Chapter 241: Another Strategic Mineral Resource
When Bayar and Jirigala fell into deep thought, Viduka added one more spark to the fire: "Ultimately, the problem lies in the fact that they hold 100% of the mining rights to the Talego Copper-Gold Mine!"
"Putting all the eggs in one basket is indeed risky," said Yoshida Tomoki, giving Viduka a helping hand.
Bayar and Jirigala remained silent for a long time, clearly deeply absorbed in thought.
"If I were them, I'd have countless ways to transport the copper-gold ore out of the Talego mine at the lowest possible cost."
Viduka continued murmuring by Bayar and Jirigala's ears, "I can basically guess their method. They'll build a railway with high capacity, and the copper ore will be transported without any processing. They'll report a globally low price for the copper ore, while at the same time declaring a high operational cost in their financial statements. And since the location of the Talego Copper-Gold Mine is less than a hundred kilometers away, they might even find other ways to transport the ore out without your knowledge."
With a firm and somber tone, he added, "Trust me, they will definitely do such things! They'll do anything to exploit your resources!"
Yoshida Tomoki didn't fully understand why Viduka was making such strong claims, but as a partner, he still chimed in occasionally: "Because Southern Wild Resources Co. owns 100% of the mining rights, they also possess absolute control over the mining operations. This leaves a lot of room for manipulation. Complete ownership, coupled with immense wealth, is bound to bring instability."
"But what can we do?" Bayar asked, clearly troubled. In truth, these very concerns had been discussed extensively by their senior leadership recently.
Although they hadn't taken it as far as Viduka described, the worries were generally aligned.
Ultimately, their biggest fear was that others might take away the immense wealth of the Talego Copper-Gold Mine while leaving the Meng Nation with nothing in return.
After all, the mine's rights were located within Meng territory.
"The most important thing for you now is to break up Southern Wild Resources' 100% ownership of the mine," Viduka said.
"But our mining law supports foreign companies holding full ownership," Jirigala replied, as he had always followed the law closely.
They were men of principle—without rules, everything would fall into chaos.
"If you forcibly take away part of the mine's rights from them, it would clearly be against the law. Should the other party appeal to international arbitration, you could even face sanctions. Doing so would damage your country's reputation among international investors, who would no longer be willing to invest here."
Viduka wasn't trying to incite them into illegal action. This was a misunderstanding by Bayar and Jirigala.
"You're from Lito, a company with extensive international mining experience. Tell us, in situations like this, what do you usually do?" Bayar asked sincerely.
"In the end, it all comes down to money. Money can solve any problem."
Without hesitation, Viduka revealed what he had long planned to say, "Since you can't take away the mining rights by force, you can buy them. I suggest you purchase at least 34% of the shares. That way, if the other party proposes policies that harm your interests, you'll have the power to veto them."
Bayar frowned in distress. "I once read a report saying the Talego Copper-Gold Mine is worth over 5 billion megayuan. If that's accurate, buying 34% would cost us 1.7 billion megayuan."
He gave a bitter laugh. "Clearly, we don't have the financial strength to make such a purchase."
"You can always negotiate," Viduka replied, still looking relaxed.
"From our interactions with Southern Wild Resources and Zhongcheng Mining, it's clear they are unwilling to sell any shares—especially not below market price," Bayar said with conviction. "If the price is too low, there's no way they'll part with even a single share. You must have spoken with them, so you know their attitude."
"Other people might find it difficult to get shares in the Talego Copper-Gold Mine, but you can!" Viduka said.
"What do you mean?"
"You just said they're eagerly applying for mining permits from you," Viduka said, clenching his fist and taking a strong stance. "Issuing mining permits is your sovereign responsibility!"
"According to the mining law, we're obligated to issue the permit," Bayar replied in frustration.
"You can issue it, sure. But do their application materials meet all the requirements?" Viduka gave a sly smile. "Even if you do plan to approve it, can't you delay the review process? Push it back two to three years, or even five. Let's see how anxious they get."
"That would slow down the development of the mine and hurt us as well," Bayar said, clearly conflicted. "Now that we've found the Talego Copper-Gold Mine, everyone wants to start mining as soon as possible to generate value and improve our standard of living."
"Then you must bring in strategic partners—reliable ones," Viduka said, finally revealing his intentions. "You don't have the money to acquire the mining rights, but we at Lito do! And we're wealthier and more experienced in developing large-scale mines than those people! If we can gain control of the Talego Copper-Gold Mine, we'll crush their ambitions to monopolize it!"
Even without Viduka spelling it out, Bayar was already leaning toward having a Western enterprise develop the mine.
They had often lamented how Bitoh had sold the exploration rights to Zhongcheng Mining.
"If Lito can take control of the Talego Copper-Gold Mine, it will benefit all of Meng Nation and push your country toward the ranks of developed nations," Viduka said, his eyes gleaming with the shine of fortune. "And you will gain enormous wealth!"
"Those people won't give up the mining rights so easily," Bayar muttered, picturing the young man named Li Tang in his mind. After multiple interactions, he had come to admire the young man's boldness.
"As long as you're willing to cooperate, success is guaranteed!" Viduka said with absolute confidence.
...
Li Tang waited outside the door for a long time. The sun was nearly set, but the people from Lito and Japan still hadn't come out.
They returned to their hotel.
That evening, Alice sought out a member of parliament she knew and managed to gather accurate information.
Although she didn't know why Li Tang was so interested in these unfamiliar Japanese and Lito executives, she had done her best to complete the task he assigned.
"It's confirmed. The people we ran into at the Mineral and Petroleum Bureau were Viduka, Lito's Exploration Director, and Yoshida Tomoki, Vice President of Shin-Nichi Steel under the Sanke Group."
"What are they doing here?" Li Tang asked, eager to know their intentions.
"They're here to inspect a coal project, also located in the Southern Wild Province," Alice reported. "That coal project is also called Talego, and it's located not far from our copper-gold mine."
"Talego Coal Mine…" Li Tang muttered as he sank into the sofa, lost in thought.
The two largest mineral resources in Meng Nation were both located in the Southern Wild Province and both bore the name Talego.
One was the Talego Copper-Gold Mine. The other was the Talego Coal Mine.
The two sites were about 150 kilometers apart, with the coal mine to the northwest.
Overall, both mines were located close to the border.
They were deeply connected to Li Tang's group—both were almost acquired by them, but ultimately slipped away.
The Talego Coal Mine was different. It had long been discovered, proven to be a major coal deposit, and was officially designated as a strategic resource by the Meng government.
Yet while the Talego Copper-Gold Mine had drawn global attention, the coal mine remained relatively unnoticed.
Why? Because for years, coal prices were so low they were practically worthless.
And Meng Nation only had two transport routes for its minerals: one heading north through thousands of kilometers of rail across Meng and Russia to reach coastal or Arctic routes; the other heading south.
The southern market was a "gold devourer" with rapid economic development and high demand for all kinds of ores, driving the global mining boom.
But coal was an exception. That region already had abundant coal, with the world's largest reserves.
Meng coal transported north couldn't even cover shipping costs, and southern demand was limited, except for some sales to Korea and Japan.
As a result, Meng's coal industry had been in a long "winter."
But that winter was ending. A warmer "spring" for coal mining was arriving.
Coal prices were rising and starting to show profitable trends.
At this turning point, some coal bosses were already raking in cash by the bagful.
Realizing all this, Li Tang suddenly understood why Lito and Shin-Nichi Steel had traveled so far to inspect the coal project.
As a global steel leader, Shin-Nichi Steel had a massive demand for thermal and coking coal.
They clearly wanted a secure coal supply base.
"Talego Coal Mine may be close to our site, but it doesn't impact us," Alice said, noticing how tense Li Tang had been since seeing the Lito and Japanese team.
"It's not really related," Li Tang said, exhaling and smiling warmly. "Looks like I was overthinking. If they're here for the coal, it has nothing to do with us."
"You're interested in the Talego Coal Mine's mining rights?" Alice asked, puzzled.
"I'd say the Talego Coal Mine is just as valuable as the Copper-Gold Mine," Li Tang replied.
Looking ahead, the coal mine was worth hundreds of billions of dollars—a staggering figure.
If the Copper-Gold Mine represented half of Meng's resource value, the coal mine was the other half.
Of course Li Tang was interested. But since the coal mine was under Meng control and given their guarded attitude, getting involved would require a steep price.
This was different from the copper-gold project, which was a blank slate when they first approached it. They had secured rights at low cost, with less red tape and fewer diplomatic entanglements.
"We can't compete with Lito and Shin-Nichi Steel," Alice said with concern.
"No need. Just securing the copper-gold mine is more than enough for us," Li Tang replied with a calm smile. "We already have the copper-gold mine. If we tried to get the coal mine too, Meng officials would never allow it. They guard against us like we're wolves."
"Well, if you do want to get involved with the coal mine, give me a heads-up so I can gauge the Meng leadership's attitude," Alice said, undeterred.
"There's no time for that," Li Tang laughed. Then he instructed Alice, "Book a few plane tickets to Daran. I'm heading to the project site to share the next phase of our plan. We're nearly done here. The next goal is to secure mining rights!"
"I'll go with you," Alice said eagerly.
"Why?" Li Tang vetoed immediately. "It's more useful for you to stay here and keep tabs on the Meng leadership than to follow me up into the mountains."
After Li Tang departed for Southern Wild Province, the project wrapped up in an orderly fashion.
It wasn't that all the deposits had been discovered—just the easy ones. There was still great potential in deeper areas, especially in the far northern zone.
Those discoveries would have to wait for future exploration.
Even so, the current results were enough to shock the world.
Building on last year's Phase One progress, this year's work had gone extremely smoothly.
In the far north, high-density exploration revealed major new findings.
The final survey results were astonishing:
31 million tons of copper,
1,300 tons of gold,
and 7,500 tons of silver.
Get 30% off on my Patreon and enjoy early access to new chapters.
You can also purchase the next 100 chapters of the novel directly from my Patreon page.
Hurry up! The promotion ends on February 2, 2026.
Read 40 Chapters In Advance: patreon.com/johanssen