New place to wash iron ore

I normally tell Xiao Li I need to do some work when he asks me to go to his work with him, but as I haven’t gone for some time, I thought I’d go after lunch. The last time I went was two weeks ago in the baking sun, while we stood in a maize field waiting for the owner to turn up to see if we could do some business deal.

That day I found out that the place in the mountains where they wash the iron ore, in preparation for selling to the factories, was no longer usable as the lake there had dried up. They needed a new place to wash the ore where the water would be plentiful.

Well, that day, two weeks ago was part of the plan. We eventually met the owner of a plot of land that had been used for growing maize, but was situated, conveniently, a hundred yards from the main river that flows from Pingguo (and continues to Nanning, and eventually to the sea). A few words were spoken, and I understood that we were to start washing the iron ore in this place instead of in the mountain.

So I was quite surprised to see a half built wall around an area nearly the size of a football pitch when I arrived. More than that, there was about 100 tons of iron ore awaiting washing, plus some women digging out the foundations for a new house on this plot.

They had taken this seriously. Xiao Li had paid the owner of the land for three years. The area was to be walled off, and have a couple of inhabitants in order to keep non-desirables away. A three metre deep pool was to be excavated and pumped full of water from the nearby river. I asked when the house would be ready (I gave the women a hand digging the holes for the foundation stones) and was told “five days”. I asked when the whole thing would be ready and was told “ten days”. I was surprised but believed these figures. And I will be here long enough to confirm them.

One thing is for sure, they get things done here. I presume there isn’t a lot of governmental interference, or employment laws they have to follow. We just paid the four women digging the house a few hundred kuai (works out to £1.80 a day), and those building the wall get twice that, then spent the rest of the time checking the work. I was encouraged to tell them to “kuai yi dian!!” (“hurry up!!”), but I could only do so in a laughing manner, although I did go around the workers and ask them how they were doing and what methods they were using to build the wall (they think I’m their boss).

So now I know what Xiao Li has been doing recently: overseeing the work on a new place to wash and distribute their iron ore. Ingenious! They’ll be able to produce five to ten times more than previously at not much more cost.

Lao Tao surveying the new premisis.

A woman digging the foundations of a new house that will take five days to build. She will have earned under a tenner in that time.