Chapter 2802
After visiting the smelter, the two continued to take a carriage to the nearby mining site.
Compared with the last time Baikes came here for inspection, the production environment in the mining area has obviously improved a lot. There is no longer a steady flow of freight carriages on the road. Ore and mineral sand are now transported out of the mining area by rail locomotives with greater load capacity, and the transportation efficiency is far better than in the early days.
Beside the road, there are many miners' dormitories built by the government. Most of them are three-story strip buildings, built with blue bricks and wooden floors. They have a square shape and uniform standards and structures.
This kind of building originated from the collective dormitories where the early builders of Victory Port lived. It has supporting public facilities such as canteens, clinics, bathing areas, etc. Its construction cost and living cost are much lower than ordinary residential buildings, and it is easy to implement collective management. It is especially suitable for miners, a group composed of a large number of young and strong laborers.
Chen Yixin introduced to Bai Kesi that Fushan Copper Mine is currently divided into eight mining areas, with a total of more than 20 large and small mines. Such miners' dormitories will be built nearby each mine to shorten the miners' commuting time as much as possible.
Most of the rural villages that were originally located between various mining areas have gradually evolved into small-scale towns due to the influx of foreign population and the growth of trade demand.
In the past, almost all local people made a living through farming, but after the Fushan Mine came into operation, it also provided them with more ways to make a fortune.
In addition to the most basic method of working as a miner in the mines and selling their labor force, people with flexible minds will sell their own agricultural products to foreign miners, or simply sell some living supplies from Dengzhou City and other places. Nowadays, seven out of ten people who open shops and do business in these towns in the mining areas are of local origin.
Some people also saw the opportunity of Fushan County's gradual urbanization and sold the land they owned in the mining area to Haihan officials on long-term leases or buyouts, made a sum of cash, and then went to Majiazhuang and Zhifu Port. By purchasing land to live in an apartment, not only did he achieve an asset upgrade, but his identity also changed from a rural landowner to a new gentry, completing a class breakthrough.
“The labor demand in the mine has created a large number of job opportunities, allowing us to accommodate the large number of people who poured into Tengzhou during the famine period. According to last year’s census, about one-third of the current permanent population in Tengzhou area is in Tengzhou. They are migrant households. And about half of these migrant households are engaged in mining-related jobs in places such as Fushan Copper Mine, Zhaoyuan Gold Mine, and Longkou Coal Mine.”
Chen Yixin said with pride: "It is no exaggeration to say that mining is one of the pillar industries in the northern region, and it has huge development potential. I think the executive committee should consider gradually moving some heavy industries to the north in the future. Let these mineral resources be connected to supporting downstream industries.”
Bai Kesi nodded and said: "The Ministry of Industry will formulate relevant development plans. Don't be too anxious. A lot of work still has to be done step by step."
Regardless of whether the suggestions put forward by Chen Yixin are based on overall considerations or selfish motives, objectively speaking, they are indeed worthy of serious consideration by the Executive Committee.
The northern region is far richer in mineral resources than Hainan Island. In particular, it has the energy and heavy metal minerals necessary for the development of industry. The conditions are unique. Among the areas currently controlled by Haihan, it seems that there is no other place with such complete natural resources.
If it were not too far away from Hainan Island, the Northern Region might have been selected by the Executive Committee as a key area for industrial development. But now, as Haihan's control in the north has increased, external pressure has gradually eased, and various mineral deposits have gradually entered the state of exploitation. Chen Yixin believes that the conditions are ripe, and naturally he must seize the opportunity to lobby Bai Kesi again. Bai Kesi is in charge of industry, so as long as he can nod, the matter is basically half done.
While they were talking, the two of them had already arrived at one of the mines. After getting off the car, the official in charge of the mine was already waiting. Seeing Chen Yixin making a gesture, he quickly stepped forward and began to introduce the production situation of the mine.
This is a mine belonging to the fifth mining area of Fushan Copper Mine. The Northern Region Mining Bureau discovered the underground veins here three years ago. Then, after completing various infrastructure projects last year, formal mining began.
Currently, this mine has less than 1,000 miners on staff, working in two shifts and using open-pit mining. At full capacity, approximately two to three thousand tons of ore can be mined every day. Although this number seems small, the per capita output has actually greatly exceeded that of mines mined purely by manpower.
There are at least five or six mines with the same production capacity in Fushan Copper Mine. Of course, it was not for this reason that Chen Yixin brought Bai Letong to see this place.
In fact, this is one of the "new technology demonstration mining areas" set by Fushan Copper Mine. Due to its late start, this place has enjoyed higher mining infrastructure standards from the beginning. Various steam power equipment and rail transportation systems, as well as miners' settlements, have been built directly as standard configurations. .
The mine uses a large number of steam-powered equipment, bucket wheel excavators, gravel crushers, grinders, belt conveyors, and rail transportation systems during the mining process. Almost all the machinery and equipment currently used in mining production can be seen here.
One of the necessary conditions for deploying so much mechanical equipment is that there must be enough engineering and technical personnel. The production supervisor said that about a quarter of the miners working here are skilled workers, and most of them have completed the entire training process locally.
These technicians not only know how to use these mechanical equipment, but also can perform basic maintenance and repair operations on them. Some of them have even obtained the title of mechanical engineer certified by the Ministry of Industry.
Of course, corresponding to the technical level is the high labor cost of this mine. The salaries enjoyed by those with professional skills are often several, dozens, or even hundreds of times that of ordinary miners, and the required living conditions are also higher.
The miners' dormitories next to the mines certainly cannot meet their needs. Most of these technicians live in towns in the mining areas, and some even live near the more prosperous Majiazhuang.
Although the production level of this mine is quite good, it actually concentrates nearly half of the technical resources of the entire Fushan Copper Mine, and the number of mechanical equipment deployed even exceeds that of several mines with larger production scales. The purpose of this arrangement is also very clear, which is to prove to the Ministry of Industry that Fushan Copper Mine has sufficient technical capabilities and that the Ministry of Industry should invest more mining machinery and equipment here.
(End of chapter)