Chapter 831: One More Mine
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
In the end, Li Du decided to accept Aubrey and the other men.
Since he had come to Lightning Ridge, the mining was mainly done by Godzilla and Brother Wolf. Godzilla was fine, but Brother Wolf was his bodyguard, so mining was not suitable for him.
Of course, Li Du paid them a huge salary, and Brother Wolf enjoyed the work. However, Li Du himself could not enjoy it. He also participated in mining activities, but he was very tired. If someone could work for him, then he would be free to do other things instead of mining.
As for his secret? This problem was easy to solve. He could arrange for Aubrey and the others to carry out the initial excavation of the mine, and when it came to the gems, Godzilla and Brother Wolf could take over.
He considered that Godzilla and Brother Wolf were amateurs in the gem mining industry, while Aubrey and the others were professionals. Naturally, they should be better at digging tunnels. Plus, the pay for the eight of them was less, which was the main reason he had taken over.
The salary of the eight miners, including Aubrey, was less than $60,000 a month. As a leader, Aubrey had higher pay, which was $8,000 per month, while the others were paid $6,000 per month.
Li Du felt that the miners’ salaries were quite low, and that the job was very tiring. They stayed underground all day and were under great mental pressure, but they earned less than $10,000.
According to industry rules, the miner’s owner was required to pay a tenth of the proceeds as a bonus, so the only thing the miners could hope for was that they dug out more gems. Most of the mines didn’t have any gems. It could be that only one or two gems might be dug out about every one or two months, so the miners often had no bonus income and had to rely on basic wages.
Marcos’ party was still going on as dawn was breaking, but Li Du and Sophie were a little sleepy, so they left the bar early.
Two days later, Li Du heard that Marcos had put his three mines up for sale. The miners said Marcos had been scared out of his wits by the accident. Li Du knew, however, that he was not frightened by the mine disaster, but he had thought about a lot of things while he was underground.
What do you want to pursue? Thinking of Marcos, he began to think of the question himself. The gems had been dug out of the ground. The 408 mine had only one vein, and there were several scattered gems. Li Du did not want to dig those. Their distribution was too scattered, and their quality was also general, not even worth the cost of labor to dig them out.
There was nothing to do. He sat at the door of his cabin enjoying the Australian autumn sun. Inland Australia was still quite warm. However, when he spoke to Hans, he said it was cold and almost snowing along the coast. He wanted to stop harvesting black gold abalone and come to the mainland to meet Li Du. However, the sea woman had a method of coping with the low water temperature, and she kept diving as usual.
However, because it was now the forbidden season for black gold abalone, the price of fresh black gold abalone was very high in the international market, so Hans had to stay with the sea woman and continue to catch black gold abalone.
Thinking about these things, Li Du realized his dream now was to make money, then buy a stake in the Winston group and make good use of the little bug’s ability.
He was basking in the sun when Ah Ow, who was hiding in the shade, raised her head as her ears pricked up in alert. Several pickup trucks pulled into the mine. A group of big men got out and stood and looked at Li Du from a distance. There were eight of them, including Aubrey, and Li Du whistled to them to come over.
With the eight big men pushing and shoving, no one wanted to walk forward. Li Du felt a little strange and asked, “What’s the matter? Are you all not willing to work with me?”
“No, Boss Li. Don’t get us wrong. We… we are embarrassed, and the situation is kind of awkward,” Holiday said with an lopsided smile.
Li Du laughed. “What is there to embarrassed about? We fought together, and we dug you up from the collapsed mine, didn’t we?”
Aubrey laughed but did not answer.
To make a long story short, Li Du asked the eight people if they would like to work under him. Eight of them nodded. Marcos had spent the last two days disposing of the tools in the mine, dissolving their team, and was now waiting to sell the mine and leave Lightning Ridge. If they didn’t follow Li Du, there would be nowhere else to go.
Li Du’s rivals had never been stingy. Eight of them offered to work with him after he said, “I will ask someone to take you to sign the contract. In terms of salary, I will offer you 20% over the basic salary you were paid before.”
“Really?” Aubrey asked delightedly.
Li Du nodded and said, “Yes, this is a probationary period. If you get through the probationary period, I will double your basic salary after that.”
“This must be a joke. This can’t be true!” Holiday exclaimed.
“It’s true, but I have the condition that you work for me with a basic salary and bonus that is not tied to the minerals you dig up,” Li Du said.
“Aren’t you afraid that we’ll do nothing?” Holiday asked, puzzled.
Li Du said, “I’m not afraid. I will fire those who do not work. In addition, the bonus I mentioned does not relate to the ore you dig, but that does not mean that you if dig the ore, I will not pay you the bonus, either.
“You have two ways of working. One is that I look for gems, and you come and work for me, but the gems have nothing to do with you guys. The other way is that you use your experience to find the gems, and when you dig out the gems, you still get the bonus.”
He had been thinking for the last two days about how to pay the eight people. The way Li Du found gems, neither Brother Wolf nor Godzilla got a 10% bonus, so how would these eight miners get one?
The eight did not know what he was capable of, so they laughed at his words and readily agreed.
The next step was to continue the search for a mine. No mining value had been found in the 408 mine, so Li Du was ready to sell it. He went to the trading floor to look for the mines that were up for sale, and then went to the mines to do a field trip.
He was lucky enough to spend two days exploring four quarries, and then he discovered another vein. The vein was richer in gemstones than the previous mines, but the gems were deeper underground, where it would take a lot of digging.
Li Du had hired eight new employees just in time, and it was now their turn to work.
Brother Wolf and Godzilla were promoted. Godzilla became the foreman, and Brother Wolf could concentrate on being Li Du’s bodyguard. When the miners got close to the vein, Brother Wold and Godzilla could take over and dig it again.
The mine was number 122, only two mines’ distance from Blanchett’s mine. However, Li Du’s concern was not Blanchett, but rather, his neighbors.
