The rise of nanometers

Song Zhigao's major is geological exploration, so he naturally needs to understand soil and rock analysis.

Their location is on the branch of Shaluli Mountain, and about 24 kilometers further west is the main stream of Jinsha River.

On the mountainside about 1,700 meters above sea level, drilling equipment is still roaring, drilling holes deep into the ground to take samples.

Inside the tent, a testing room has been set up. Various equipment are very advanced in China. The analysis of rock soil is fast and accurate.

Digging a tunnel is not something you can do casually or without thinking. After all, anything can happen under the thick rock formations.

Especially large mountain ranges such as Shaluli Mountain, Mangkang Mountain and Hengduan Mountains, the mountains and rock formations are very thick. If there are radioactive minerals, fault zones, underground rivers, etc. inside the mountains, you need to consider avoiding these areas.

After analyzing the soil composition on the surface, Song Zhigao recorded the conditions of these soils one by one.

The two colleagues on the side also just graduated and were fooled into coming here.

They were busy in the evening, and after a quick meal, they continued to work hard, conducting detailed analysis and testing of the stratigraphic conditions layer by layer.

The exploration team has three sets of drilling equipment in total. They drilled holes in two locations respectively, leaving one set of equipment as a backup.

"Zhigao, how is the situation over there? There are rock formations about 17 meters underground here."

Song Zhigao put down the sample in his hand: "My place is deeper, and the rock layer is 19 meters. Is it also feldspar over there?"

"Yes, it's just ordinary sodium feldspar."

A few people communicated for a while, and then continued to work.

Song Zhigao wrote down the details of the rock formations in his notebook. Today, the formation drilled to a depth of 19 to 31 meters is composed of typical ultramafic bedrock of nanofeldspar, hornblende rock, and chlorite rock.

This type of rock is commonly distributed in the Hengduan Mountains, Qilian Mountains, Kunlun Mountains, Tianshan Mountains and the Sanjiang River Basin and the Brahmaputra River Basin.

From a geographical and geological point of view, Shaluli Mountain and Mangkang Mountain are both branches of the Hengduan Mountains. The rock layers are mostly ultramafic bedrock composed of natriol, hornblende, and chlorite.

At 11:30 p.m., the roar of the drilling equipment stopped. The drillers took out 40 to 80 meters of rock and soil, marked the depth, and began to rest.

The first ray of sunlight in the morning shines on Song Zhigao's face through the transparent cloth window of the tent.

The alarm clock rang not long after. He wiped his eyes sleepily and let out a long yawn: "Ha..."

After a while, the camp became bustling with people. After washing and eating, Song Zhigao came to the tent in the testing room and continued yesterday's work.

The drilling equipment continues to drill downward.

After removing a portion of the rock and soil layer at a depth of 40 meters and gradually testing and analyzing it, Song Zhigao found that these rocks were all nanofeldspar, hornblende rock, chlorite rock, and some sediment.

Reaching the rock layer at a depth of 66 meters, when he picked up this part of the geotechnical sample, he felt something was wrong as soon as he picked it up. The weight of this sample was significantly higher than that of ordinary nanofeldspar.

After he carefully cleaned the soil, seven rocks of different sizes were exposed, and their drilling radius was 6 centimeters.

Song Zhigao showed a surprised expression when he saw the color of three of the seven rocks. The shiny emerald green came into view.

Another colleague on the side also became a little surprised and uncertain: "Zhigao, this can't be..."

After taking a deep breath, Song Zhigao ordered: "Test the ingredients and various physical properties first."

"Okay." My colleague also understood the importance of this matter.

The two tested the hardness of the stones, which reached 7.36 on the Mohs scale. The refractive index, thermal conductivity, electrical conductivity, magnetism and light transmittance, as well as the final material composition, were getting closer and closer to the answer in their hearts. .

Song Zhigao put down the test report in his hand: "The crystallization of sodium aluminum silicate melt contains color-causing ions - chromium. This is a green metamorphic dunite containing chromite."

Perhaps many people are confused by these professional terms, but if you mention another name, many people will suddenly understand.

Sodium aluminum silicate melt crystallization is the main component of jadeite rough. Although most of the sodium aluminum silicate melt crystallization is albite, also known as jadeite and water foam, which can develop into There are very few jade mines, and jade mines that can reach gem level are even rarer.

At present, there are jade mines all over the world, including Hongsawady, the United States, Lucia, Japan and Guatemala. Jade mines have also been discovered in the Kunlun Mountains in China.

However, among the jade mines in various places, except for the jade mines in Hongsawady, which can reach the gem level, the jade mines in other producing areas cannot reach the gem level.

Therefore, the global jade market is basically monopolized by Hongsawady. In recent years, as the jadeite resources in Hongsawady have gradually depleted, the local area has also begun to restrict production and control exports, pushing up the price of raw jadeite. A lot.

The three stones in Song Zhigao's hands were obviously jadeite stones that reached the gem level, and he could tell from the fractures in the jadeite stones that these three stones were not complete.

The team leader and veteran engineer Zheng Guoqiang were called.

He took out three raw jade stones and said, "Leader Huang, Gong Zheng, take a look at this."

Zheng Guoqiang, who has been working hard in the southwest for more than 20 years, saw the bright green color and immediately picked up the original jade stone. Under the strong flashlight, an obvious green light was transmitted.

"Is this jadeite?"

"Really?!" The team leader's eyes widened.

Song Zhigao took out the composition test report: "The composition is consistent with the bedrock of the jade mine, and the hardness, refractive index and other physical and chemical properties are consistent with the characteristics of the jade mine."

The team leader grabbed the report and browsed it quickly. The more he looked at it, the hotter his eyes became: "It's really hard to find anything, but we blind cats hit a dead mouse, hahaha."

"In the past, there were many mineral exploration teams who looked for jade mines in the Hengduan Mountains and Qilian Mountains, but found nothing. It seems that we are very lucky." Zheng Guoqiang also showed a smile.

The team leader walked back and forth in the tent for a while, then made a decisive decision: "We are still unsure of the scale of the underground jade mine. We will drill a few more drill holes nearby, block the news, and report to the headquarters first."

"I agree." Zheng Guoqiang nodded.

Soon, two small pieces of jadeite rough were discovered in the geotechnical samples at a depth of 66 to 80 meters in boreholes No. 1 and 2.

Today, six jadeite rough stones were discovered in the 80 to 120 meters and 120 to 160 meters of drilling.

The exploration team used spare drilling equipment to drill a hole at another location based on the trend of the formation.

I have been busy in this area for more than a week, drilled eight drill holes, and initially figured out the distribution of jade mines here.

The jadeite mine in this area is covered by a layer of albite rock of 12 to 19 meters, and the jadeite mine is buried at a depth of 57 to 241 meters.

The thickness of the vein is about 150 to 200 meters, the width is about 2 to 4 kilometers, and the length is currently only determined to be about 5 kilometers.

However, according to the judgment of a group of geological exploration team members, the length of this vein may be more than 50 kilometers.

In addition, more than half of the raw jadeite found here is of gem-grade quality. This is the second gem-grade jadeite mine in the world after Hongsawady.

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