Chapter 458 Forward-Looking Topics

Australia's iron ore is mainly distributed in Western Australia. Dad Fan Heng said, "But with all due respect, Jiangnan Province will have to invest a lot of money in mining." "

There are iron ores in every state in Australia, and the state with the most iron ores is Western Australia.

Western Australia has more than 90% of all existing iron ore resources in Australia, mainly concentrated in the Pilbara region. There are thirteen mines in the area, six of which are operated by Rio Tinto's Western Australian subsidiary Hammersley, two owned by Robe River and five run by Broken Mountain, also known as BHP Billiton. In addition, there are iron ore mines near Coolie Yang Nabin and White Cockatoo Island in Western Australia.

Near Port Hedland in Western Australia, BHP Billiton owns an iron refinery.

The discovery of the iron ore in Western Australia was also a very accidental and legendary event at that time.

In October 1952, 43-year-old Lancuk was driving a single-engine austere small plane, and together with his wife Hob, planned to fly to Perth, Western Australia. He is a small farmer in Western Australia and a senior pilot. For his family's ranching business, he must frequently fly in these skies.

Over the Hammersley Mountains, thick cumulonimbus clouds suddenly surrounded the small plane from all sides. The dark clouds ahead were so high that the small plane could not fly over them. The same thick dark clouds also cut off their return route.

This is a life-long contest. The only way out is to go down and fly below the clouds. But the clouds were getting lower and lower, almost touching the earth, so Hancock flew into the huge canyon. He is very familiar with this area. Deep in the canyon is the rushing Turner River, which is a natural navigation line.

This is a wild land that white Australians have never set foot on. In the heavy rain, Hancock carefully piloted the plane, flying almost close to the tops of the trees. At this critical moment, Hancock suddenly discovered that despite the heavy rain, the canyon walls on both sides still showed a red sheen. This was a special kind of red, almost brown and like rust. Hancock, who was familiar with mineral deposits, immediately realized that these were exposed iron ore deposits and were now flying in a canyon made of real copper and iron walls!

This discovery made him extremely excited. It seems that God deliberately chose a special moment to send a heavy gift to Haiyan in the storm. What Hancock saw was the largest iron ore deposit ever discovered on Earth.

Cook as he battled the storm. High-grade iron ore mining in the Mesapeake Mountains in Minnesota, USA, has been exhausted. This big iron mine. It is 1 to 1.5 kilometers wide. One hundred and fifty meters thick and one hundred and eighty kilometers long. The iron content in the ore is over 70%, so it does not require any treatment before smelting. Can be put directly into the furnace. And it's not far away. It is the anthracite coal mines in Pennsylvania that provide sufficient energy for smelting.

Beauty can become a true "mesabi" (Indian word for "giant").

It is the place where the Mesabi Iron Mine was founded.

This is devastating news. The West began to panic because of this.

The Australian government at that time had a very firm attitude on the iron ore issue. It is clearly stated that Australia’s metro mines will never be allowed to export even a single trace!

Such a strong sense of self-protection. Coming from Australia with strong iron deficiency. Experts and politicians believe so. Iron ore is a scarce resource in Australia. Therefore, it must be completely used in domestic construction. It must not be exported.

After Hancock discovered the iron mine. Then the preparatory work began with perseverance. He followed the vein. At least the scope of more than 100 kilometers has been carefully investigated and explored. And he extracted the ore specimens. After repeated inspections. Its purity is even higher than American smelting standards. This means that the subway ore here can be directly fed into the smelting furnace to become steel!

But he soon became disappointed. Politicians in Perth and Canberra simply did not believe that a farmer from the jungle with only a middle school education could actually discover high-grade iron ore in barren Australia, which was sentenced to death by experts.

At that time, Hancock had to first obtain a concession granted by the government. Before that, he could not even tell any mining people about his business, otherwise it would be difficult to protect his own rights as a business owner. The problem is that not only did the government not believe that he had discovered high-quality iron ore, but according to the laws at the time, both the Australian federal and Western Australian governments strictly prohibited the mining of new iron ore in an attempt to realize the government's "imminent depletion" of iron ore. Tight control of iron ore resources. It was very difficult for Hancock to obtain the current franchise.

Fortunately, Hancock is not only a persistent man, but also a relatively wealthy man. Not only did he support all exploration out of his own pocket, he also invested heavily in parliamentary lobbying. Not only Hancock was deeply aware of the bitterness of dealing with bureaucracy, but also later congressmen, on various occasions commemorating Hancock, would criticize the incompetence of the then government as part of their repertoire.

Eight years later, the federal government formally recognized Hancock as a prerogative of what is now the Pilbara region. However, the funds required to open an iron ore mine with a radius of hundreds of kilometers are definitely not what a farmer can afford, and it is not even what Australia's small economy can afford.

