Zhou Jimin, who was wearing the vest of Michael, handed Liang Wenfeng the list of materials that needed to be purchased and asked the latter to hurry up and deal with it.
Five hundred kilograms of uranium, just the amount on the list, shocked Liang Wenfeng and others.
What is this for?
As we all know, uranium is one of the main elements of nuclear bombs.
In addition to making nuclear bombs, it can also be made into fuel components for nuclear power plants.
Enriched uranium 235 is the best raw material for generating electricity in nuclear power plants.
Before being used in nuclear power plant reactors, uranium-235 must be enriched to increase its purity to between 3% and 5%.
Then it is sent to the fuel manufacturing plant and converted into uranium dioxide powder.
It is then compressed into small fuel particles and heated to create a hard ceramic material.
Seeing the expressions of Liang Wenfeng and others, Zhou Jimin stopped and said:
"Don't worry when you go shopping. No one will make things difficult for you. If so, just tell me and I will clear the way for you."
Five hundred kilograms of uranium may seem like a lot, but it’s actually not much.
Judging from the strength of PHS Mobile Phone North America, which has been rooted in Bald Eagle for so many years, purchasing 500 kilograms of uranium is actually just a trial.
Zhou Jimin’s real purpose is to see how much the bald eagle knows about his vest.
Although when he copied this vest, he had already done it to the extreme.
But in front of the state machinery, Zhou Jimin really didn’t dare to say more about how much he could conceal.
In fact, in the 1970s, technological level is developing rapidly, but it is still useless.
The main reason is that there was no more effective verification method in the past, and Michael, the vest, was an orphan himself.
The orphanage closed down more than ten years ago.
It is no longer possible to find those people.
After the tasks were dispatched, Zhou Jimin could only wait.
While waiting, he also learned about the current development situation of the Little Bee mobile phone in Bald Eagle.
In December last year, the second generation of Little Bee mobile phone was released and will go on sale on New Year’s Day this year.
Judging from the current operation situation, the data is not as good as the first-generation machine, but it is not too far apart.
In short, Zhou Jimin has decided to cut off this leek.
Competitors such as Pacific Mobile, First Mobile, and General Mobile have indeed been successfully launched, but they only account for 5% of the mobile phones sold.
There are so many mobile phone companies, but they only get 5% of the market share, which is a slap in the face.
Even so, these companies are already very happy.
At the very least, it finally opened a hole in the PHS mobile phone company.
However, their communication service provider, gsm, is a product of another small company owned by Zhou Jimin.
Therefore, Zhou Jimin knew their data clearly.
After understanding it, Zhou Jimin had no expression.
The market still needs to be cultivated, so take your time.
Computers are slowly appearing on the market, but the unit price is too high and it is difficult to reduce the price.
For the time being, the market can't bear it, and the cost can't support it.
Many materials for making computers are very expensive and the technology is also very high-end.
If you want to lower prices, you must first reduce costs, and secondly, there must be enough wealthy people in the market.
So, take your time.
Just when Liang Wenfeng found an agent to purchase the materials on Zhou Jimin's list, as time went by, many big bosses turned their attention to him.
PHS Mobile Phone North America Branch?
Purchase 500 kilograms of uranium?
What do you want to do?
As an extremely free market, any company in Bald Eagle can actually operate any industry, as long as you have money, brains and vision.
Of course, many industries actually have barriers.
Like the arms business, individuals can open a studio for operation.
But nuclear power plants and nuclear bombs are not things that ordinary people can afford.
Uranium is inherently very sensitive.
If they are just like some big bosses who just want to gather all the elements on the periodic table, then of course there is no problem.
But if you want to get involved in this industry, whether it is the upstream nuclear power plant fuel manufacturing process, the downstream nuclear power plant, or others.
The thresholds are obvious.
Therefore, if you want to buy uranium, you have to prove that you have the qualifications.
It is very simple for Zhou Jimin to prove this qualification.
He immediately arranged for Liang Wenfeng and others to start cooperating and make a series of applications in accordance with the other party's requirements.
While waiting, Zhou Jimin left Bald Eagle and headed to Oceania to find his own mine for refining.
In the original time and space, Oceania was one of the countries with the richest uranium reserves in the world, and was also the world's major uranium-producing country.
