The heavy, non-slip leather boots sank into the two-meter-deep pit, splashing up a cloud of cold, muddy water.
He walked over to Su Wei and took out a laminated construction drawing from the large pocket of his work vest.
Su Wei's gloved fingers touched the red line on the drawing.
"Move the entire structure eight meters to the right, avoiding this granite block, and follow its outer edge."
Matt looked in the direction Su Wei pointed, then turned to look at the rock formations to the side.
Moving the engine eight meters to the right means excavating at least fifty cubic meters of hard frozen soil, which causes significant wear and tear on the diesel engine and gears.
"Moving right is fine."
Matt pulled out a marker and drew a heavy correction line on the drawing.
"But the load-bearing wall on the left side of the ammunition depot's blast room needs to be thickened by 20 centimeters, otherwise the stress on the mountain will be unevenly distributed."
Su Wei nodded.
"There's one more thing."
Su Wei raised his hand, pointing his index finger between the newly drawn black line and the rock stratum markings on the drawing.
"There is a buffer zone of approximately three meters between this rock mass and the red line area. From now on, the use of any heavy machinery is strictly prohibited within these three meters."
Matt's marker stopped in mid-air as he turned his head, his gaze fixed on the young employer's profile.
"Within three meters, all cleaning will be done manually."
Su Wei added.
In the polar regions where temperatures drop to minus ten degrees Celsius, abandoning excavators with hundreds of horsepower and having workers use shovels and ice axes to chisel through the frozen ground is an extremely time-consuming and unusual task.
Matt did not carry it out immediately; his years of experience made him realize that the instruction lacked common sense.
"The underlying rock vein structure of the Pillar Mountain is more brittle than the survey report indicated."
Su Wei turned to the side, pointing with his gloved hand to the tiny natural crack along the edge of the granite.
"These are traces of stress release in the fault zone. The low-frequency resonance of heavy machinery will propagate upwards along the rock veins. I don't want the upper rock mass to collapse halfway through the construction of the ammunition depot."
This explanation sounds very professional; geological resonance is indeed one of the biggest hidden dangers of heavy machinery operations.
Matt couldn't refute the argument from a professional standpoint, so he rubbed the ice crystals off his beard with the back of his hand.
"Manual clearing of frozen soil will consume a lot of physical strength, and the overall progress will be delayed by at least three days."
Matt folded the drawing and stuffed it back into his pocket.
"The budget will also increase accordingly."
"The bill will be calculated based on the additional working hours, and will be sent directly to my email."
Su Wei turned and walked to the edge of the tunnel, grabbed the icy soil above with both hands, and suddenly contracted his abdominal muscles, nimbly flipping himself up to the two-meter-high flat ground.
The roar of snowplows and excavators gradually subsided.
Matt led the engineering team to a temporary camp two kilometers away to refuel with diesel fuel.
After the blizzard, the hydraulic system of the machinery needs to be refurbished.
After the roar of construction subsided, silence fell over the surroundings, leaving only the sound of the cold wind scraping against the rock surface.
Su Wei stood alone at the bottom of the pit.
He unfastened a black folding geological hammer from the left side of his tactical belt; the tungsten steel hammerhead had a dull metallic sheen.
He strode up to the dark red mineralized zone.
The high-density area detected by the system is located at the rock boundary slightly below.
[ Life Module Passive: Nimble Hands ( Efficiency Improvement by 5%) has been triggered.]
[Skill Bonus: Mechanical Repair LV3 Micro-management Precision activated.]
The angle of force and the area of the point of application are geometrically constructed in the mind in an instant.
With his right wrist turned outward, the geological hammer drew a very short arc in mid-air.
Bang.
The first hammer blow struck the angle where the dark red quartz vein met the grayish-white granite.
The force of the shock is transmitted along the hammer handle to the forearm, and the muscle fibers instantly tighten to absorb the impact.
A white powdery crack appeared on the surface of the rock strata.
Bang.
The second hammer blow.
Bang.
The third strike.
Three consecutive taps landed precisely on the same point without any deviation.
This force caused the outermost quartz shell to crack instantly.
A fist-sized, dark red rock broke off along its texture and fell downwards.
Su Wei reached out with his left hand and caught it steadily.
The weight is incorrect.
This rock sample is at least 30 percent heavier than ordinary granite of the same volume.
The surface of the rock sample is covered with a network of fine quartz veins, and a few tiny yellow reflective particles are scattered on the uneven fracture surface.
It wasn't the light, fragile bright spots of pyrite, but a deep, rich golden yellow.
The pale golden light curtain bounced open again at the edge of the retina.
[ Substrate Analysis LV1 in progress...]
[Detection target identified: gold-bearing quartz vein sample.]
[Compositional analysis: Silica (45%), Iron sulfide (12%), Free native gold (extremely abundant).]
[Establishment of a grade estimation model.]
[Final feedback: Each ton of raw ore contains approximately 8 grams of gold.]
The vast majority of commercial open-pit gold mines worldwide are worth mining if each ton of ore contains at least 3 grams of gold.
Mining groups define minerals weighing over 10 grams as high-quality, rich ore.
8 grams per ton.
This is a very high figure.
Moreover, this is only a sample of the surface weathered rock; the core area of the underground parent vein, which runs down the ridge, is even richer.
Su Wei unzipped the waterproof zipper of his down jacket and stuffed the fist-sized rock sample into the waterproof storage pocket close to his chest.
Immediately afterwards, he raised the geological hammer and, following the crack he had just seen, knocked off two smaller pieces of rock, placing them into two different pockets on either side.
The weight gain of a few pounds brought with it the trump card for upward mobility.
He folded the geological hammer, hung it back on the D-ring of his tactical belt, and climbed up the edge of the tunnel again.
Push open the heavy log door of the territory's wooden house.
The pine wood in the fireplace was still burning, and the temperature inside the cabin remained around 22 degrees Celsius, while a cloud of white steam rose from the doorway.
Cotton Candy, who was lying on the wool mat, immediately got up when she heard the door open.
It trotted over to Su Wei's snow boots, tilted its white head back, and its little black nose twitched rapidly in the air.
The fox's keen sense of smell detected the unfamiliar mineral scent on him.
Su Wei ignored it and simply took off his snow boots, which were covered in ice.
Wearing moisture-wicking socks, he strode towards the small storage room on the right side of the first floor where valuables were kept.
A green, military-grade metal toolbox sat in the corner of the storage room.
He knelt down on one knee and turned the three rows of metal gears on the combination lock with his fingers.
With a click, the latch popped open.
He lifted the lid of the box and took out the three dark red gold-bearing rocks, neatly stacking them at the bottom of the box.
He closed the box and casually scrambled the numbers on the gears.
Back in the living room, I pulled out a pine chair next to the long wooden table and sat down.
He lifted the metal lid of the laptop, the screen lit up, and it automatically connected to the satellite network within his territory.
Fingers tap rapidly on the touchpad and keyboard.
Enter the following keywords into the search engine dialog box: State of Alaska private land mining rights laws and regulations.
Press Enter.
The webpage instantly displayed hundreds of thousands of related results.
He scrolled down with the mouse wheel, skipping over the forum posts and advertising links, and stopped the cursor at the official database entrance for the Federal Mining Act and the State Bureau of Land Management, clicking to enter.