unable to find any way into the mountain, Nakajima walked down the corridor in frustration.

It is raining outside. The raincoats here are different from those in Nanyang. Although the rain comes quickly and quickly, the rain is very cold.

Driven by the wind, the cold rain blew onto the corridor and hit his body, making Nakajima shiver uncontrollably. He was smoking with a sad look on his face.

"It's really difficult to handle!"

At this time Watanabe also came over.

"It is very difficult to transport ore on such a steep mountain even with a Swiss cogwheel train, and the cogwheel train cannot transport ore at all. Even if we modify it, it can transport ore, but there are so many mountains and canyons. How can we build railways?”

After half a month of on-the-spot investigation, he has now completely given up the idea of ​​building a railway or even a highway here.

Of course, roads can still be built, and even now, they are still building roads. But transporting the mining machinery and equipment over the mountains and over the hundreds of kilometers of mountain roads through the canyons is okay, but trying to transport the ore out of it... is simply a dream.

"So, you think there is no way to mine this copper mine?"

Nakajima asked rhetorically.

"It's definitely possible to spare no expense, but the transportation cost is high, which may even make the mine worthless. Even with those captives, it's the same."

While exploring the mountain road, Nakajima and others met many compatriots - captured soldiers. Most of them were captured in Kyushu. These prisoners of war were transported to Nanyang, where they reclaimed rainforests and built roads. Although they are compatriots, Nakajima and the others did not even show any sympathy to them. In fact, Nakajima and others blamed all their miserable post-war lives on those soldiers-if they had not been bent on fighting, they would have Expanding and invading other countries, how could Japan become like this?

In Nakajima's eyes, captives are definitely the best cheap labor force, but even so, they still cannot make up for the expensive transportation costs.

No matter from any point of view, mining here is not worth the gain, and it is very likely to lose money.

"So, our hope is slim!"

The hope Watanabe mentioned was of course "naturalization". They all pointed to making meritorious service to Nanyang and then becoming naturalized as Nanyang people!

Watanabe said to himself as he smoked a cigarette and felt the cold wind and rain on the mountain.

"I don't want to go back to Japan. No matter what, I have to stay in Japan. All that is left in Japan is poverty. If I go back... I won't even be able to give my wife and children a full meal!"

Who wants to go back to Japan?

Although the cigarette in his fingers was almost exhausted, Nakajima still smoked until he couldn't smoke anymore, and then he threw down the cigarette butt. When he was about to speak, his eyes were fixed on the cigarette butt he had thrown away earlier. Staring at it without blinking, staring at the cigarette butts flowing forward driven by the rain.

Suddenly, he shouted excitedly.

"water!"

"what?"

"I mean water, why do we have to build roads? We can transport ore by water!"

"What? There is no river here at all! Those rivers in the canyon can't reach the top of the mountain..."

Watanabe said loudly.

"Not the river, I mean the pipeline. We can build the factory on the top of the mountain, where the ore is made into copper concentrate powder, and then mixed with water in proportion to turn the ore powder into slurry, and then use the pipeline to transport it, through the pipeline In the form of conveying from a high place to a low place, the conveying power only needs to rely on gravity. Of course, it may not be that simple, but it is just a matter of adding a few pressure pumps.”

Looking at Nakajima's excited look, Watanabe asked.

"Transporting through pipelines? Slurry? Is there any precedent?"

"It doesn't matter whether there is any precedent. What's important is that we can try it. Perhaps, this is the best way! It's probably also the only way!"

Nakajima said with some excitement.

"Even if there is no precedent, so what? If we succeed, won't we set a precedent?"

In the excited eyes, only the desire for success remains...

(End of this chapter)