Chapter 23: Sometimes You Have to Let Go
While the others chatted ahead, Li Tang trailed behind, his thoughts racing.
Copper smelting technology had long been one of the bottlenecks limiting China's copper production.
By 1999, China had already confirmed copper reserves of over 60 million tons, but most of it was low-grade ore.
High volume, low quality—that was the primary trait of China's copper deposits.
This was quite similar to the situation with iron ore.
In terms of industrial development, iron was undoubtedly the top demand. Copper ranked just behind aluminum, coming in third.
That was exactly why, for many years to come, China would find itself choked at the throat in the global commodities market.
Over the following week, the team spent their days on the weed-covered waste rock pile, carrying instruments back and forth, recording measurements in notebooks.
Sometimes Wei Shixing would oversleep and miss attendance.
Hu Yangyu, meanwhile, was baffled by the situation. What were these three newbies up to, sneaking off every day?
One day, he followed Li Tang and the others to the mine, watching from a distance as they bustled around, surveying and collecting data.
"Three idiots," he muttered, satisfied with his conclusion, and then happily went back to his hotel bed to continue his lazy routine.
As the date of the "three-party technical review" approached, Qin Jianshe called the mine and asked the staff to pass a message to Li Tang: the symposium in the provincial capital would be short and informal—no need for him to attend. The experts would be heading directly to the mine for an in-depth field discussion on how to extend the mine's operational life.
On the day the experts arrived, Li Tang's internal clock woke him up as usual. He was up before 7:00 a.m., already eating breakfast.
"We're heading straight to the mine today. Don't bother waking that bastard Hu Yangyu," He Runqi said angrily between bites of noodles. "We have to let Director Qin see all the crap he's been pulling lately. Once we get back, Qin will catch him red-handed. Let's see if he dares act like this again!"
That would be satisfying indeed.
Li Tang, with his maturity and life experience, preferred to remain measured. He didn't want to push things too far.
Still, he had no intention of covering for Hu Yangyu either.
Everyone over twenty should take responsibility for their own behavior.
With the leadership arriving, if Hu wasn't present due to poor communication, as team leader, Li Tang would still bear some of the blame.
"After breakfast, knock on both their doors. If Hu dares skip, let him be the one to embarrass himself—not us."
"Should've roasted him by now," Runqi grumbled.
"He'll regret it soon enough," Li Tang chuckled.
After eating, they each went upstairs and knocked on one of the doors—loudly and urgently.
"What's going on?" Wei Shixing, still in his underwear, stumbled out, bleary-eyed.
"Director Qin is downstairs!" He Runqi shouted.
"Shit!" Wei rushed to throw on his clothes and bolted down without washing his face or brushing his teeth.
Next door, Li Tang knocked on Hu Yangyu's door for quite a while with no response.
They had seen him at breakfast earlier, so he was clearly awake—he was just deliberately ignoring them.
"Director Qin's here," Li Tang called through the door. "If you want to go to the mine, come with us."
Then he turned and left for the car.
Just as the car was about to leave, Hu Yangyu came panting down the stairs and slipped into the vehicle.
He hadn't fully given up on his career. Hearing that Qin Jianshe had arrived, he swallowed his pride and came along.
"Wow, the whole team's present for once!" Li Tang said with a dry laugh.
At the mine, operations had halted. Staff stood by, waiting for over an hour. Then, a convoy of matching black SUVs sped in along the rural road.
As expected, Zhao Hepu had brought a team of experts to the mine.
Everyone seemed to know each other well—there wasn't much small talk. They headed straight into the mining pit to examine the ore layers.
"Li Tang!"
Qin Jianshe didn't join the technical discussion. He was familiar enough with the mine already. Instead, he approached Li Tang from the outskirts of the group.
"You've only been here ten days. What happened—you're already tanned like a coal miner?"
"Geology work is like this—eating in the wind, sleeping under the stars. Your words, Director," Li Tang said with a smile.
"Water, Director Qin."
To everyone's surprise, Hu Yangyu had brought bottles of water and handed the first one to Qin.
"Thanks!" Qin took it and drank deeply. "Still hot out here—thirsty as hell."
"Water, Team Leader."
Hu wasn't showing favoritism—he handed bottles to everyone nearby.
Li Tang gave him a long look and shook his head with a smile.
Nowhere to be seen when work needed doing. But once the bigwigs showed up, here he was playing nice—his sneaky tricks were on full display.
Still, Qin wasn't distracted. He raised an eyebrow and asked, "So, have you found anything useful here at the mine?"
"Useful?" Li Tang looked confused.
"Any new exploration ideas? Any signs of mineralization? If there's a new ore body, that's potentially worth hundreds of millions!"
Qin wasn't expecting much. Experts had been puzzling over this mine for years with little success.
But somehow, when it came to Li Tang, he always had this unexplainable glimmer of hope.
Maybe—just maybe—Li Tang could pull off another miracle like he had at the Guanling Gold Project.
"This area has been combed over for years. If there was a new deposit, someone would've found it by now."
"That's a shame. But it's alright—think of this as a learning opportunity."
It was unreasonable to expect a new employee to solve what years of expert debate had not. Even Qin knew that.
Just then, the experts finished examining the pit and started offering their opinions.
"As we go deeper, the ore body narrows and the grade remains low. The geological survey's results are pretty spot on," said a square-faced middle-aged man.
"That's Professor Sun Yiquan," Qin whispered to Li Tang. "Teaches at Jiujiang University of Technology, School of Resource Management. Big name in non-ferrous metal mining."
Sun had a clear, booming voice. "As Director Zhao mentioned, extracting a ton of ore now requires removing ten tons of waste. That's not sustainable. Ideally, stripping ratios should stay below 5. The copper grade is also poor, and there aren't valuable by-products to offset costs."
"In recent years, the mine's output has plummeted. Back in the day, we produced 20,000 tons of copper metal annually from millions of tons of ore. Now we're barely at 2,000 tons," Zhao Hepu added, his voice tinged with sadness. "We've been scraping the edges."
"Given the high stripping ratio, why not go underground and dig tunnels?" one expert asked.
"Going underground would require tens of millions in upfront investment, and the per-ton cost wouldn't be lower," Sun shook his head. "We looked into that—it's a no-go."
"In short, the deep ore body isn't rich enough. The remaining reserves just don't justify further investment."
"To be honest," Sun concluded, "this mine has done its part for the nation. As painful as it is, it's time to let go."
"If you do move to closure, our bureau has excellent teams for land reclamation," the chief engineer of the local geological survey added, already angling for the next job.
Every expert, one after another, reached the same conclusion: shut it down.
From a mining perspective, closure really did seem like the best option.
Thank you for the support, friends. If you want to read more chapters in advance, go to my Patreon.
Read 20 Chapters In Advance: patreon.com/johanssen