Fan Wubing suddenly came to West Africa to seek iron ore development. It was really unexpected.

Although Fan's Investment Group took action in Australia and obtained the iron ore project and occupied a blank area between the two major mining companies, Fan Wubing was not very at ease and always thought about developing more mining areas and having some confidence in it.

West Africa is a corner that is almost forgotten by the world, but it has a very rich iron ore resources, attracting Fan Wubing's attention. If the negotiations go smoothly, he plans to invest about 5 billion US dollars here to develop an iron ore mining and transportation channel.

West African countries have abundant iron ore resources, and Fan Wubing remembers it very clearly. The iron ore reserves in Guinea in West Africa are as high as 15 billion tons. Although not many have been proven, there are quite a few. What is more worth mentioning is that the iron ore here has iron content of up to 60 to 80%, and the ore body is shallow, rich ore and high grade.

Today, ore exploration technology has made great progress. After the scope of ore exploration is expanded, I believe that many new mining areas can be found. Fan Wubing vaguely remembers that there is a magnet ore with a reserve of tens of billions of tons in northern Sierra Leone. The iron ore reserves in other countries such as Libya, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire are also very considerable, and they are all worth paying attention to.

Now, multinational corporations around the world have successfully deployed global minerals. The remaining West Africa is an uncultivated treasure. What’s more important is that Fan Wubing rushed out all morning and came here first to discuss business in person when no one else could react.

Under the influence of the world's iron ore monopoly group today, the asking prices of the three major mines continue to rise, accounting for more than 40% of China's imports. The prices rose faster, and the price per ton was already five US dollars higher than the Indian ore, which was ten US dollars higher than the Brazilian mine with a farther distance.

Although Fan Wubing is one of the three major iron ore giants in Australia, the iron ore production of Fan Investment Group in Australia has not yet met expectations at this time. In addition, Fan Wubing is worried that the Australian government will have a certain impact on its iron ore price strategy, so he feels that he cannot hang himself on a tree and develop minerals in other regions such as West Africa to check and balance international mines, thereby enhancing Fan Investment Group's competitiveness and voice in the iron ore industry.

To monopolize the iron ore industry in a region, it is obviously necessary to go through fierce competition, which is common sense. The main reason is that a large mining area cannot be explored overnight. When this is confirmed, everyone will crowd into this ore meal. It is a suspense that who can eat a piece of meat is a surprise. New companies like Fan's Investment Group, which are not originally a giant in the iron ore industry, obviously have to overcome many obstacles if they want to participate in local mining development.

The reason why mining areas in West Africa have not been able to gain the attention of major ore giants is mainly because the infrastructure here is backward. The poor local infrastructure seriously hinders mining development. When entering the place to mine ore, it is necessary to build infrastructure such as ports, roads and railways, which is a considerable expense.

Therefore, Fan Wubing calculated the calculations and did not cost much money to mine seriously, but if he wanted to transport iron ore, he would have to spend $4 billion to $5 billion to build mines, ports and railways in Guinea and Liberia.

Fan Wubing was interested in the Simandu Iron Mine in Guinea. The time he came here was just right, and the mine development rights here had not been sold yet. If Fan's Investment Group obtained the mining development rights in the Simandu Mine Area and then began drilling and other preliminary operations, it would be a very important thing to launch when the time is ripe.

The Ximangdu Mining Project is located inland, 900 kilometers away from the coastal areas. The construction of railways and ports not only occupies a large amount of funds, but more importantly, the time is time. Fan Wubing expects that even if it goes well, it would be good that the Ximangdu project could be officially put into production in two years.

Of course, there are other issues in the development of West African iron ore, such as political stability, local taxation, and human resources.

However, Chinese companies also have certain advantages in developing African mining, which directly comes from the good image of Chinese companies in Africa. China and Africa have close economic and trade exchanges and so-called traditional friendship. Fan Wubing has now deeply realized this.

Fan Wubing has also considered that if the mainland government can be encouraged to implement a policy of exempting tariffs for most African countries from exporting to China, then exchanges at the China-Africa country level will be smoother, creating good conditions for Fan's Investment Group to develop West African mining.

It is true that the central government cannot do something that harms the public and gains personal gain. Fan's Investment Group must have some returns to facilitate this. However, Fan Wubing is also very clear that the trade volume between China and Africa is just that, but its importance to the central government is self-evident, and the senior management will definitely sell this face.

With this idea in mind, Fan Wubing’s requirement for the expert group is to try to reduce the other party’s conditions and provide convenience for purchasing a mine. No matter what, as long as the other party’s conditions are not too outrageous, this matter can be negotiated.

In fact, Fan Wubing has a great advantage when coming here this time. The most important thing is that West African ore is currently unwilling to be concerned about, and they do not take this thing seriously. After all, mining is too easy and transportation is difficult, so they can only sell it at a low price, and there is no high hopes.

But what Fan Wubing thought was not to just buy some ready-made iron ore, his intention was to develop the entire mining area.

Because of this, although Fan Wubing was watching lions and elephants with Lu Qingtong, he always had many things in his heart.

Although Lu Qingtong is not well-informed, the girl's natural sensitivity makes her feel that Fan Wubing is worried.

After a day out, the expert group contacted Fan Wubing and said that there were some big differences between the two parties, such as they were not very concerned about the price. Instead, they hoped that Fan's Investment Group could invest in the construction of a processing plant shared by both parties, and they were responsible for the design, construction and operation, and increase the taste of iron ore from 60% to 70%. However, the investment in their processing plant is more than 100 times the investment of similar Chinese companies, which made the experts very puzzled.