After numerous setbacks and stares, Hancock's fortunes finally turned around. Mining giant Rio Tinto Group Sir Dukan visited the board of directors at its London headquarters to give it a try.

What tempted them was that Hancock persuaded them because he only needed the royalties. If there were really no mineral deposits there, Rio Tinto would lose nothing.

After Hancock took them to the site for inspection many times, Rio Tinto finally made up his mind. The condition negotiated between Rio Tinto and Hancock is that Hancock and his relatives and friends completely withdraw from mineral mining in this area. In return and compensation, Rio Tinto will give Hancock 2% of the annual mineral sales. Five as royalties. This payment, in the year of mining, reached a huge amount of 25 million Australian dollars.

In hindsight, this was definitely a win-win agreement. Hancock does not have to make any investment in the development, and can enjoy high-value concessions every year, while Felituo ensures that he has complete control over the development project. Years later, some colleagues joked with Sir Dukan, "You are so stupid. If you pay Hancock such a high royalty fee, we will not do it."

Sir Dukan immediately retorted, "That's why you don't have big iron mines like ours!"

Hancock's sudden wealth is natural to Australians. After all, he made irreplaceable contributions to eliminating the poor iron ore households in Australia, and under a very difficult political environment, he used the funds of himself and his relatives and friends to conduct dual geological and political exploration at his own expense.

Hancock's flight record shows that he spent more than 7,000 flying hours for exploration. In the eyes of Australians, he is not only a lucky hero with wealth, but also a persistent national pioneer.

Hancock's discovery made Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton a major iron ore producer in Australia. However, from this point of view, Western Australia's mining areas have basically been divided up. Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton are two behemoths. It is essentially the overlord of Australian iron ore.

If you want to open a new district, how easy is it? Just purchasing the mining rights does not cost much, but the money needed to build the railways for transportation in the mining area and the sea ports is a very huge expense.

"We can invest hundreds of millions of dollars in Australia to build mines. From the long-term benefit point of view, it is still worth it." Fan Heng said to his son.

"We Jiangnan Province are very determined!" Boss Zhu and other members of the Standing Committee were immediately very interested when they heard Fan Heng's words.

So what will arouse their concern is that the country is currently promoting investment and construction. Why did the Jiangnan Provincial Reception Club think of going out to invest overseas in a unique way? There is obviously something in this that is not in line with the current situation.

"Three dollars can only buy small mines at most. If you want to have big development, that is far from enough." Who knew that after listening to Fan Heng's description, Fan Wubing said something that shocked everyone. , "If you want to get Australia's iron ore mines, it's absolutely impossible without 10 billion US dollars!"

"Both of you, father and son, don't take money as money!" A member of the Standing Committee sighed and shook his head with a smile.

How much can 300 million U.S. dollars do in China?

As far as the restructuring of large state-owned enterprises like Jiangnan Woolen Mill is concerned, US$200 million is enough, and US$300 million can support more than a dozen such large state-owned enterprises from crisis to stable development.

If more than a dozen large state-owned enterprises are to be supported in this way to get back on their feet, it will basically be able to shake up a province's economy by a small margin. At least at the end of the year, the economic statistics will look much better, let alone a hundred. What is the concept of billions of dollars?

Fan Heng said solemnly, "Be prepared for danger in times of peace. Domestic iron ore has poor taste, high price, and limited reserves. Considering that in the next ten or decades, our country will embark on a path of rapid development, and the steel industry will The demand is actually increasing day by day, and the supply of iron ore will also increase a lot accordingly. Based on this consideration, we believe that it is also necessary to develop overseas minerals in an appropriate time. In fact, if the mining in Australia is successful, we will be able to develop iron ore in Australia. The cost saved by stone can account for more than half of the current cost of purchasing iron ore, and the iron ore is of high quality and easy to smelt."

After hearing what Fan Heng said, Boss Zhu said, "Well, we didn't consider this kind of thing before. Now that Comrade Fan Heng has brought it up, it is necessary to discuss it. After all, although this idea seems a bit forward, it We must also consider that some resources will have fewer and fewer reserves due to over-exploitation. Steel is the backbone of a country. We should be forward-looking on this issue and look at the problem from a strategic perspective."

Everyone during the meal nodded in agreement, saying that it was very necessary. Although the idea of ​​using steel as the key link is not necessarily correct, if you want to become a big and powerful country, the steel industry is an unavoidable topic.

********* The first update is here today. The page has a special topic reviewing the year-end review of 2009. You can check it out. There are nominations for Xiao Lang and Cai Se in the annual work selection and the annual work selection. If you are able, please support me. Thank you. It is said that both of the top ten can qualify for next year's annual meeting, which means that once Xiaolang is selected for one of them, everyone will be able to see what Xiaolang looks like at the annual meeting, haha. ************