As early as a few years ago, Zhou Jimin conducted a large-scale 'purchase' at the Lanjie uranium mine in Oceania.
However, this mining area is owned by Oceania Electrolytic Zinc Co., Ltd., not Zhou Jimin’s mining company.
Now, the reason why Zhou Jimin went to Bald Eagle to purchase uranium first is naturally because that is the area where the largest uranium-235 fuel rods are produced.
In addition, it is foreseeable that Zhou Jimin's demand for uranium ore will be very large in the next few years.
Just relying on the uranium production in Oceania may not be able to meet his needs.
After entering Oceania, Zhou Jimin did not go to the Lanjie uranium mine, but to the Olympic Dam uranium mine.
The Olympic Dam uranium mine is located 560 kilometers north of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. This was the mine address directly designated when Zhou Jimin asked Liang Wenfeng and others to come over to establish the mining company.
Very accurate latitude and longitude address, never wrong.
Therefore, after the mine was put into operation, a large amount of metal minerals such as copper ore and uranium ore were quickly discovered, and the output has been soaring from the beginning.
This means that as long as someone has a machine, they can definitely produce quickly.
He showed up at the Olympic Dam uranium mine and found Eric, the head of the company.
"What is the current production of uranium oxide?"
Eric reported very respectfully that the current production has reached 1,080 tons of uranium oxide, 120,000 tons of copper ore products and 500 kilograms of gold, as well as associated metal sulfides, sericite, hematite,
Fluorite, chlorite, barite and other mine products.
In addition to gold, uranium oxide and copper mineral products are basically sold.
Every time it is sold on a quarterly basis, the target of sale is naturally Xinghai Trading Group.
After the latter brought these products back to the southern island, some were sold directly to companies on Hong Kong Island, while others were sold directly to Oasis New City or the mainland.
The demand for metal raw materials in Oasis New City is very huge, so even if the output of the Olympic Dam uranium mine is very huge, it is still barely enough.
Naturally, Zhou Jimin is not limited to this mine in the entire Oceania.
Looking at the entire Olympic Dam uranium mine, it is a comprehensive copper-uranium-gold-iron-rare earth element mine.
The current output of rare earth element products is negligible.
Due to the shortage of skilled workers, we can only give up temporarily.
Mine mining is not a simple matter, and the requirements for many skilled workers are not generally high.
Especially for the management side, last time Zhou Jimin came here for a sweep, and later Li Yuzhu, Liang Wenfeng and others also came here many times.
I am just worried that these management teams will cause trouble.
Otherwise, Eric would not treat Zhou Jimin so respectfully now.
After listening to Eric's report, Zhou Jimin said directly:
"From now on, if we increase the production of uranium oxide and double wages to recruit people from other mines, the cost can be increased appropriately."
"In addition, uranium oxide and rare earth elements are no longer for sale. They are all sealed in the warehouse and should be kept carefully. I will send people to the mine warehouse to receive them every quarter. Please arrange the person in charge."
"Okay, I'll report these things to the advisory group in a timely manner and let them know."
From a procedural point of view, the advisory group should issue orders directly to Eric's superior, Hunter, the general person in charge of Oceania, and then Hunter will notify Eric.
However, Zhou Jimin is the big boss, and whatever he says is what he says.
"Okay, boss." Eric nodded with a respectful attitude, completely obedient.
If the mine management outside the office saw this scene, their eyes would definitely drop.
In ordinary times, Eric is a local emperor here at the mine.
In front of many workers, not only do they show off their power, but they also shout around and do whatever they want.
Zhou Jimin agreed, and then accompanied by Eric, he walked around the mine.
Through chatting with the mine workers, Zhou Jimin roughly understood some of the situation.
When the water is clear, there will be no fish. Within reasonable and legal limits, he can ignore those gray incomes.
However, if it goes too far, Zhou Jimin will definitely take action.
The actual gold reserves of the Olympic Dam uranium mine in front of us are about 1,200 tons.
However, the entire mine is so big that only 500 kilograms of gold were dug out in most of half a year.
Therefore, Zhou Jimin is not interested in this.
Many years ago, Zhou Jimin was very interested in the gold mines in the Fergana Basin.
