Alaska Gold Rush Diary

The next morning, Edward was back to his usual carefree self, which put Zhang Jianing at ease.

As agreed, she and Zhou Xin were to visit a mine owned by a Chinese person in Kurgadi.

The mine is about 200 kilometers away from where they are now, and the two set off early in order to get there and back quickly.

At dawn, the car drove along the highway that traversed the wilderness of Western Australia. The surroundings were desolate and quiet, and it seemed as if their car was the only thing in the world.

Zhang Jianing rested her chin on her arm against the car window, looking at the scenery outside.

The wind made her golden hair dance in the breeze.

"Zhou Xin, let me ask you a silly question: If I offered you a million dollars a year to live deep in the mountains of Alaska, would you accept?"

Zhou Xin thought for a moment and said, "Alone?"

Zhang Jianing blushed slightly and said, "You can be with the person you like, but you must be isolated from the world."

Zhou Xin laughed and said, "Haha, then I can stay here until someone goes bankrupt."

A person can stay in the freezing cold for months, let alone with someone to accompany them.

"Don't you get bored?"

"How could I be bored? In spring, I can go to the mountains to pick all kinds of fresh wild vegetables and delicious morel mushrooms."

In summer, you can go to the stream to catch plump salmon with bellies full of roe.

Autumn is the best season; there are so many sweet and sour berries and wild fruits that you can't eat them all, and you can even go hunting in the forest.

When winter comes, they huddle in the wooden house, warm themselves by the fire, and stew a pot of venison.

Unfortunately, the other seasons in Alaska are too short; only winter is the longest.

Zhang Jianing's gaze drifted into the distance, a hint of longing appearing in her eyes.

"As long as you're with someone you like, time doesn't feel long."

……

They chatted along the way, and two hours later they arrived at their destination.

Although the mine is located in the wilderness far from the road, it is almost impossible to find it by deliberately using a mobile phone for location services.

From a great distance, they could see the yellow dust rising from the ground to the clouds and hear the roar of machinery.

They soon arrived at the mine by following a dirt road full of ruts.

Dust filled the air over the surrounding area, which stretched for several kilometers.

The land was completely dug up, and the ground was bare yellow soil.

On the site, two excavators were scooping up buckets of soil and loading them into the hoppers of trucks.

Three large trucks shuttled back and forth, transporting loads of soil to the ore washing plant in the middle.

The main body of the ore washing plant is a tall dry ore washing machine, which is currently working with a loud roar.

The principle of a dry ore washing machine is to use high-pressure air to separate gold and soil through screening and blowing.

The advantage is that it doesn't require water, but the disadvantage is that it produces too much dust.

The two had already covered their mouths and noses with their hands, but they still felt sand getting into their mouths.

At the same time, a faint golden scent also entered Zhou Xin's nasal cavity.

At this moment, a truck driver spotted the two strangers entering the mine and notified the mine owner via walkie-talkie.

Soon, a middle-aged man emerged from a row of shipping containers at the edge of the mine. He was none other than the mine owner, Chen Xiande.

"Welcome!"

Chen Xiande is in his forties, and years of outdoor work have left his face weathered and worn.

He was very enthusiastic, shaking hands with the two of them and offering them two masks.

After the two introduced themselves, Chen Xiande said loudly:

"Sorry, the environment here is a bit uncomfortable. Let's go inside and talk!"

Because the machine was very loud, he had to speak very loudly.

"Thank you for your help."

Chen Xiande then led them into the container they had just come out of, closing the door to block out the noise from outside.

This should be Chen Xiande's office. There is a desk inside, and a sofa and coffee table opposite it.

There was a photo on the desk; it was of a cute little girl.

"This is my daughter, she's six years old this year."

Chen Xiande warmly brewed a cup of tea for the two of them. Seeing Zhang Jianing looking at the photo on the table, he smiled and explained, his eyes full of affection.

"She's so cute," Zhang Jianing praised.

"Wow, you speak Chinese so well?" Chen Xiande had always thought Zhang Jianing was from Australia.

"I grew up in China and am mostly Chinese."

"Haha, so you're from the same hometown!" Chen Xiande laughed.

Zhou Xin and Zhang Jianing smiled along.

Chen Xiande picked up the photo on the table, stroked it in his hand, and said:

"I left my hometown to come here, all for her. I plan to quit this job at the end of this year, go home, open a small shop, and watch her grow up."

Looking at his loving expression, Zhang Jianing seemed to remember something, and her eyes reddened slightly.

"If you're not going to continue next year, what about this mine?" Zhou Xin asked.

It's clear that a lot of money has been invested in this mine, and given the gold content of this land, the returns shouldn't be too bad.

"I'll leave this to my cousin. I still want to spend more time with my daughter while I'm still young. As for money, I just need enough to get by."

Zhou Xin knew that he must have made a lot of money here, otherwise he wouldn't have been willing to return to China.

"How much gold can a mine of this size harvest in a day?" Zhou Xin asked the question he was most concerned about.

"About seven or eight ounces, but my investment here is also large. After deducting personnel, equipment, venue rental fees, landlord's commission and taxes, the profit is actually not very high."

Zhou Xin did a quick mental calculation and knew he was right.

The land lease fees and the landlords' cuts here are very high, and together they can account for almost half of the total income.

However, the soil here does have a high gold content, so if you persist in doing it, you can still make a lot of money.

After chatting for a while, Zhou Xin suggested that he wanted to visit the gold mining factory.

Chen Xiande took out safety helmets and dust masks from the cabinet and had them put them on. Then he glanced at Zhang Jianing and took out a hood, indicating that she should cover her hair.

"There's too much dust outside; it'll be hard to wash your long hair if it gets dirty."

"Thank you!" Zhang Jianing took the headgear and carefully put it on.

As the three approached the factory, a young man in his early twenties who was looking after the ore washing machine immediately came to greet them.

His eyes lit up when he saw Zhang Jianing.

"Hey bro, these two are the guests you mentioned yesterday, right? And there's a beautiful girl among them!"

He spoke to Chen Xiande in Sichuan dialect, saying that because they were so close to the ore washing machine, they had to shout to speak.

Chen Xiande tapped his helmet and yelled, "You rude jerk, stop talking nonsense!"

The young man laughed and glanced at Zhang Jianing again.

Zhang Jianing smiled slightly and nodded, saying, "Hello, sorry to bother you."

However, when she spoke at a normal volume, her voice was completely drowned out by the machine's noise.

"How's it going? Are there any problems?" Chen Xiande asked.

The young man shook his head: "The conveyor belt is still a bit unstable; a lot of material has fallen out."

Chen Xiande nodded and headed towards the conveyor belt at the head of the ore washing plant.

He took off his clothes, shirtless, and crawled under the conveyor belt to inspect it.

Zhou Xin was stunned for a moment when he saw his bare back.

He had a strange and familiar tattoo on his back, a design resembling a pirate skull and crossbones flag.

The skull has been replaced by a gold ingot pattern, with knives and guns crossed below it.

That was the symbol of the Brotherhood of Gold Hunters that he had seen at the site of the Livinggood Gold Rush!