Chapter 57: Mercury! Mercury! Mercury!

Deng Wenkang discovered mercury, to be precise, he discovered it with an Irish immigrant named James G. Fair. Google search reading

Mercury mineral deposits were discovered in the New Almaden area, the New Edley area, and the Sulfur Flats area.

In addition, they also discovered a new gold vein near the Bell River, 160 kilometers northeast of San Francisco!

Deng Wenkang rushed to San Francisco overnight to tell Liang Yao the exciting news while he was still sleeping.

After learning that the mercury mine was finally discovered, Liang Yao lost all sleep in an instant and climbed out of bed very excitedly.

As early as more than three months ago, he sent people to search for mercury mines, and now it finally paid off.

He valued mercury mines more than gold mines, and he was willing to use part of the shares of Xiangshan Gold Mining Company to cooperate with Vanderbilt.

And mercury, that is, mercury, he wants to monopolize! He will never allow anyone to get their hands on California's mercury!

The reason why California is a gold mining mecca is not only because it has abundant reserves of gold, but also because it also has abundant reserves of mercury, which is rarer than gold.

At present, the main gold mining method used in California is to pan for gold in a washing trough or a gold pan. Although the washing trough greatly improves the efficiency of gold mining, in the end it still uses water power and manpower, and it is not even mechanized.

Even the largest Xiangshan Gold Mining Company has bigger and more washing tanks and more manpower. They win based entirely on scale, not technology.

With mercury, he could use chemical methods, namely the mercury-gold separation method, to pan out gold.

This method is also very simple. Add liquid mercury to the base of the gold mining machine, and then pour the gold sand mud into it.

Due to its chemical properties, even the smallest gold can combine with mercury to form mercury gold.

This means that poor ores can also be effectively panned to extract gold from them.

It's just that mercury gold is not 100% pure gold. If you want to get higher purity gold, you need to further purify it.

The method for further purification is also very simple and crude, that is, directly heating the mercury gold to directly vaporize the mercury.

However, this method pollutes the environment. Even if equipment can be used to capture part of the mercury vapor, a lot of the vapor will still enter the atmosphere directly. But environmental protection is not an issue that Liang Yao needs to consider now.

This simple gold mining method has existed since ancient times and is not technically difficult. The bottleneck is not technology but raw materials.

As long as mercury is mastered, other gold mining companies that want to use this method to mine gold can only obediently exchange gold for mercury.

After all, rich mines are relatively rare. Except for a few lucky people, most people can only pan for gold in poor mines.

Mercury can greatly improve the efficiency of extracting gold from poor ores.

"How many mineral veins were discovered?"

Liang Yao walked to the study and lit the whale oil lamp. It was four o'clock in the morning and it was still dark. He needed lighting to see the map clearly.

"Fair."

Deng Wenkang called Feier's name. He couldn't be called smart, but he couldn't be called stupid.

In the past six months, I have been interacting with foreigners every day in the mine. Although I am not very fluent in English, I can have simple conversations without any problem.

"Mr. Liang, the discovery of the mercury mine is entirely due to your perseverance and courage. If it were others who had not found the mercury mine for so long, they would have given up halfway."

Fair made thirteen marks on the map with a pencil.

These mercury mines that have been discovered do not belong to Liang Yao except for the land ownership in the Sulfur Flats area.

The remaining two places: New Almaden area and New Edry area are within the scope of the land he purchased.

He only needs to investigate whether the Sulfur Flats area is an unowned land or an owned land. If it is an owned land, he can spend some gold to buy it.

It would be easier if it was ownerless land. He could just send people to stand on the land, build houses and start mining on the spot, and the land would belong to him. What America lacks is people, but it has plenty of land.

"These places are rich in mercury, but we can only see it roughly on the map. We also accidentally discovered a gold vein near the Bear River. Although it is not a rich mine, the gold reserves are also very considerable."

After speaking, Feier looked at Liang Yao expectantly, as if he was expecting something.

Liang Yao knew what Feier was looking forward to. The Deng brothers had dividends from shares in Xiangshan Mining Company, and the bounty for discovering the mercury mine was insignificant to Deng Wenkang.

