Just like what Jiang Chen had expected, after hearing his words, Xia Shiyu was utterly dumbfounded.
Recovering from being dumbfounded, she repeatedly asked Jiang Chen the difference between the virtual reality MMORPG and the existing VR games. When she heard “neural connection,” “second life” and other key vocabularies, she immediately stated that she will make a trip after the typhoon clears up.
To the marketing plan of this era-defining MMORPG, she couldn’t wait to start working on it.
…
Because most of the mines were located in the southern sea region, the headquarter of Future Mining was established on Ange Island. After they met the last time, Yang Yuan have been working on this. With half a month of work, the structure of the company was finally established.
When he landed on the island, the Celestial Trade Company’s vehicle was already waiting on the side of the road. He got in the car as Jiang Chen briefly told him about the destination before the driver started driving.
The security business of Celestial Trade was divided into military and civilian. The military employees were all located on New Moon Island whereas the civilian workers acted as the bodyguard of key government officials. Jiang Chen’s temporary driver was a bodyguard.
Jiang Chen rolled down the window, put his arm outside, and started to view the backyard that belonged to him.
Since the last time he visited Ange Island, it has only been a month, but in this one month time, the small island has experienced groundbreaking shifts. The new apartments, houses, and the business street under renovation were all part of the change. Compared to the fishing village before, Ange city finally had some flavors of being a city.
Because of the infrastructure development plan and the tourism resources construction led by Future International, a lot of foreign merchants smelled the opportunity for business as they attempt to hop on the fast-moving train and enjoy the considerable dividend to be paid in investing in Xin.
When he passed by the city center, Jiang Chen was shocked to find a Coles store under construction. He faintly recalled that it seemed to be a chain in Australia with domestic operations. Clearly, the lack of department stores in Xin had drawn the attention of Coles group, so they bravely took the first step and selected Ange Island as their first stop to international expansion.
Because of the international businessmen’s massive appetite for land, the Ange government’s finance increased substantially. They immediately used the money for infrastructure development, such as expanding roads and building schools.
The infrastructure not only improved the quality of life of the people, but it also provided a large number of employment opportunities. The high unemployment rate was greatly improved, and the lack of labor even attracted immigrants. The previously city with an empty feeling now was injected by a healthy boost of adrenaline and displayed the liveliness it should possess.
…
The employment dorm Jiang Chen provided to Yang Yuan was a mansion by the sea located at the edge of Ange city, there was only a road along with a few rows of giant palm trees, and there was nothing else.
The car was parked on the side as Jiang Chen told the driver to wait for him. Jiang Chen then walked to the mansion and pressed the bell on the wooden door.
There were the sound of footsteps before the door was opened shortly after.
When he saw his old friend Jiang Chen, Yang Yuan warmly welcomed him inside.
“What do you think? How’s the life here.” Jiang Chen scanned the decoration inside the living room as he sat on the sofa.
“Perfect beyond my belief, I almost couldn’t afford my rent in Australia.” Yang Yuan let out a sigh before he looked at Jiang Chen earnestly, “Although it is a bit dramatic, I still have to say, thank you.”
“We’re old friends, It’s nothing.”
It was not for the industry’s unexpected turn of events, with Yang Yuan’s resume, his life would be no worse in Australia. Since on this island, other than housing being cheap, nothing else was convenient.
“Have you eaten yet? Want to have lunch here?”
“I’m here for that. Will it be troublesome?” Jiang Chen said jokingly.
“Haha, it’s only adding an extra pair of chopsticks, no trouble at all.” Yang Yuan laughed.
“Here are the champagnes.” Su Fei took out two bottles of champagne, placed the bottles in front of them, and popped open the cap.
Perhaps because she knew she had no chance, Su Fei didn’t give Jiang Chen the frivolous vibe anymore which made Jiang Chen feel relieved.
“Thank you.” Jiang Chen took the glass and smiled friendly at her.
“No problem.” Su Fei smiled and poured for her boyfriend, “You guys chat, I will go cook.”
With how virtuous his girlfriend was, Yang Yuan had a happy expression.
“Did you lose your soul?” Jiang Chen mocked.
“Haha.” Yang Yuan timidly touched his nose, raised the cup, “Let’s drink.”
“I didn’t know your S.O knew how to cook.” This did surprise Jiang Chen; Su Fei didn’t look like someone capable of that.
“Your S.O is really virtuous. I just bought tuna from the fisher in town, you’ll love it,” Yang Yuan said as he took a drink.
“Tuna soup?”
“What soup, Sashimi!” Yang Yuan laughed.
To the deeply committed roommate, Jiang Chen wholeheartedly wished that he could be together with the person he loves. Although the Su Fei gave him a feeling that she is not a good girl, he would never offer an opinion on other people’s relationship.
They chatted from life to work.
