Riding the wind of rebirth

Chapter 1725 A Complementary Relationship

At this moment, Xia Mili felt that Zhou Zhi's decision to extend the contract from one year to three years was so wise.

I even felt extremely fortunate.

Because the words in the poem by poet Cen Shen, "Snow falls in the eighth month in the Hu sky," are not false. Now it is the end of June and there is almost no time left for mining.

If the contract is signed for one year, it is absolutely impossible to complete the mining of this newly discovered new vein before the end of the contract period according to the normal mining progress.

Next year, some people will definitely want to take advantage of the situation, but it is still unknown whether the contract can be renewed.

If that were to happen, the only way out would be to increase the mining rate and dig out as much jade as possible in a limited time.

The only thing we can do now is to continue adding explosives.

If that were the case, it would be difficult to obtain large pieces of raw materials. Judging from the results of the current explosion, the largest amount of mineral material that can be obtained is less than 100 kilograms, and the smallest is only 100 grams.

Xia Mili immediately took the batch of scraps to Urumqi, asked the Institute of Fine Arts to identify them, and called Zhou Zhi to tell him the good news.

Zhou Zhi immediately told Xia Mili that violent mining was no longer allowed, and also told Li Qiyan the news.

As a patriotic businessman in Hong Kong, Li Qiyan is very popular among high-level officials. When he came forward to tell others that he was waiting for this batch of jade materials to be shipped, it showed that someone at the top was keeping an eye on this matter, and it would be unlikely for him to engage in any shady operations.

As long as everything goes according to the contract, Zhou Zhi certainly has nothing to fear.

The quality of this batch of jade materials is very high. After a round of price increases, the old mine materials at that time could only be sold for 30 to 81 kilograms. However, for this batch of about 100 kilograms of materials, the price given by Gongmei is 500 to 800 per kilogram!

The sky-high price of an average of 651 kilograms immediately excited the entire Hetian jade circle.

  The Autonomous Region Arts and Crafts Institute also announced the characteristics of this jade material: when it is still raw material, it will be slightly green, but after carving and polishing, it will magically turn white. It is warm, delicate, white, and oily, which is even difficult to match by many first-class seed materials. It is the best mountain material in the history of modern Hetian jade mining, which can be proven by records!

The reason is that although this jade vein is very small, it is the core extension of the main vein. The bloodline from the main vein makes the jade material usually very good, with a dense structure, fat white and perfect.

Zhou Zhi knew that this must be the small mineral vein called "95 Hotan", because no similar quality minerals had been mined in the entire production area since then, and it became the "last glory".

Zhou Zhi estimated that the 8,000 kilograms of jade mined was due to excessive losses caused by violent mining. If the vein had been properly developed over more than two years, more jade would have been obtained.

If calculated based on 10,000 kilograms, the total price of this batch of materials should be around 7 or 8 million. After deducting various mining expenses, there can be a profit of 4 to 5 million.

Zhou Zhi really didn't care about this little profit. He was even prepared to give all the profits to Xia Mili, asking him to recruit more teams and mine the jade veins as well as possible as soon as possible.

Because Zhou Zhi knew to what extent people were chasing after the "95 Yutian material" in the previous life, by the end of 96, this batch of jade materials had been basically sold out, and the price would soar to a maximum of yuan per kilogram.

In another twenty years, the price of Hetian jade materials with obvious state standards, or with quality close to "95 Yutian", will exceed 95 yuan per gram. In other words, this batch of jade materials will eventually become luxury goods with a total value of more than billion yuan, and this is developed on its own without the hype of Hong Kong people.

Now with the participation of people from Hong Kong Island and even the "Confucian cultural radiation zones" of Japan and South Korea, it is scary to think about how the market for Hetian jade will end up.

It’s hard to say whether the grade of Hetian jade will develop to the same level as top-grade jadeite, but Zhouzhi is looking forward to it.

This news certainly made Zhu Qinghong very happy. The craftsmen’s pursuit of processing materials can be said to be the most obsessed. Although many masters are good at "turning decay into magic" and processing the original defects on some materials into the finishing touch, there is still a prerequisite, that is, these defects were originally attached to the best materials. Only such defects are worth the masters' effort.

If masters were faced with a pile of rotten materials and asked to carve out a fine piece of work, they would most likely just shake their heads and say “rotten wood cannot be carved”.

Zhou Zhi wanted to swallow all the 8,000 kilograms of jade and put them in a safe warehouse, but it was neither possible nor realistic. China is a huge society with favors based on each other, which allows you to get the news in advance that the government is opening up abandoned mines to individual contracting, but of course it also prevents you from eating alone.

For example, the Autonomous Region Arts and Crafts Company, the Autonomous Region Jade Carving Factory, and the Suzhou Jade Carving Factory, these units that have had pleasant dealings with Zhouzhi would come over even if they thought about it with their toes.

The most Zhou Zhi can do is to ensure that he can keep the best quality jade materials in his hands, and the remaining considerable portion can only be distributed through Xia Mili, with priority given to selling to partners.

Even though he knew that the craftsmanship of XJ Arts and Crafts and the Autonomous Region Jade Carving Factory was not worthy of the future value of these jade materials, there was nothing he could do.

If he took the initiative to tell others that this batch of materials would become a treasure worth thousands or tens of thousands of dollars per gram in the future, everyone would just think he was a lunatic.

He simply shook his head to get rid of these thoughts and discussed with Zhu Qinghong the current reality and the problem of how to ship the cherry red stone that had been sent over.

To explain the difference between persimmon red and cherry red in one sentence, persimmon red looks like a tomato, while cherry red is just like its name, like a cherry.

The difference lies in the "water head" of their textures, that is, the transparency.

Zhu Qinghong also excitedly told Zhou Zhi that the cherry red material after polishing, like jadeite with good water content, has the effect of "sticking".

Many transparent or translucent mineral crystals have a characteristic: they are not purely transparent like crystal, but have a "glue" feeling. Although transparent, they have a fluorescent or gelatinous feeling. If it is more obvious, they will even form cat's eyes and starbursts.

Regardless of which state it is, the reason is that there are tiny, invisible crystal arrangements inside the mineral. These crystals can change the propagation path of light after it enters the mineral, and will be reflected to the human eye and produce different perceptions.

This feeling is very important, especially for minerals with bright background colors. It can play a "beautifying role" and enable people to distinguish the details of the mineral surface more clearly.

This property has both advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is of course that it can better show the carving work, and it can also make the polished gems or carvings more beautiful.

The disadvantage is that it will magnify defects. It is difficult for natural raw materials to be perfect, so the processing of such minerals requires very high requirements for the minerals themselves. If it is a carving, how to use design and techniques to "carve cleverly to avoid cracks" and handle defects so that no one can see them is a must for every craftsman.

This type of material is generally very valuable, and has extremely high requirements for design and craftsmanship. It can best reflect the extraordinary value of "master craftsmanship". The two complement each other.