"Why don't you use gunpowder to mine?" Yang Fan asked.
Several people looked at each other.
Zhao Fu stepped forward and spoke, "Master, this gunpowder is military supplies. We have nothing to do with the military town and we can't get it. In addition, if you make gunpowder privately, you will be questioned by the government."
Yang Fan curled his lips and said, "I told you earlier. How big of a deal is this? I am one of the 100 households in Zunhua Guard. It is okay to prepare some gunpowder."
"Then it won't be a big problem," Zhao Fu said.
"After buying the ore, how do you smelt it?"
"Sir, the ore needs to be smelted with charcoal and put into the blast furnace with the charcoal."
"Don't you use coke to make steel?"
Several people looked at each other in confusion.
Well, there is no coke at this time.
Zhao Fu said: "I hope you know that in the Ming Dynasty, we put charcoal and iron ore into the blast furnace, and what was produced was pig iron. Pig iron can be made into steel by folding and forging it repeatedly. A hundred times is a hundred steelmaking."
Yang Fan probably knows how to make iron in this era.
"Why did this workshop stop production?" Yang Fan asked a key question.
"Master, our iron ore production is too low, we lack young people, and we don't have enough ore. We can only purchase ore from outside. There are so many iron-making workshops in Zunhua, and most of them have a stable source of ore. We rely on buying other people's ore.
The cost has gone up, and the more you work, the more you will lose. Several owners have changed hands, and they have all changed hands," Fu Liu said.
I understand, I don’t have good mines, so I buy other people’s ores and add profits in the middle. There are few people and there is no economies of scale. The output is low and the quality is probably not very good. So whoever does it will pay.
This poor place is not close to the water, and transportation is not convenient. Charcoal and ore are very heavy raw materials, how can we not lose money?
Yang Fan rubbed his temples and worried, he had to start work. It was not a long-term solution for more than 300 people to just sit there and eat nothing. The main problem that could not start work was how to reduce costs.
What does the cost include?
Raw materials: iron ore and charcoal, labor, transportation, taxes.
There is no room for decline in anything else. Only ores can think of ways to reduce costs.
“What’s the price of ore?”
"Selected iron ore, thirty-eight taels of silver per thousand catties"
“What’s the price of pig iron?”
"If it's Fujian iron from the south, it costs one cent and six cents of silver per catty. The quality of the local product is better, and it costs two cents of silver."
"How much iron does a hundred pounds of ore yield?"
"Thirty kilograms of iron can be sold for six taels. But other costs also cost two taels. If the government wants to pay donations and taxes, it will definitely lose money."
Yang Fan basically understood that buying ore from outside was basically useless. The iron smelting workshops that could survive basically had their own mines, and the savings in ore were net profits.
"Let's all disperse here today. Tomorrow morning Zhao Fu, Fu Liu and I will go out and visit the three largest mines."
Yang Fan didn't have much of a clue. This problem had been solved by several different owners, so it was obviously very difficult. Let's take a look at it in person tomorrow.
Early the next morning, Yang Fan took Zhao Fu and Fu Liu straight to the largest mine in Zunhua, Dongshan Mine.
Dongshan Mine is very large and is surrounded by mountains and water. This water is the same river that flows into Zunhua City. It is very convenient for transportation.
Yang Fan made some observations and found that those who came to buy ore and iron sand were basically small workshops. They usually smelted a small amount of iron as a family unit, and then directly made farm tools. In this way, profits increased.
Others are very large customers. They have economies of scale and can buy hundreds of thousands of catties at a time. Although the profit is small, they still have considerable profits due to the large quantity.
But if he didn't take advantage of these two aspects, he would definitely be losing money, and the more he practiced, the more he would lose. Yang Fan thought about how he could lower the price.
"Go and have a look at the mineral processing place." Yang Fan rode his horse and soon came to the mineral processing place. There were thousands of people here, working like ants.
Some strong men carry iron ore out of the mine with baskets on their backs and transport it to the ore dressing site in oxcarts.
In the ore processing plant, a large number of workers were sweating profusely and vigorously swinging sledgehammers to smash the iron ore.
Then the small pieces of ore enter the next process. There are many women and half-year-old children here, using small hammers to continue smashing the small stones into smaller stones, and then continue to smash, and continue to smash.
The impurity stones that have obviously fallen off in the middle are cleaned out and thrown away. The remaining iron ore becomes more and more pure.
The last process is to lay very small stones flat on a paved site of granite and quartzite, and use oxen to pull huge stone rollers to roll them in circles.
Then use a broom to sweep out the iron sand the size of soybeans. Then you have to manually sift out the large particles and carefully select them. The stones are thrown away and the iron sand remains.
Seeing this step, Yang Fan suddenly thought of a way.
This method of beneficiation is very wasteful. There is a lot of fine iron sand in the dust filtered out by the sieve. But manpower cannot sort it. It cannot be seen or picked up. The efficiency is too low and it is not worth wasting manpower. In the end, it is all thrown away.
"Where are all the sifted wastes transported?" Yang Fan asked.
"Sir, have you seen the mountain by the river? That's it," Fu Liu replied.
Yang Fan looked around and saw a very high hill, which looked a little red. He didn't know how many years of accumulation it had accumulated in the Dongshan Mine.
There were many ragged children and women on the mountain, carrying torn sacks and rummaging around with short-handled hoes, picking up some iron ore mixed in.
Yang Fan estimated that these women and children were the families of miners. They collected slag to support their families. Anyway, they could earn a little bit.
When you find a piece, smash it again with a small hammer and throw the effective part into the sack. The mine doesn't care. Anyone who wants to pick up these scraps can pick it up.
"Let's talk to the boss," Yang Fan said.
Yang Fan and his party inquired about the location of the shopkeeper and went straight to the shipping room of the mine.
"Several friends are here, but I'm sorry to hear you come from afar," a fat middle-aged man said with his fists clasped. "But they're here to take care of our mine business."
"Yes, I do have a big deal to discuss with you," Yang Fan said.
"I dare not brag that the iron ore in our mine is the best in Ming Dynasty. At least in Zunhua County, I dare to say it is second. No one dares to say it is first."
"How to sell your iron ore?"
"One hundred pounds of first-class mineral sand and three taels of silver are worth the price."
"I'm not here to buy iron ore." Yang Fan shook his head.
"Your Majesty, you don't want to buy iron ore." The shopkeeper was stunned. Why are you here if you don't want to buy iron ore?
"Sir, if you don't want to buy iron ore, what do you want to buy?" The shopkeeper's tone was a bit unkind. Obviously, he didn't want to waste time with him.
Yang Fan pointed at the waste soil mountain and said, "I wonder if the soil mountain there is for sale."
The shopkeeper followed Yang Fan's finger and saw that it was the mountain of waste soil.
I sneered in my heart, it was another one who came here to pick up a bargain. Many people saw someone picking up iron ore that had been sifted there, and they thought it was profitable.
Over the years, people have been wanting to buy that mountain of dirt, but they never thought about it. If it was really worth developing, why would the mine let the women and boys of the miners rummage there.
It was just thrown away because the input-output was disproportionate. These women and children were just idle. They picked it up and sold it to the mines at a low price.
That mound was accumulated over hundreds of years. I don’t know how many people paid attention to it. In the end, they lost all their money and had to sell it back to the mine.
Since another fool comes to your door, why not sell it?
"That Tushan, the guest is really discerning. For only two hundred taels, I can sell it to the guest." The shopkeeper's cunning mung bean blinked his eyes and said with a smile.
I said in my heart, when you cry, I will buy it back for twenty taels.