After hearing the news, Fan Wubing was a little surprised. His intuition was that he thought the other party wanted to gain benefits from this processing plant. But after thinking about it carefully, it didn’t feel like it, because their mines were too cheap. They were business owners and not leaders of state-owned enterprises in mainland China. They could sell the mines more expensively. There was no need to spend more time building a high-priced processing plant to achieve it. This was actually a solution that made everyone uncomfortable.

So Fan Wubing found someone familiar with the local situation and asked what was going on.

Not long after, the matter was found out. It turned out that their iron ore had a high titanium content. It was more than 8%. If there was too much titanium, the boiler would explode when steelmaking. They explained that the newly built processing plant could just reduce the titanium content and make the ore reach the standard of safe smelting. It was also very important. If it was not processed here, it would be difficult for the government to deal with, because here, the government restricted the export of primary products, and due to the high freight costs, it was extremely necessary for them to set up a processing plant to remove impurities in the ore.

After figuring out this matter, Fan Wubing's experts carefully calculated and found that even after the total price of the project was cheap, even if the processing plant was sky-high, it would still make a big profit after comprehensive calculations. Therefore, there was no complaint about the processing plant. After all, Fan Wubing was very clear that after obtaining the development rights, the mining area reserves obtained were very, very large, enough for mine for one hundred years.

So everyone reached an agreement and both sides were very happy.

Fan Wubing carefully calculated that even after processing, the iron content of the iron ore here was controlled at about 70%, and the offshore cost was less than 20 US dollars per ton. It should be the best iron ore he has seen so far. The imported Australian ore and Brazilian mines did not meet such good standards.

In fact, Africans also have another concern, which is also a problem encountered in negotiations with Chinese companies before. China is a country with foreign exchange control, and it is difficult for domestic companies to remit investments abroad. The government needs strict review procedures and is likely to not approve these overseas investments.

Moreover, buying mines abroad is not an investment supported by the state. In this way, the investment of mainland enterprises must be achieved through other methods. The main way of adaptation is to replace investment with trade. This is very troublesome.

On the contrary, if you are a foreigner, it is very simple. Sometimes when Fan Wubing thinks of this policy, he really feels that the government is trying to force everyone to immigrate.

This common method is to go through trade channels. The final agreement between all parties is to use a circular long-term letter of credit. Such letters of credit are repeatedly issued and are not actually implemented. The other party uses a mainland joint venture company to borrow overseas to solve the problem of funds. The other party does not need to invest, but to lend to mainland enterprises, local banks can also communicate.

In this case, because the contract price is particularly low, less than 60% of the domestic iron ore price, and it is the land price. Due to the shortage of iron ore, banks dare to issue certificates, and they are eager to not redeem the order. As long as one day later, the bank can sell your ore at a high price and earn a 2% of your issuance fee in vain. However, if you do this, it is equivalent to investment issuance fee and issuance guarantee. However, with such a cheap iron ore, the bank will definitely rush to issue certificates, so the guarantee is very low. This is equivalent to completing the investment of billions of dollars with a very small amount of money, which can amplify the funds ten times. In China, such an economic and social where funds are tight and capital is king, it is extremely attractive.

But Fan Wubing always feels something is wrong. If this matter is that simple, Africans will just get a processing plant, and most of the iron ore is given to them almost for free. It is unreasonable to say that. Africans cannot be fools, right?

Although the other party seemed to have expressed great enthusiasm for the Chinese, Fan Wubing never believed in any friendship arising from the battle, especially for these foreigners. As the saying goes, they are not of our race, and their hearts must be different. They are talking about these black-skinned, white-skinned or red-skinned guys.

I remember that whether it was the big brother or later comrades and brothers, they all ended up having a bad time and were disbanded. These people were unreliable. Can they still count on these black ghosts who seem to be even more different?

No matter how much Fan Wubing thought about it, he thought this matter was unreliable, so he asked his legal experts and technical experts to study it carefully on the contract. At the same time, he also mobilized his own intelligence department to touch the old background of these black ghosts through intelligence channels between Americans and Europeans.

At the same time, Fan Wubing also felt that although the environment in this place is good, there is always an indescribable weirdness, and the impression these black ghosts brought to him was also very treacherous.

Sure enough, in the subsequent fierce bargaining negotiations, the relationship between the two parties was no longer so friendly. Fan Wubing and his members gradually discovered the embarrassment of their situation. The most important thing is that they found that if they did not agree to sign the contract, it would be a problem to leave this place. Not to mention the high hotel fees every day, because at the beginning, the other party sent a convoy to pick them up, so they did not drive or fly, so how could they leave?

There are people-eating lions outside the hotel! The rich people who come here all have their own means of transportation and are not pulled by someone in a car at all. So their top priority now is how to get out of here, then go to the big city, and look back at how things should be handled.

Originally, the other party asked Fan Wubing and the others to sign the contract immediately, but for such a quick thing, good things came too easily, which always made people very worried. Especially Fan Wubing felt that there were some problems, and the experts had never encountered such an easy negotiation, and everyone thought that it needed to be carefully considered.

But it is not that easy to leave here rashly. Fan Wubing thought about it and found a reasonable reason, saying that they asked to meet the local lawyer before signing the contract and listen to the lawyer's opinions, so they wanted to go to the city.

This reason is very legitimate, so the other party has no reason to refuse Fan Wubing and the others' request. In this way, the other party arranged a car to take them into the city.
Chapter completed!