No wonder he was a talent signed by Rio Tinto in the first year of his master’s program, Yang Yuan’s ability was indeed strong. When he talked about work, his work ethic was almost comparable to the workaholic Xia Shiyu.
“The education level of Xin is extremely low, so I hired a lot of technicians from Australia. Because of the massive layoff by Rio Tinto, I met a lot of strong seniors when I was studying for my master’s who are currently living off of employment insurance. I asked them for their opinions and the salary they demanded was not high, but they wanted to sign the employment contract according to Australia’s standard, and the company provides housing.”
“Vacation and housing are not a problem. I just care about their ability,” Jiang Chen said.
Yang Yuan smiled confidently and said with certainty, “Their ability are all strong, they were mostly all employed by Rio Tinto before with a wealth of work experience.”
“How many people?”
“Considering that the company has yet to have a mining project, I only hired ten people as management.”
“That’s not enough, I have a deepwater mining project on hand.” Jiang Chen shook his head.
Yang Yuan looked at Jiang Chen in surprise.
“This fast?”
“I have some personal relationships with the president,” Jiang Chen implicitly said.
Yang Yuan immediately gave Jiang Chen the “I understand” look and laughed. “No wonder the license is approved already. In a lot of countries, it would take more than half a year. Tell me the type of deposition and I’ll prepare first if there is a project now. Ten people is definitely not enough.”
“Molybdenum,”
“Molybdenum? Have you confirmed the location?” Yang Yuan raised his eyebrows.
Jiang Chen nodded and took out a paper map folded in his pocket. Although he didn’t understand it, he still marked a molybdenum deposition on the map closest to Ange Island.
Looking at the red circle on the map, Yang Yuan’s frown, looking more and more serious.
“Do you know that the average depth of the bed is 7500 meters?” Yang Yuan looked at Jiang Chen weirdly.
“Yeah? Is there a problem?” Jiang Chen was puzzled.
The deep-sea environment meant that molybdenum being attached to organic matter is wrapped in a manganese-containing colloid, the final formation would sink into the sea and out of the biosphere cycle. This type of marine molybdenum deposition is undoubtedly more likely than the continental deposition of molybdenum deposits, but this deposit generally appears in the deep sea 5000 meters below with deeper deposits being more frequently. In this environment, the extraction will be complicated.
Although in the early 1970s, manganese nodule mining technology has made some progress, today is still under detailed investigation, assessment, and trial mining stage. At present, theoretically, the deepest mining depth was probably the fluid mining experimental system developed by Japan with a working depth of up to 5250 meters at ideal conditions. But this technology clearly hasn’t made a breakthrough. Otherwise, the country that lacked resources would have started building sea platforms a long time ago.
“So you are saying, the current technology can’t extract it?’ To this point, Jiang Chen expected already.
“Might be possible in a lab, and only possible.” Yang Yuan had a bitter smile, “Your president friend… is not playing with your right?”
Indeed, in bystander’s eyes, selling a deposition that could not be extracted had no other explanation than fooling you. A lot of major companies that spent billions in technology didn’t make a splash, let alone a small mining company with no history; it would even be difficult to extract in the shallow sea.
When he thought about this, Yang Yuan became a bit nervous. If the mine could really not be extracted, would that be the end of his job then? But to the rigorous standard and uprightness, he held himself to, he couldn’t hide such a significant problem.
But Jiang Chen didn’t seem to exhibit any signs of disappointment or even anger like he thought, he only had a weird expression.
[Zhang Yapin dare to fool me? Don’t kid me.]
Jiang Chen thought for a moment and said,” I can take care of the underwater mining.”
“But that’s 7500 meters.” Yang Yuan had to remind him.
“Only 7500 meters.” Jiang Chen smiled with confidence and in an indisputable tone.
Yang Yuan paused. Although he really wanted to use his industry experience to tell Jiang Chen it was unrealistic, the confidence on his face made him waver.
“I’ll take care of the underwater mining technology, your current job is to build a platform located right above for resources transfer, and purchase a transportation vessel, then establish a molybdenum processing plant on Ange Island… Mhmm, and also a steel plant and aluminum plant used to process the ores shipped by BHP,” Jiang Chen said.
It was not worth it to extract iron and aluminum underwater; it was cheaper to import.
“It would cost a lot of money,” Yang Yuan cautioned him.
“I have enough money.”
He borrowed thirty billion USD. Jiang Chen had enough money right now.
“… Okay.” Yang Yuan picked up the glass and took a drink, “If you insist, I will follow your instructions.”
As they were talking, Su Fei’s voice came out of the kitchen.
“Time to eat. Clean off the table, there are a lot of dishes today.”
“Haha, I already smell it.” Yang Yuan stood up and walked to the kitchen to help his girlfriend to bring out the dishes.
Jiang Chen wanted to help too, but Su Fei who brought the sashimi stopped him.
“You are the guest; just let me and Yuan do it.” Su Fei smiled and went back to the kitchen.