Iron ore

In the morning Xiao Li’s business partner took Xiao Li and me to the mountains on the outskirts of town where they have their iron ore place. We drove up a very stony road that had me fearing our small van would tip over or just die, until we reached a large deposit of red earth that contained the said iron ore. A few minutes later a man arrived from higher up the road on a motorbike and Xiao Li and I both climbed aboard. A few yards later we had to stop as the bike just wouldn’t take three men over such an uneven and stony surface. So Xiao Li went and I stayed behind with the business parter.

I learned that he is the boss of an iron ore extraction company (I have no idea what Xiao Li is) and that Xiao Li was going to inspect where they actually dig out the iron ore from. Every day lorries drive up to that place to be loaded with the earth that they have got from the mountainside by using explosives. The lorries then drive down to the place where we were standing and unload the earth, where it is then washed using pressurised water drawn from a nearby lake, leaving just the iron ore. Then this iron ore is taken down the rest of the mountain and sold to local factories.

A load of iron ore waiting to be washed.

The boss told me he makes 100,000 kuai a month from this, which is about £65000. I found it hard to believe and asked him how many men he employed – he said five. He hires the lorries and they get about ten tons of iron ore a day apparently. And of course there’s no factory to maintain – everything’s there on the mountain. He just sits at home and counts the money most of the time.