Chapter 166: Even the Soul Went Numb
Li Tang finally saw right through it—this foreign "friend" had come with the intent of snatching a bargain!
Lucas had never planned to throw down real, overwhelming money to forcefully take control of the Gongcun Copper-Gold Mine.
Of course, trying to daze someone like Li Tang with money wasn't going to work so easily.
Ordinary sums wouldn't move him.
"So, in short, I have no plans to sell my company's shares for now," Li Tang said bluntly, not bothering with pleasantries. "To be honest, you're not the only one who sees the value in the Gongcun project—I do too."
Lucas's face tensed in frustration. "Why are you so insatiable?"
"My appetite is huge," Li Tang chuckled. "Ask Captain Damba—he knows I can eat three bowls of rice in one sitting."
"Without our technology, without our capital, you Chinese would never have found the deposit!"
Lucas was still clutching that single 300-meter drill hole's data like it was a family heirloom. Even now, he hadn't shared it.
Back when they had hastily held the "equity donation" ceremony, Li Tang had reminded Lucas that, as a shareholder of Gongcun Gold Company, he had a duty to share that drill hole data. Lucas hadn't even responded.
Initially, Li Tang had thought the data would offer valuable guidance. But now that dozens of mineralized drill holes had been logged, that lone Land Mining Company-funded drill hole was basically irrelevant.
"Mr. Lucas," Li Tang said with a smile, "as a shareholder, you have the right to know how the Gongcun project is progressing. Let me put it this way: we've already struck ore."
"What did you say?" Lucas didn't believe it.
"Captain Damba, would you mind updating Mr. Lucas on the project?" Li Tang gestured.
"Is that okay?" Damba hesitated.
"You might not know—Lucas is the third-largest shareholder in Gongcun Gold Company," Li Tang smiled.
"Is that true?" Damba was stunned. He hadn't been at the Mineral Resources Bureau and didn't know that Li Tang had gifted Lucas 0.01% of the company.
"It's true," Li Tang confirmed. "Which means Mr. Lucas is entitled to know everything. And since he's a renowned international geologist with advanced techniques, maybe he can even offer us some insights."
"Alright, alright," Damba nodded. "We've now completed over 10,000 meters of drilling, with 80+ boreholes in total. 68 are completed. 14 are still in progress. Of the finished holes, 46 hit ore."
Lucas was stunned.
Over 10,000 meters drilled?
46 holes with mineralization?
Didn't they say China was poor? Where did they get the money to do so much drilling?
And this was less than three months since he'd left China!
How had they moved so fast on such a big-ticket operation?
Back when Land Mining Company got involved, Geological Team Six couldn't even scrape together funds for one 300-meter hole.
Now Lucas stood frozen, barely blinking. Damba continued:
"Right now, we've got one drill hole where the mineralized layer exceeds 300 meters. One of our in-progress holes is on track to surpass 400 meters!"
"Four hundred meters of ore body?" Lucas exclaimed.
The hole they'd funded had only returned about 100 meters of mineralized rock—and now the Chinese had found something much thicker?
So the true scale of the Gongcun deposit far exceeded even his best estimates.
"And we're still drilling," Damba added with pride. "Every day we're setting new records. That 400-meter estimate? That's conservative. It might even hit 500 meters."
A mineralized layer 500 meters thick?
That meant after removing the overburden, you could dig blindly and still hit valuable ore. Such ore bodies were exceedingly rare.
Seeing Lucas still in shock, Damba added:
"From the cores we've analyzed so far, the highest copper grade is 12%, and the highest gold grade is 7 grams per ton. The upper part of the ore body is mostly oxidized ore—lower in grade, with about 0.3% copper and 0.4 g/t gold. But the lower zones are primary sulfide ore—thicker and richer—with an average of 0.6% copper and 0.55 g/t gold. Overall, this deposit is massive, shallow, and though the grade is modest, it's very promising."
The journalist from the Financial Post wasn't a mining expert, but she could tell from Lucas's stunned face—and the energetic demeanor of Li Tang and Damba—that they had indeed discovered a massive gold deposit.
And gold, as everyone knows, always captures the imagination.
She leaned forward with her mic. "Excuse me, can you give us a more direct sense of just how big this discovery is?"
Damba looked a little nervous on camera, but he quickly adapted. "Let me put it this way—Gongcun is a copper-gold polymetallic deposit. As a copper mine alone, it qualifies as a large deposit. As a gold mine alone, it also qualifies as a large deposit. Together, the economic value is multiplied. Plus, we've also found silver—about 3 grams per ton."
"How much is the gold worth?" the reporter pressed.
"We're still in early stages, so not all data is compiled yet," Damba said. He thought for a moment, scribbled a few notes, and continued: "Based on current drill data, we estimate about 60 tons of gold. That already meets China's standard for a large deposit."
"Sixty tons?" the reporter repeated, still not grasping the value. "How much is that worth?"
"At current international prices, gold is about $270 per ounce—around 75 yuan per gram in China," Damba said, doing some calculations. "That puts the value of just the gold at nearly 5 billion yuan."
"Five billion?" The journalist motioned the camera closer to Damba's face.
"Yes. That's just the gold," Damba said, flustered by the camera in his face but trying to stay composed. "If we include the copper—and copper's economic value is even higher—then we're easily over 10 billion. With silver, lead, and zinc included, the total value is over 20 billion yuan."
"Twenty billion!" the reporter was floored. "Is that number reliable?"
"Very reliable," Damba said with a stiff smile. "And that figure will only grow as we continue drilling. There could be even bigger deposits below—we can't rule that out."
"Twenty billion yuan is about 4 billion Garan dollars!" she said, now sensing the gravity of the story.
She turned abruptly and shoved the mic in Lucas's face. "Mr. Lucas, did you hear that? The mining rights that originally belonged to Garan's Land Mining Company—your company—are now in someone else's hands. And it turns out the deposit is worth over 4 billion dollars. What do you have to say?"
Her words were like coarse salt rubbed into Lucas's wounds.
Lucas didn't react.
His face was numb. His mind was numb. Even his soul felt numb.
That's what happens when a man is completely and utterly defeated.
But this wasn't the kind of reaction the reporter wanted. She wanted outrage.
"If Land Mining had gotten the mining rights, your stock would've risen tenfold," she prodded. "Mr. Lucas, what should've been yours is now a Chinese company's treasure. Do you think that's fair?"
She wanted to provoke conflict, to stir up scandal, to expose "darkness" in China's mining sector.
In Garan, if you praised China, you'd be shamed. But bashing China? That's how you sell newspapers.
Lucas didn't respond. He believed Damba. The numbers weren't lies. The truth would be even more astonishing.
He had come hoping to buy the rights for 10 million yuan—about 2 million Garan dollars—their absolute limit without external financing.
But now? That figure was a joke.
Who would sell a 20-billion-yuan deposit for 10 million?
Besides, they had already spent more than that just drilling. The project had already surpassed 10,000 meters.
This wasn't a hidden gem to be picked up cheap anymore.
Without at least nine figures, there was no deal.
Now it made sense why Li Tang had refused his 5 million and 10 million offers without hesitation.
He already knew. He had always known.
"Mr. Lucas?" the reporter tried again. "You lost the mining rights. And they turned out to be extremely valuable. Was that fair?"
"It wasn't fair," Lucas muttered, shaking his head like a zombie. "But so what?"
"You mean to say, even if Garan companies are treated unfairly in China, there's nothing you can do about it?"
"I don't know."
"Can you tell us exactly what underhanded methods were used to take the rights from your company?"
"I don't know." Lucas's mind was blank.
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