Chapter 164: Keep Drilling
When Li Zaiqiang noticed everyone was staring at his son as if he were some kind of mythical creature, he couldn't help but feel a bit embarrassed. He quickly turned to Li Tang and scolded, "You'd better not be joking in front of all your elders!"
"I'm not joking," Li Tang said, shaking his head.
He wasn't just speaking offhand. In fact, he had a reason for bringing this up so directly—he wanted Chen Jinhe to hear it.
"So what kind of project needs such a large investment?" Sure enough, Chen Jinhe's interest was piqued.
"A copper-gold deposit project. It's similar to Qulong Copper Mine—it's also located along the Gangdise Metallogenic Belt," Li Tang said, taking the opportunity to promote it. "In my estimation, the copper reserves here might not match Qulong, but the gold resources have strong potential."
Copper-gold? That was Zise Mining's specialty.
Chen Jinhe immediately asked, "Have you started drilling yet?"
"We've already completed several boreholes."
"Could I take a look at the data?"
"Of course." Li Tang handed over a sheet of handwritten chemical analysis results from the completed boreholes.
Chen Jinhe glanced through it, then passed it to Yao Zhenyu. He gave a faint, honest smile. "Looks like the grade isn't very high."
"At the moment, no—it's not great," Li Tang admitted. "But still within workable range."
"With an investment of 50 to 100 million yuan into a copper-gold project with average grades, that's very risky," Chen remarked. His first instinct told him this wasn't a great deal.
But because it was Li Tang's project, he couldn't figure out what the young man was thinking.
"From these borehole results, it doesn't look like something worth that much exploration investment." He looked into Li Tang's eyes, puzzled. "Given your experience and judgment, where do you see the potential?"
"The grades are low, true. But from the boreholes, we can already see that the mineralized layers aren't deep—some even outcrop at the surface. And I'm fairly confident that these are lenticular ore bodies with continuity and correlation between them," Li Tang explained.
He leaned into the technical details, knowing that Chen Jinhe came from a geology background. "What many might not have noticed is that the deeper the drill holes go, the thicker the ore layers become. Near the surface, they're only 3 to 5 meters thick. But at depths of 80 to 90 meters, the thickness reaches 13 meters! I suspect that at depths of 150 or even 200 meters, we'll be hitting the center of the lenticular ore bodies. There, the thickness could be unimaginable."
"So you're saying the grades are low, but the deposit is huge?" Chen asked.
"Yes," Li Tang said, looking around. "And Chairman Chen, don't you think the environment here is beautiful?"
"Beautiful?" Chen was confused.
The area around them was barren and rocky—nothing like the grasslands near Qinglong Copper Mine, which had even become a nature reserve with herds of wild animals.
How could this wasteland be called beautiful?
Li Tang pointed to a small stream not far away. "There's a reliable water source here, plus a road that connects directly to the provincial capital. And the project site is right next to the highway. Isn't that an ideal environment?"
"Oh… you mean in terms of infrastructure and suitability for mining?" Chen finally understood.
"Exactly," Li Tang nodded.
"Well, if you put it that way, I guess the surroundings are quite nice." Chen smiled, realizing how Li Tang's mind worked.
"Would you be interested in joining the project?" Li Tang asked directly.
"You short on funds?" Chen guessed right away.
"Not short on small money—but short on big money," Li Tang said, with a hopeful look in his eyes. "We still need at least 50 million yuan more. If Zise Mining joined us, it would be like wings to a tiger."
"That's quite a lot to spring on me." Chen clearly hadn't expected this visit to involve such a proposal.
After all, 50 million yuan was no small figure.
Zise Mining already had three major initiatives underway: the acquisition of Jinyin Cave Gold Mine (which alone required over 100 million yuan), development of Qinglong Copper Mine (budgeted at over 50 million), and expansion of the Zise Copper-Gold Mine's capacity (several tens of millions more).
Those three projects had nearly drained Zise's capital. Right now, their bank accounts were virtually empty.
And from the borehole results he'd just seen, Gongcun Copper-Gold Mine didn't look particularly promising.
If anyone other than Li Tang had made this pitch, Chen would have dismissed it immediately.
But because it was Li Tang, he had to seriously consider it.
He trusted the young man's judgment.
"I'll need some time to think. This isn't a simple matter," he replied carefully.
"No problem. I'll await your response," Li Tang said, understanding the hesitation.
Yao Zhenyu returned the handwritten data sheet and gave his blunt assessment: "The grades are really low."
His words were short, but the message was clear: he wasn't optimistic.
Even if he didn't say so directly, it was obvious from the numbers. If Li Tang hadn't been the one presenting this project, and if the relationship with Chen weren't so close, he might have just called it garbage.
But Li Tang didn't take offense. He smiled. "Let's see. As exploration continues, maybe we'll discover more."
Chen and Yao exchanged a glance but didn't comment further. Technically speaking, they both agreed—it didn't look good.
