"Our first exploration should be considered a success." After three consecutive days of exploration, Liang En happily announced to all the historical companions gathered in the living room, "And we also made a tremendous discovery."
"Discovery? What kind of discovery could come from a world filled with nothing but dust and rocks?" Marie looked at Liang En with confusion, unable to see the significance of such a barren planet.
"Of course, if you mean that we successfully established contact with a new world, then yes, that counts as an important discovery, since it does mean we've connected to a new world."
"Establishing contact with a new world is indeed something to be happy about, and it can be considered a major discovery. It proves that the knowledge we obtained earlier was correct—we can indeed open a passage to another world."
"But besides that, we actually have some even more valuable discoveries." Liang En smiled as he took out a glass test tube. "You'll understand once you see this."
"Let me see." Marie reached out to take the test tube from Liang En and gently shook it, then her eyes widened, "What is this gold-colored substance? Is it gold?"
"It is indeed gold." Liang En smiled and nodded, then seriously addressed the ladies present. "We found a place that appears to be the impact site of an asteroid, and we found these in the surrounding sand and rocks."
Gold is a metal that comes from the stars, with most of it being ejected during neutron star collisions long ago. The universe originally contained protons and neutrons, which spontaneously became elements like hydrogen, helium, and lithium.
The birth of stars enabled the fusion of these three elements, releasing energy and producing more and more elements in the process.
When many neutron stars collided, the neutrons increased, some decayed into protons, and the number of protons grew larger. At this point, heavy metals like gold were formed.
Thus, a lot of gold is found on various asteroids, and some asteroids are even primarily composed of gold. When they become meteorites and crash onto planets, they naturally form gold-rich areas.
What Liang En and his team found was clearly a gold-rich area formed by a meteorite impact. The sand and stones in the test tube he held were from the core area of that region.
Even though the place where they found this sand was still 200-300 meters away from the true core area, the amount of gold in it was visibly high. With the four of them witnessing it together, they easily extracted a small piece of gold.
"A gold content of 32%, that's terrifying." Elizabeth was shocked. She was currently helping manage a gold mine, so she naturally knew what the usual grade of gold ore should be.
According to international standards, gold ore with a content of more than 3 grams per ton is considered worth mining, and anything over 100 grams per ton is considered an absolute bonanza.
In this gold-rich area, the sand has a gold content of around 320 grams per ton, and refining it is very easy, with the cost being far lower than any gold mine on Earth.
"How much gold is there?" After calming herself down, Elizabeth asked another key question. "If the quantity isn't significant—"
"About 4000 to 6000 tons. Since the current investigation is quite superficial, many areas are still uncertain," Liang En replied after thinking for a few seconds.
"That's already more than enough." Elizabeth nodded in satisfaction after hearing this number. "The U.S. gold reserves are only about eight thousand tons. This place has at least half of that, which is more than sufficient for us."
Unlike currency, gold is clearly more valuable in various transactions. Especially considering Liang En's global business operations, having a universally accepted currency is obviously advantageous.
Currencies like the U.S. dollar, British pound, Euro, or Japanese yen, which have significant international influence, can achieve this goal, but they still suffer from losses due to currency exchange rate fluctuations.
Therefore, compared to fiat currencies, natural money like gold has obvious advantages. Having a stable and secure source of gold would be very helpful for their future business expansion.
"The question now is, how much gold can we extract from here each day?" Elizabeth quickly asked a crucial question. "After all, we are currently facing some issues that require gold."
For the banking industry, reserves are extremely important, but due to some historical issues, the bank they are currently managing has insufficient reserves. As long as there is enough gold, Elizabeth can resolve this problem.
"About 80 to 120 kilograms per day," Liang En calculated and said, "There are still many issues with the detailed positioning of the space gate, so it can only be opened about 30 kilometers away from the gold-rich area."
"Since there's no road and the combined machine we use for excavation and transport has limited capacity, this is the maximum amount we can handle. We can't increase it in the short term."
"But things will gradually improve. Whether it's the precision of the space gate's spatial locking or the quality of the excavation and transport equipment, both will improve, and by then, the extraction speed will accelerate."
To be honest, improving the positioning precision of the space gate in the short term is almost impossible, as the problem is too complex and involves a systemic project. Liang En could only say he had a lead, but when it would be resolved depends on luck.
However, the difficulty of upgrading the excavation and transport equipment was different. Previously, they hadn't considered this aspect, so they could only temporarily modify an electric vehicle for the elderly to barely use.
But considering the massive dust and terrible road conditions in that place, this makeshift equipment could only last for a month or two. After that, they would need professional equipment.
"This quantity is already sufficient. You can deliver this gold directly to the location I mentioned earlier," Elizabeth was very satisfied with the current extraction amount.
"Perhaps due to our expansion, some small banks took the opportunity to set us up. So I must teach them a lesson this time, to show them I'm not someone to be trifled with."
Clearly, competition within the financial industry was fierce. Although Liang En's bank was currently a small bank, not enough to attract the attention of large banks, the competition among small banks was still intense.
For example, after Liang En's bank encountered problems, several banks with overlapping business areas attacked them.
But this was within Elizabeth's expectations. She just underestimated the number and scale of attacking banks, which left her able to defend herself but unable to strike back as planned.
For Elizabeth, this might be a bit regrettable, but it wouldn't cause too much of a negative impact. After all, for her, such small matters were just a tiny part of life.
But she hadn't expected to discover so much gold this time, and with this gold as a backing, she could continue her previous plans to counterattack those banks.
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