My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 38 Selecting Gold Through a Slip-Up
It started as a light rain, but after about half an hour, it turned into a mixture of rain and snow.

Raindrops and snowflakes pattered against the plastic sheeting covering the window above the dugout.

Hearing the faint sounds coming from outside, Zhou Jingming said with a sigh, "The heavens really know how to take care of people. It only started raining and snowing after we finished building our dugouts and moved in."

Peng Yuanchao, who was leaning against the wall, also sighed: "Yeah, in this kind of weather, it's going to be unbearable to sleep outside. I don't know how heavy the rain and snow will be... I really hope it clears up soon, preferably every day, so as not to delay the gold panning."

"If you count the days, it's already the end of March and April is just around the corner. The weather in the mountains is unpredictable, and there will still be occasional light rain or snow, but it usually won't be heavy. Once the sun comes out, it will melt in no time, so there's no need to worry too much."

As he said this, Zhou Jingming sat up, turned on his flashlight, and shone it on his cigarette: "Brother Peng, in the future, gold panning teams will start to enter the gold mining area in large numbers. At that time, not only the main river, but also our small ditches and gullies will be filled with people. It will soon be lively."

"Lively...you know what I mean?"

Peng Yuanchao also sat up: "I know!"

“People pan for gold both upstream and downstream in the valley. It can be said that the entire valley is a gold mineralization zone. Our location is neither too close nor too far from the upstream gold deposits, and it is right on the gold enrichment line, so it can be considered a treasure land.”

If someone is truly jealous and tries to take it from us by force, that will be a real problem!

This is what Zhou Jingming is most worried about.

Peng Yuanchao, however, didn't take it seriously: "Everyone has two arms and two legs, who's afraid of who? I worked in several gold mining teams in the West Sea, and we all made it this way."

“You have ten men, others can have twenty; you have one gun, others can have twenty guns. Those who dare to take risks naturally have their reasons. Small teams are fine, but what if those powerful bosses like Mr. Jin take a liking to this place…”

Zhou Jingming lit a cigarette, turned off his flashlight, and in the darkness, the embers on the cigarette butt flickered: "The gold-mining teams you worked with in the West Sea never backed down even once? I heard it's even more chaotic there than here in Altay."

Peng Yuanchao fell silent. He was an old gold prospector and knew that what Zhou Jingming said was not an exaggeration at all. After a long time, he said, "We can only see how things go at that time. As long as it is possible, I will guard this place."

To be honest, the gold-mining teams I used to be in weren't very good. I fought, I struggled, and I chickened out. More than once or twice, my territory was taken away, and sometimes the team was even broken up and couldn't be formed. I could only switch to other teams that were short of people.

Otherwise, I wouldn't have worked for so long to accumulate such a small fortune, nor would I have thought of leaving the more familiar Xihai and coming to Altay.

My idea for building a team is to make a fortune.

Brother, I've been panning for gold for so long, and this is the first time I've ever seen such a rich mine. I never even dared to dream of it before...

I've been poor for ages, you don't know where we live... Sigh, never mind."

There was a hint of helplessness and despair in his words.

Zhou Jingming did not mean to mock.

After all, the purpose of coming out is to pan for gold and make money. If you lose your life, it's meaningless no matter how much gold you pan for.

It's very realistic, and also very cruel.

The key point is that many people have come to inspect the sand on this small peninsula.

Gold is found at a depth of two meters, and very few people dig that deep to test the sand; it's almost time for formal mining to begin.

It's estimated that the first team to set up camp on this small peninsula in the past was discovered because gold prospectors had been digging deeper and deeper into some of the pits over the years.

But things are different now. Our group set up camp here a few years in advance, at such an early time. We have many places to choose from. So it's not a helpless choice because we can't find high-quality seedlings, but because this place is indeed a good place.

The seasoned gold panners who venture into the mountains are all shrewd and experienced. On such gold-rich routes, they can easily come up with many ideas, and then someone will take notice.

Especially for those teams that came later and couldn't find good prospects, seizing other people's territory became an excellent option.

In this valley, the law of the jungle will be on full display.

Zhou Jingming didn't say anything more; he had his own ideas about how to handle these matters.

The reason I'm talking to Peng Yuanchao like this is mainly to let the others know, so they have a general idea and can understand what they might face in the future, and be mentally prepared.

He also took the opportunity to probe Peng Yuanchao's words and hear his determination.

While the two were talking, the others also sat up and listened attentively.

Peng Yuanchao asked, "If someone tries to seize our territory, would you dare to confront them?"

The group of novices remained silent, their expressions obscured by the darkness, leaving no clue as to their thoughts. But this very reaction chilled Peng Yuanchao to the bone, prompting him to mutter, "Not daring to utter a sound, a bunch of damn useless cowards."

Still, no one spoke.

He couldn't help but curse again: "Fuck!"

Zhou Jingming smiled and threw away the small cigarette butt in his hand: "Go to sleep, we still need to hurry up and make our fortune!" After saying that, he lay down and wrapped himself tightly in the quilt.

Peng Yuanchao understood the meaning behind Zhou Jingming's words, stopped holding back his anger, and lay down as well.

A few small grains of gold were found after washing a bucket of mud and sand. For these novices who knew nothing, they had no idea what that meant.

An experienced gold prospector would definitely find their breathing becoming heavy.

Before they see big money, no matter how nice the words sound or how many guarantees they make, it's all fake to these novices.

Only when they see more real money that makes their hearts tremble and drives them crazy will they truly fight to the death.

By then, even the weakest person will have a time when they dare to fight and roar with courage.

The night passed quietly.

That night, Zhou Jingming probably slept the most soundly and woke up the earliest. When he opened his eyes, he could just see the faint light outside.

He crawled outside the dugout to urinate and saw that the valley was covered with a thin layer of snow, with snowflakes and raindrops falling from time to time. The withered grass next to him was frozen and made a rustling sound when touched. He knew without a doubt that the damp gravel in the river was also frozen.

After relieving himself, he returned to his dugout, relit the extinguished earthen stove, added some firewood, and went back to bed.

Hearing the noise, Peng Yuanchao poked his head out from under the covers: "How's it outside?"

"The snow hasn't completely stopped, and it's frozen again. Let's get some more sleep. We've been traveling and digging dugouts for days, it's been quite tiring!"

Peng Yuanchao didn't say much, he just pulled his head back under the covers.

Actually, he didn't let everyone sleep for long. As soon as it got light, he started jumping up and urging everyone to get up.

There is still a lot of preparation to be done.

For example, take advantage of the overcast weather to prepare more firewood so that it can be readily available when the weather clears up, and don't delay the harvesting after the weather clears up.

The most important thing is to hurry up and make the chute.

These days, the methods for panning for gold are still very outdated, using old methods that have been passed down for hundreds or thousands of years, called gold panning by sluice gate.

A trough is a wooden trough that is half a meter wide and three meters long.

The chute was placed on the riverbank, with one end higher than the other. The bottom of the chute was covered with felt, and wooden rafts made of sticks were placed on top of it. A horizontal bar was nailed to the raft every foot or so.

The sand containing gold particles is poured onto the top of the chute and flushed with water. The slurry flows through the chute, and the mud and sand are carried away by the water. Because gold is heavier, it will sink into the gaps between the wooden rafts and the felt. Then the wooden rafts are cleaned, the felt is removed, and the sand that has settled on them is cleaned out. The sand is then washed with a gold sieve, and finally only a very small amount of gold particles and a mixture of black sand remain, which is the so-called refined sand.

Buying chutes from the town and transporting them to the mountains is very laborious. There is timber in the mountains, so we can use local materials to make a few planks and nail them together with nails brought from the mountains.

Typically, from digging to flushing, a group of five people can handle the entire process of a chute.

This is why typical gold panning teams consist of either five or ten people. Of course, some gold bosses have many more, dozens of people, who set up seven or eight sluices at the same time, and the amount of gold they pan for is naturally much more than that of ordinary gold panning teams.

Zhou Jingming did want to use some time-saving and labor-saving tools, but these days, many tools are nowhere to be found even if you want to buy them.

Otherwise, it would be much simpler to just bring in a gold dredging ship.

Even if such a thing existed, it would require a huge upfront investment, and this money couldn't be easily obtained. It's also not easy for a gold-digging ship to be moved to such a place.

In fact, in the years that followed, even wealthy businessmen like Mr. Jin, who could acquire machinery such as excavators, ore crushers, mining trucks, loaders, and dump trucks, rarely used them because they were very expensive and not a popular choice; they were only used as supplementary tools.

This method, which has been used for many years, is the most practical for today's gold prospectors.

　Thank you to the four readers, Black A Niu, Long Memory, Da Jie, and Wang Xuan's Xuan, for their generous donations!

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(End of this chapter)