WCGW Chpt 152

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==Chapter 152 - What Could Go Wrong==
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8th January, 3044
Wokha (Former Outworlds System)
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Major General David Mitchell had brought one of the Planetologist, three Geologist, three Metallurgy Expert and three Mineralogy Expert over with him. Before they headed to the few operational mines, he directed that the Wokha base be emptied of all the recovered equipment and for it to be loaded aboard Dropships. Captain Nathan Davis was directed to remove any information on the bases computer system that could lead the FedCom or anyone else to any finds. He had then led the experts in his hunt for the local mine operators and limited smelting operations. They traveled to the small industrial area first. It did not take long to locate the "manager" of the site. Their presence observing the smelting process attracted attention quickly.
One of the experts walked to where several bars were stacked up. "Gold, some silver and good old steel over there. From the looks of it, they are after more precious metal than anything. Look like 1 kg bars of gold, 1 kg silver and maybe 1 ton blocks of steel. Their equipment is pretty crude, but it obviously works for this scale of operation."
"What would it take to boost production?" Major General Mitchell asked
"Investment in equipment mainly. They are moving this stuff up here in hand carts. Probably even hand mining this stuff the hard way, picks and shovels. But I can see a few trucks in the distance. You start bringing in up to date equipment to scale up the production and your going to unemployed a ton of people. We need to get down to the mines to do some work and see how big these ore lodes are. That will give me a baseline on how large of an operation you can scale up to." Reinhard Gleinfeld, Metallurgy, replied
A dirty short man came up to the small group "You not be here. Dangerous. Who are you?"
"Major General Mitchell of Search and Recovery Inc and also owner of Solar Metals. Are you the manager of all of this?" He answered
"I run all you see." The short man replied
"What is your name?" Major General Mitchell asked
"Unger. Name is Unger." Came the response.
"Well, Unger, I am about to buy everything, the production site here and all the mining rights for the mines. How much?" Major General Mitchell said
This seemed to confuse Unger and for several minutes he was quiet then he pointed "Twenty bars and all yours. All, here and out there in the holes."
Reinhard Gleinfeld looked shocked by what he heard, he just bought everything for roughly 100,000 C-bills at current prices and could not speak before Major General Mitchell said "Deal. Take your bars. How are the people payed?"
Unger stopped picking up gold bars and said, "Food and life." He then returned to figuring out how to carry the twenty bars of gold.
Major General Mitchell turned to his group of experts "That was easy, and you all witnessed the transaction. You all have already told me that your on a limited contract for the FedCom for this mission. Independent contractors as it were. You all want a job full time? The pay will be excellent with a bonus plan."
The group exchanged looks and nods before Reinhard Gleinfeld replied, "Sign us up."
"Excellent. Reinhard, is it? Your now the Manager of Solar Metals Wokha operations. I have 188 experienced miners in my unit, and I will have them sent over here. They will help get this place started with some upgrades. We recovered enough equipment to at least get you started on some automation and I will have that transferred over to. Until you can give me an exact list of what you need, and I can get it out here to you." Major General Mitchell said
A tall and very filthy man approached "Unger say you new boss."
Major General Mitchell pointed to Reinhard Gleinfeld "He is the new boss of the mines and factories."
"Problem, no more empty space for bars. Where put it?" The man said
"Show me the problem. Your name is?" Reinhard Gleinfeld asked
"Krul, name is Krul. Come and I show." The man started a=walking away with Reinhard following
Major General Mitchell told the rest of the group "Looks like it is getting started nicely, you folks can start your own tasks. Each of you have a two-person security detail until we are sure it is totally safe. I will leave you to it."
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9th January, 3044
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"Sir, looks like we have our first profit. They have 20 tons of gold bars worth roughly 98 million C-bills and another 5 tons of silver at about 350,000 C-bills in their storage area. Either we build more storage, or it needs to go to market." Reinhard Gleinfeld said
"And away we go. Have it loaded aboard Intrusive. You starting to get an idea on what we actually have?" Major General Mitchell asked
"The initial gold estimates is maybe 300-400 tons per year once we are fully equipped with machinery. The silver deposit is not that great. Iron ore, copper and most of the basic metals are quite rich. But Denny Cruz, the Planetologist, tells me that this place cannot support much more population growth. The soil is too rich in metals to allow crop growth. He wants one of the Agriculture folks to take a look at the greenhouses." Reinhard replied
"I will have one sent over. There are three more continents on this planet, so get them checked out also. No sense leaving anything untouched or overlooked. I will have a shuttle sent down, at least it will make the travel much quicker using sub orbital flights. Tell me, at current prices, what is the gold estimate yearly?" Major General Mitchell asked
"At current market price? When we hit 300 tons per year? About 1.4 billion C-bills per year. That is the hard rock mining they are doing right now. That Corx Miner you sent over, once we get it in operation will get us there fairly quickly. They have a single gold mine and are right on a super-rich vein. How far it runs is anybody's guess, but it's a nice fat one too." Reinhard replied
"Get me a list of what you really need in equipment and skilled workers as soon as you can." Major General Mitchell said
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