After a night's rest, although the two professors still couldn't hide their tired looks on their faces, they were able to move without any hindrance. They were also eager to see the birthplace of the King of Jade.
Myanmar's special geology and landforms are an irresistible temptation for all geologists.
After meeting Hu Rong and others at the "Yudu Hotel", a convoy of seven vehicles drove out of Pagan City and headed upstream along the clear Wulu River.
Although both sides of the Wulu River have been mined beyond recognition, the river that nurtures the Pagan people is still crystal clear and flows quietly through the city of Pagan.
The car drove upstream along the Wulu River. The scenery along the way was very beautiful. The large banana trees, dense jungles, and the gurgling river were just like in a painting.
Everywhere along the Wulu River, there is an iron rope bridge with wooden planks on it. There are a lot of people coming and going, most of them are rushing to the Pagan Market.
These people include Hpakant locals who have been farming for generations, and there are also many good and bad people who come here to make a fortune. You must know that Hpakant is the intersection of Mandalay, Mengong and the important town of grapes in northern Myanmar.
In addition to jade, there are also rich gold, silver, and copper mines buried under the land of Pagan, including teak in the forest. They are all tradable resources, attracting all kinds of people with various purposes.
People who come to Hpakant.
And in addition to these, when people talk about Pagan, they always say that Pagan is run by three lines, namely the white line, the red line, and the green line.
The white line refers to heroin. It is close to the border between India and China and has always been a place where drug traffickers are active. Many drug lords wanted by Interpol are hidden in places such as Hpakant.
The red line refers to the ruby, a specialty of Myanmar, which is also very famous in the world, and the green line is naturally jade.
One hundred and fifty kilometers up and down the Wulu River, with Pagan as the center, there are Longtang, Xiangba, Huika, Mogang, Dakanmu, Dongmo, Houjiang, etc.
Hundreds of emerald mines.
Among them are the ten famous mines with a long history, all of which are located upstream and downstream of the Wulu River. Most of the new factories are in the Dongmo area. The mines there are all bare, and a large number of exposed rough stones are directly outside.
, it just doesn’t have the same skin as the old pit.
After driving for more than an hour, the convoy arrived at the foot of a mountain. The people in the car in front got out of the car to negotiate, and the checkpoint at the foot of the mountain moved away the roadbed blocking the road.
The motorcade drove along a not very wide mountain road, halfway up the mountainside, parked the car on a flat slope, and everyone got off.
"Brother Hu, this is your mine? It's so spectacular..."
Almost half of the mountain opposite has been bulldozed. Below Zhuang Rui and others, hundreds of people are busy, and there is also an excavator called a "strange hand" that is making a roaring sound.
He took out pieces of stone from the mountain wall.
The skilled workers at the side immediately stepped forward and identified the stones that were taken out by strange hands. Some were struck with hammers, and some were just based on sight. As long as they felt that the stone was material, they would immediately load it onto the car. When it was full,
Then unify and transport outwards.
"This is not my mine. This mine belongs to the Myanmar government. Let me show you. The largest "Emerald King" in the world is right here..." Hu Rong greeted everyone while speaking.
Follow him up the mountain path.
"The largest jadeite in the world? Is it 300 kilograms?"
Zhuang Rui asked curiously. Although jadeite is not measured in "carats" like diamonds, it is also a rare gemstone. Zhuang Rui has dealt with a lot of rough stones so far. The largest one can only be taken out of it.
More than 100 kilograms of jade meat were produced.
“300kg???”
Hu Rong stopped and said with a smile: "Brother, you underestimate the king of jade in the world. 300 kilograms multiplied by 10,000 is almost the weight of that jade..."
"How many?"
Zhuang Rui was staggered by Hu Rong's words and almost tripped over the stones scattered on the ground.
"300 kilograms times 10,300 million kilograms? Isn't that 3,000 tons?"
Zhuang Rui was very sensitive to numbers and immediately converted 3 million kilograms into a more intuitive 3,000 tons. However, even so, he could not imagine what such a large piece of jade would look like.
"We have heard about this piece of jade. Such a large jade should be produced from primary mines. Let's go and have a look quickly..."
After Professor Feng heard Hu Rong's words, he looked excited. The fatigue of running around in the previous two days seemed to be gone at this moment, and he pulled Hu Rong up the mountain quickly.
Zhuang Rui knew that primary ore refers to a type of mineral that first existed in the earth's crust and is still left in the soil after weathering. Usually, most of the jadeite produced by this primary ore is colorless.