Their first impressions were aligned.
"What about the exploration contractor?" Zhou Zhenxing asked, clearly interested in a different angle.
People view things differently depending on their role.
"We've already got one," Li Tang replied, knowing what Zhou was hinting at.
"Come on!" Zhou slapped his thigh. "It's your own project—a major one at that—and you didn't even talk to us? That's too distant!"
Li Tang laughed. "The exploration license originally belonged to Geological Team Six. As part of the deal, it was agreed that they'd continue the exploration work."
He then introduced the team, gesturing to Damba.
Everyone exchanged greetings and handshakes.
Damba was a little overwhelmed to see such a large group of visitors, all here just to check in on Li Tang. He couldn't help but feel amazed at the young man's charisma and influence.
After the meeting, the convoy of vehicles made their way over the hills and back into Duide County.
Chen Jinhe, Zhou Zhenxing, and the others had come just to visit Li Tang. After a simple meal, they left promptly to return to the provincial capital.
They were heading to the Qinglong Copper Mine project site in Gaizhe County, in the Alishan region.
It wasn't on the way.
They had hoped to invite Li Tang along, but seeing he was already managing his own project, they didn't press the issue.
After they left, work at the Gongcun Copper-Gold project resumed steadily.
Xiao Yongyue also visited briefly, bringing a few fat sheep with him. They roasted a whole lamb to reward the team before he left again.
He had invested two million yuan in Gongcun Gold Company, but he didn't seem to care much—he saw it more as investing in Li Tang the person.
He listened to Damba's progress report, heard that the shallow mineralization wasn't very impressive, and quickly lost interest.
Instead, he took his convoy straight to Gaizhe County in Alishan, presumably to catch up with Chen Jinhe and discuss Qinglong Copper Mine—he had heard it was a massive deposit and seemed eager to explore possible cooperation.
Meanwhile, Li Tang and He Runqi made daily trips to the project site—it wasn't far from town.
Their schedules varied. Sometimes they went in the morning, sometimes in the afternoon.
One cold morning, Li Tang was bundled up in a thick coat, eating breakfast with one hand while blowing out foggy breaths. A bowl of butter tea and a few beef pastries made for a hearty start.
"Li Tang, hurry up! Come with me to the project site—we've found something new!" Damba shouted as he rushed over, looking excited.
"What happened?" Li Tang asked, worried it might be an accident involving heavy machinery.
He dropped his breakfast, jumped into Damba's vehicle, and rushed off.
When they arrived at the drill platform, everything seemed calm. Workers were neatly arranging core boxes. No sign of an accident.
Relieved, Li Tang asked, "So what's going on?"
"Come look at these cores," Damba said, waving him over. "From about 150 meters downward—it's all rhyolitic porphyry. According to the protocol, once you drill through it, that's the end point. But this hole is now at 280 meters—and we still haven't drilled past it!"
"So what's the issue?" Li Tang squatted down and examined the cores.
To the untrained eye, the gray, slightly reddish rock didn't look like much. But to professionals, it was significant.
"We don't know if we should stop drilling," Damba explained, handing over the drill plan. "This hole was supposed to stop at 200 meters. We're already at 280 and still inside the porphyry."
"Then keep drilling," Li Tang said without hesitation, brushing off his hands as he stood up.
He seemed calm—but inside, everything had just clicked into place.
This unusually thick rhyolitic porphyry wasn't random.
He had reached the core of the ore body.
"Keep drilling?" Damba echoed. He was thinking the same, but worried about the costs.
What if the deeper rock wasn't mineralized?
He'd seen too many stingy investors refuse to pay for anything beyond the planned depth.
But with Li Tang's go-ahead, that worry vanished.
"Keep drilling. Don't hesitate," Li Tang said.
"Captain Wang, fire up the rig! Keep drilling!" Damba called out with a laugh. "Drill until we punch through this porphyry!"
"Got it!" the workers responded with cheers. Some restarted the diesel engine. Others handled the water system. Everyone moved with renewed energy.
As they left that site, Damba led Li Tang to a nearby drill platform.
"There are two other holes with the same issue. Thick rhyolitic porphyry—deeper than expected."
"Only in this area?" Li Tang asked.
"Yes. Three adjacent holes along the same line—all show porphyry thickness exceeding 100 meters."
"And farther north?"
"One hole designed for 300 meters is still drilling through thick porphyry," Damba confirmed.
"Good," Li Tang nodded.
"We also drilled four more holes to the east and west. One of them found some copper-gold mineralization in porphyry—about four meters thick. The others hit the design depth—200 meters—but no ore. Should we keep going?"
"No porphyry, no ore—stop there," Li Tang said decisively. "Don't throw good money after bad. Focus on where we already see results."
"Agreed." Damba smiled. Even though it was a bit redundant to ask, it showed respect and wisdom to confirm decisions like this.
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