Chapter 25: A Person of Extreme Confidence
The experts all boarded their vehicles and followed the mountain road, exiting the pit and arriving at the waste rock dump.
Just like household waste had designated disposal areas, mining waste also had a specific place to go.
This was it—the mine's waste disposal site.
Bringing a group of experts to such a location to look for ore was clearly unconventional.
Once out of the vehicles, everyone looked curiously at the mountain of discarded rock.
"We still have to go further in, everyone take your time," said Xu Shaoxi, knowing what Li Tang intended. The old man took the lead, walking carefully into the deeper parts of the tailings.
The area was filled with loose rocks and sharp stones. One wrong step and someone could land on a precarious boulder, lose balance, and tumble dangerously down.
Navigating the jagged terrain, they finally reached the older section of the tailings mountain, the part where waste had been dumped many years ago.
Looking up, it was covered in weeds, a blanket of green spread across the mound.
"What are we looking at?" grumbled an older expert, already breathing heavily and visibly irritated.
Even though he was the general manager of the Mining and Metallurgy Company, Zhao Hepu had been to the mine countless times but had rarely visited the tailings area—especially not this far in.
This pile was old, and the footing unstable. Accidents were easy to come by.
Usually, mine security didn't allow visitors to wander around this area.
Li Tang climbed onto a large boulder and looked down at the group. His voice rang out across the site.
"You've all examined the pit and ore body several times. Today, I've brought you here to look at the result of twenty years of mining—this colossal pile of waste!"
Impressive? Most of the experts felt nothing but annoyance.
This young man was out of line!
Who in their right mind would drag a bunch of older experts to clamber over a dangerous pile of rubble? It was absurd!
Zhao Hepu had stumbled and fallen more than once on the way here. His clothes were covered in dust and scratches. With his weight, one more slip and he might not get back up.
He was drenched in sweat. "What's there to see here?"
Unbothered, Li Tang first turned to Xu Shaoxi and bowed slightly. "Mr. Xu has accompanied us up and down the mine for days. At seventy years old, that's no small feat."
Then, turning back to the group, he pointed ahead with commanding presence. "Look at these mountains of rock. In just twenty years, we've dumped nearly 200 million tons of waste here!"
It was a massive number. Even the well-traveled experts couldn't immediately wrap their heads around it.
"Of course, not all of it is useful," Li Tang continued. He pointed to the weed-covered section of the dump. "That's where the oldest tailings are—from the 1980s. They came from stripping the outer edges of the main ore body. Some of those rocks contain copper concentrations over 0.5%. The average grade is nearly 0.31%! Gentlemen, this place isn't just a junkyard—it's a mountain of treasure!"
Everyone exchanged glances.
Was he suggesting turning waste into wealth?
They looked at the mess of stones around them, struggling to imagine how any of this could be worth anything.
Sensing the skepticism, Li Tang waved to He Runqi, who handed him a field logbook.
Li Tang flipped through it and read aloud: "Based on our recent sampling, we estimate that about 80 million tons of this waste rock has an average copper grade of 0.31%. That means there's about 240,000 tons of copper metal here!"
The number sent a wave of shock through the group.
No one had done the math before—but now, hearing it laid out clearly, it was stunning.
Two hundred forty thousand tons of copper metal—what did that mean?
It was equivalent to a medium-sized copper deposit.
At the current global price of 20,000 yuan per ton, that meant this pile of rocks was worth 4.8 billion yuan!
At the mine's maximum processing capacity of 20,000 tons of copper metal per year, these tailings alone could support twelve more years of production!
That was a staggering realization.
"Mr. Xu, one of the mine's earliest employees, said that the lowest layers of these tailings, the oldest ones, likely have the highest grades," Li Tang added. "You all understand this far better than I do: early mining was rough, wasteful, and careless. But Demen was lucky—all the tailings were preserved."
"Can I see your notebook?" asked Professor Sun Yiquan.
"Of course."
Sun took the field log from Li Tang and flipped through it. The other experts gathered around, examining the densely written data.
They read and discussed for a long while, and slowly began to form opinions.
These were seasoned experts. They wouldn't be convinced by a few bold statements.
"You're right that there's copper in these tailings," Sun finally said. "But the grades are still too low. From a purely economic standpoint, this material has no current value. Technically, maybe in the future—if processing technology improves—then yes, these tailings could become valuable. For now, they're just potential resources."
He was being diplomatic.
Li Tang, however, shook his head. "Why wait for the future? Why wait for others to invent better methods? If everyone waits, how will technology ever improve? We are the technicians—we're the ones who are supposed to push progress!"
His words rang out firmly.
Some of the experts, hearing this, quietly lowered their heads, reflecting.
This young man had guts—he had just challenged their conclusions, directly and unapologetically.
Zhao Hepu, standing beside Qin Jianshe, whispered nervously, "Is this Li Tang always this… blunt?"
Blunt?
Qin considered it. Over the time he had worked with Li Tang, he'd noticed that the young man didn't usually act cocky.
Only when it came to technical matters did he speak with uncompromising conviction.
He had the unfiltered directness of a true engineer.
And more than that—he had confidence.
Extreme confidence.
Was that a flaw?
Judging by his performance in the Qianshan coal project and the Guanling gold project, Li Tang had already proven that his confidence was backed by capability.
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