Moreover, the quality of jadeite from primary mines is often very average, and is far inferior to the quality of jadeite produced from secondary mines such as iron and copper. Because the formation of jadeite color requires the existence of secondary mines, so those
The environment in which brightly colored jadeite grows must be surrounded by associated minerals.
Five minutes later, everyone walked around a mountain road and were immediately shocked by the scene in front of them.
From that side, the mountain is still intact, but after bypassing the mountain road, there is a flat plain in front of us. Half of the mountain has been bulldozed, and there are still several deep pits underground.
Seeing someone coming, several soldiers guarding the perimeter immediately gathered around them. After negotiating with the people on Hu Rong's side, they did not ask for a body search, but stood not far away from them with guns in hand, watching.
Follow their every move.
"This...this is all jade?"
In a large pit that was more than fifty meters long and forty meters wide, Zhuang Rui climbed the ladder to the bottom of the pit and looked at the "emerald" stone in front of him in disbelief.
The surface of this jadeite, which is as big as a hill, is full of white crystals. If you look closely along these crystals, you can occasionally find some green. However, the planting water is very poor, and it cannot even reach the level of bean seeds. It is a low-grade jadeite.
Zhuang Rui walked around the giant jadeite, which was dozens of meters long and wide, and found that there were deep holes dug into various parts of the jadeite, presumably to test the quality of the jadeite inside.
It's just that this piece of material is exactly the same as what it looks like. Zhuang Rui used his spiritual energy to observe it and found that it did contain a large amount of jadeite, but the quality was the same as what he saw outside, which was a lower-grade jadeite variety.
If this piece of jade is unraveled, the materials can only be used to make some trinkets worth tens of dollars at most. It is better to just leave it like this. If the Myanmar government has a way to move it out, build a museum and charge admission to the public.
If you exhibit it, you can make a lot of money.
"It's 36.58 meters long, 12.6 meters high, and extends 8.9 meters inward. It's incredible. The reason why this primary mine produces color is probably due to changes in the earth's crust during the late stages of the formation of jadeite, and liquid intruded into it, resulting in ionic interaction.
, resulting in these green veined emeralds.
This also destroys the entire jade structure, but such a large piece of jade is equivalent to a small vein, which is incredible..."
Professor Feng and Professor Chen went down to the bottom of the mine and started measuring with a measuring tape. After working for 10 minutes, they finally measured the size of this "King of Jade" and gave it to them together.
Zhuang Rui and Peng Fei, who went down to the mine, explained the reason for the formation of this jadeite.
"It's big, but the material is too poor. The carved stuff only costs ten or eight yuan apiece. If this one is made of glass, that one would be worth more..."
Zhuang Rui said with a smile, but his words attracted the disdainful eyes of the two professors, "Glass, are you kidding me!"
If this was a piece of glass jade, it could be purchased by the entire Burmese government, and would it still be left here without being able to take it out? With how poor the Burmese government is, they would have cut it into countless pieces long ago.
Sold.
"Joke, joke..."
Zhuang Rui smiled coquettishly. He also knew that this was impossible. Otherwise, let alone Hu Rong's face, even if George W. Bush came, he would not necessarily be given face to show him.
"Let's go, Zhuang Rui, come up..."
After more than half an hour, Hu Rong greeted a few people from above. He invited two professors, Feng and Chen, to come here. They were mainly looking for mineral veins for him and took them here to visit. It was just a way to visit this old pit mine.
Production has been discontinued, and apart from this so-called "King of Jade", there is nothing else to see.
Zhuang Rui was sitting in a car with two experts this time. After seeing the piece of jade, the two of them were in high spirits and did not feel that the road was bumpy. They kept talking about the piece of jade.
Zhuang Rui also learned some knowledge from the side. In the past, he only knew that jadeite was extracted from stones. Now he at least understands some of the formation factors and environment of jadeite.
After the convoy went down the mountain, it drove away from the Wulu River and turned onto a fork road. The road became increasingly difficult to walk. After nearly two hours, it stopped at the entrance of a bare mountain. However, around it, there were all
It is a forest with lush foliage.
There were several large trucks parked at the foot of the mountain, as well as more than 20 houses made of wood. More than a dozen people with weapons were walking back and forth there. When they saw the convoy arriving, they all gathered around.
"Everyone, get off the car, let's take the cable car up..."
This mountain road is very steep and it may not be easy to climb up.
The cable car that Hu Rong calls is four rails built from the bottom of the mountain to the top of the mountain. Electric switches are used to control the up and down of the cable car. It is a bit like the coal mine in the Hong Kong movie "Police Story".