And Feier is just a poor gold prospector, but compared with other gold prospectors, Feier is proficient in geology and good at finding mineral veins.

"I will keep my promise."

As he spoke, Liang Yao took out a money order from the China Bank.

"Mr. Liang, I don't want a bounty of 300 ounces of gold."

Feier took courage and said.

"If you don't want gold, what do you want?"

Liang Yao frowned slightly, if he didn't want gold, then he wanted more.

"I want a loan from China Bank, but I have nothing now and can't pledge anything to get a loan from the bank. I want to set up a small mining company to pan for gold."

Fair spoke his mind.

Liang Yao was quite impressed by the Irish descendant in front of him. He tore up the half-filled money order, crumpled it into a ball, and threw it into the trash can.

"What loan amount do you want? As long as the amount is reasonable, I can guarantee a loan from the bank for you."

Fell thought for a long time and gave a number: "Sir, is $50,000 okay?"

$50,000 is equivalent to more than 1,600 ounces of gold.

This loan amount obviously exceeded Liang Yao's psychological expectations. Although he is the richest man in California and even in the West, $50,000 is not a small amount for him.

This Irish boy is quite ambitious.

"$50,000, this amount of loan is more than enough to establish a medium-sized mining company."

"Sir"

Fell hurriedly explained to Liang Yao.

Liang Yao raised his hand to interrupt Fair's explanation: "How about this, I will guarantee a $25,000 loan from the Bank of China for you, and in order to give you a lower interest rate, the remaining $25,000, I will invest in your company in my personal name."

"Really? That's great, sir!"

Fell was very excited. He finally raised his first pot of gold and established his own mining company, which could make a big splash in California, a place full of gold.

As for Liang Yao's investment, that was exactly what he wanted. His company has Liang Yao's shares, and other gold prospecting companies and gold prospectors will definitely not dare to have any unreasonable thoughts, which can reduce a lot of trouble for him.

"Fell is proficient in mining exploration. This person will be of great use if he is kept. Why doesn't the big leader keep him in our company?"

After Fair left, Deng Wenkang felt very sorry. During the days when he and Fair were looking for mercury mines, he learned a lot from Fair.

"You can keep him, but you can't keep his heart. A forced melon may quench thirst, but it is not sweet."

Fell is not a person who can stay under others for a long time. Since he has his own ideas, let him go. "

Liang Yao didn't want to force him. He looked at the wall clock. It was dawn and he was no longer sleepy.

As usual, the cocks crowed in the morning, accompanied by Nick's screams.

The first thing Vanderbilt did when he woke up was to beat his son. Although he drank some wine last night, he was still thinking about Connie's prostitution.

Liang Yao was too lazy to intervene in Vanderbilt's family affairs. He just pretended that he didn't hear anything and continued to work at his desk, dealing with some trivial matters.

After teaching Connie a lesson, Vanderbilt handed Clark, who had just gotten up, to the pavilion.

Clark looked at Vanderbilt in horror. He was Vanderbilt's son-in-law, and barely considered half of Vanderbilt's son.

Vanderbilt dared to teach Connie a lesson, but he might not dare to teach him a lesson.

Clark thought carefully about whether he had done anything wrong recently.

"Clark, I think there is something I need to talk to you about. Sit down and relax. "

Vanderbilt sat down in the pavilion and relaxed his muscles.

"Father-in-law, what do you say?"

Clark subconsciously sat down at a distance from Vanderbilt.

"I know that you have made a great contribution to the Vanderbilt family and spent a lot of time on Brannan." Vanderbilt said.

"I have seen all of this and recorded it in my notebook, but Brannan is dead. We must look forward. I don't want you to be controlled by emotions and lose your rational judgment. Do you understand?"

It turned out to be this matter. Clark breathed a sigh of relief. It turned out to be this matter.

"I understand, father-in-law."

Vanderbilt nodded very kindly: "Very good, you are a very capable person, I believe I will not make a mistake. Please remember that if you want to be a successful businessman, you need to stay calm and rational at all times. "