Chapter 431: Find another way (first update, please subscribe)
Soon, the plane landed on the sea.
As the plane slowly approached the trestle, Nakajima and others looked at this strange land with curiosity.
Donning Province, also known as West Irian Island.
Whether it was during the Dutch colonial era or now, this is a remote and economically backward area. Although it covers an area of 430,000 square kilometers, it has only a population of 200,000, with half of them being Chinese immigrants. , most of the others are Melanesians and Papuans, and there are even some cannibals who eat hair and drink blood deep in the rain forest.
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 "Chaya" is no exception.
“Did you 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 and said.
“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. On the way into the mountain, Everyone will understand.”
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.
The gun, this made Nakajima’s heart thump, and he felt a little strange. Why is he wearing a pistol?
But Xia Jun still joked with them.
“Do you know how many countries in the world span two continents?”
“Russia, Egypt.”
"There is also Turkey."
"Is there any more?"
"These should be the only countries!"
"There is also Nanyang, and the island of New Guinea is It belongs to Oceania, and Jaya Peak is the highest peak in Oceania."
Although they are 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 It does belong to Oceania.
It turns out to be a country spanning two continents!
In this way, the atmosphere slowly relaxed as everyone chatted. Everyone is no longer as strange as they were at the beginning.
The car was driving in dense rainforest all the way. The simple road built between the mountains was very dangerous. The farther in, the terrain became more dangerous, and Nakajima and others felt heavier. .
After driving for an hour, except for the simple road, there is no trace of human civilization anymore, and there is only dense and dark green jungle around.
Looking at the surrounding terrain, Watanabe leaned into Nakajima's ear and whispered.
"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!"
After driving for six hours, the car finally drove into a camp. The camp was 2,400 meters above sea level, and the copper mine was over 4,400 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.
“The altitude of the copper mine is more than 4,400 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.”
“So, what restricts the mining problem now is equipment transportation?”
"It's not just that..."
Expand a map and Xia Jun introduced it.
“There is also ore transportation, which is very important. With the mountainous terrain here, we want to transport the ore. On the way here, you also saw that with such terrain and mountainous terrain, it is impossible to use vehicles to transport ore. It’s very dangerous and the cost is very high.”
“What about using a mine railway?”
“The terrain, the straight line distance from the coast to the top of the mountain is less than 100 kilometers, but The altitude has increased from 0 meters to 4,400 meters. The terrain is so steep. Let alone the railway, even if the road is repaired, drivers must be careful when driving. 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 out, but it’s very difficult to transport it out!
In the next half month, Nakajima, Watanabe and others even turned into mountaineers, walking along the dense rainforest through canyons and over mountains, hiking towards the mines on the top of the mountain, trying to They found a passage, but the reality was cruel - the mountain was more dangerous than they imagined, and even building roads became 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 with some frustration,
Outside It is raining. The raincoats here are different from those in Nanyang. Although the rain comes quickly and quickly, the rain is very cold.
Blowed by the wind, the cold rain blew onto the corridor and hit his body, making Nakajima shiver uncontrollably. As he smoked, he had a sad look on his face.
“It’s really difficult!”
At this time Watanabe also came over.
“With such a steep mountain, it is very difficult to transport ore 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 how can we build a railway with so many mountains and canyons?”
After half a month of field investigation, he has now completely given up the idea of building a railway or even a road in this place.
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, do you think there is no way to mine this copper mine?”
Nakajima asked rhetorically.
"It is certainly possible to spare no expense, but the transportation cost is high, which may even make the mine worthless. Even with those captives, it is 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 rain forests and built roads. Although they were compatriots, But Nakajima and the others didn't even show any sympathy to them. In fact, Nakajima and the others blamed all their miserable post-war lives on those soldiers - if they hadn't been bent on fighting, expanding, and invading other countries. How could Japan, the country, 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 talks about is of course "naturalization". They all point to making meritorious service to Nanyang and then naturalizing as a Nanyang person!
Smoking a cigarette and feeling the cold wind and rain on the mountain, Watanabe said to himself.
“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 feed my wife and children. Rice!”
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 at all..."
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 Using pipeline transportation, which is a form of transportation that discharges from high places to low places, the transportation 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.”
< br>Looking at Nakajima’s excited look, Watanabe asked.
“Transport by pipeline? Slurry? Is there any precedent?”
"It doesn't matter whether there is a precedent or not. What's important is that we can try it. Perhaps, this is the best way! It's probably the only way!"
Nakajima said excitedly.
"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)