However, the gold reserves in his space now exceed two thousand tons.
It has more reserves than many countries, so it has little interest in gold.
However, I am not completely uninterested.
If it were just gold, he would still bend down to pick it up.
But if it requires a lot of time and energy, he won't be happy.
After visiting the mine, Zhou Jimin told Eric that he would go to the warehouse tonight to take away all the uranium oxide.
Eric naturally didn't say anything about this, and he was not even curious about why no one was allowed to approach the warehouse after nightfall.
After leaving the Olympic Dam uranium mine, Zhou Jimin went to the Beverly uranium mine.
The Beverly uranium mine is the second uranium mining area controlled by Zhou Jimin in Oceania.
If the previous Lanjie uranium mine hadn't started a little slowly, Zhou Jimin would have directly taken over all the uranium mining areas in Oceania.
Compared with the Olympic Dam uranium mine, the Beverly uranium mine is an underground mine with an operating depth of 100-130 meters.
This means that its mining is slightly more difficult, and the production of uranium oxide is not as good as that of the Olympic Dam uranium mine.
But, again, no matter how small the mosquito legs are, they are still meat.
Therefore, Zhou Jimin will not dislike it.
After two days in Oceania, he had already taken away nearly 1,400 tons of uranium oxide from two mines.
One can imagine how low the output of the Beverly uranium mine is.
"Damn, I still have to go to the Lanjie uranium mine!"
More than 1,400 tons of uranium oxide is a lot.
As we all know, depending on the technology, the amount of uranium oxide required to refine each kilogram of uranium-235 ranges from one to five tons.
For example, with Bald Eagle's technology, less than one ton of uranium oxide is needed to refine each kilogram of uranium-235.
On the contrary, in the Middle East, northern countries and other countries, at least five tons of uranium oxide are needed to refine each kilogram of uranium-235.
This is the technical difference.
Based on Zhou Jimin's technology, one kilogram of uranium 235 can be extracted from each ton of uranium oxide.
In other words, the 1,400 tons of uranium oxide he is taking away can probably extract 1,400 kilograms of uranium-235.
The nuclear power plant built by Zhou Jimin has a fairly advanced technology, so its utilization rate of uranium-235 is quite high.
One kilogram of nuclear fuel uranium is about the size of an egg, and the energy released after fission can produce 22.8 million kilowatt-hours of electricity.
Based on the two newly built nuclear power plants built by Zhou Jimin at the Loulan historic site, which generate 200 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per day, the uranium-235 nuclear fuel required per day is nine kilograms.
The two nuclear power plants consume 18 kilograms of uranium-235 nuclear fuel every day.
One thousand four hundred kilograms of uranium-235 nuclear fuel is only enough to generate electricity for 77 days, which is a little more than two months.
Calculated in this way, it is simply not enough for Zhou Jimin to fully charge the super lithium-air battery.
After all, it takes 100 days to fully charge a super lithium-air battery, while 1,400 kilograms can only be charged for 77 days.
Zhou Jimin came here again and started searching for the Lanjie uranium mine.
He doesn't want to use this method, but he is poor.
By the time Zhou Jimin left Oceania, the amount of uranium oxide in space had grown to 3,400 tons.
On the Bald Eagle side, Liang Wenfeng and the others completed all the procedures in just one week.
However, the other party is still unwilling to sell uranium 235. The reason is that the technology is not up to standard.
When Liang Wenfeng and the others saw it, they were furious.
I immediately found two or three manufacturing plants that produce uranium-235 fuel rods in Bald Eagle, and their technology is also very average.
It’s not even as good as the technology provided by Liang Wenfeng and others, why can they?
In response, John from the Western Mining Alliance responded seriously to Liang Wenfeng:
Because those companies are subsidiaries of the alliance.
Okay, now the truth is out.
John’s meaning is also very straightforward, that is, he needs to take shares in Liang Wenfeng’s newly established company.
Liang Wenfeng asked Zhou Jimin what he meant, and the latter asked, how many shares does the other party need?
Far in the western region of Bald Eagle, the small town of Moab, and the Anders Uranium Mine.
John in the office couldn't help laughing when he received Liang Wenfeng's reply: