Chapter 1166: Boring scientific research

"Brother Peng, when can I go to sea?" Qian Congcong asked Xiao Peng who was sitting on the side of the boat fishing with an anxious expression.
Xiao Peng glanced at him: "I have a camera. Whenever you want to go to sea, I will be a photographer for you!"
Qian Congcong said anxiously after hearing this: "I'm talking about going to the sea! It's going to the sea, not the going to the sea."
Xiao Peng looked indifferently: "Chinese is extensive and profound... You can wait a few more days. This ship repaired for twelve days at a stretch, and then came here for three days because of the storm and the waves that couldn't get into the water. Professor Luan was almost crazy. Now I’m chasing the progress. Then the'Warrior of the Four Seas' can only accommodate three people. Yang Meng wants to drive the submersible, and Professor Luan will bring another student. Where can I find your place? Wait slowly, you want If you are anxious, go fishing with me."
Xiaoqiu took the fishing rod: "That's right, how good fishing is now, and cultivate one's mind!"
Qian Congcong said bitterly: "I have been waiting for a week."
"All right, I see, I'll make arrangements for you later." Xiao Peng asked Xiaoqiu: "Is the umbrella anchor down?"
"Release the boss, don't worry!" Xiaoqiu nodded.
In the deep sea, ships can’t drop anchor-how can there be such a long rope? Ships can only float at sea, and if you want the ship not to float too far, you need to use a kind of "parachute anchor", which can be understood as a parachute dragged by the ship in the water, so that the resistance of the water flow is used to prevent the ship from running too far. .
"How many hours have they been down?" Xiao Peng asked.
Huang Bin looked at his watch: "Three hours!"
Xiao Peng threw the fishing rod: "How come it's only three hours? Oh my god! There are five hours! Luan Xiwu and the others are scientific research lunatics and won't be back until the last minute!"
They have been to the inspection site for a week now. Every day Yang Meng takes Professor Luan Xiwu and a student to the seabed for inspection. Xiao Peng and the others are really bored on the sea. In addition to fishing every day is fishing.
But this fishing is also very boring. Fishing in the deep sea is not as full of fish as people think. In such a place, you can only catch fish when you have passed a school of fish. Usually, there are very few fish. Obviously no school of fish has passed by these days, so Xiao Peng and the others are really bored at sea.
Let alone Qian Congcong, Xiao Peng is going to be bored to death. So he said Luan Xiwu had no good attitude.
There was a dry cough around him, Xiao Peng looked back and saw that it was Tang Seng, oh no, Tang Sheng.
"What are you coughing? I was wrong? Don't cough and cough at me like tuberculosis! You stare at your head and you won't be able to get out of the sea!" Xiao Peng said angrily.
Tang Sheng was injured in his head, so he could not go to the sea. Every day he could only wait on the boat for Professor Luan to take the other three people to the sea in turn. He only had to watch his eyes and healed his injuries every day, hoping to get better soon and go to the sea sooner. If Xiao Peng really deprived him of the right to go to sea, he would not know where to cry.
A man and a woman next to him wanted to talk, and heard Xiao Peng say something bad about Professor Luan, they wanted to help Professor Luan talk, but who made Xiao Peng the boss on this boat? If Xiao Peng doesn't approve them to go to sea, they can't go! And Xiao Peng's mood is obviously bad. Didn't you even make Tang Sheng spray him with a dry cough? They still don't want to be boring.
Xiao Peng returned to the cockpit and picked up the water sound intercom and asked, "Mengzi, what is there to find below?"
After a while, Yang Meng's voice came from the intercom: "It's still manganese nodules! Except for manganese nodules, there are manganese nodules!"
"Yes, you continue to suffer." Xiao Peng hung up the intercom and returned to the ship's side.
Qian Congcong was still very interested in the sea bottom, and said excitedly: "Are there any new discoveries below?"
Xiao Peng shrugged, "Except for manganese nodules, there are manganese nodules. Are there no new tricks?"
This manganese nodule is a very common mineral resource on the seabed. The shape is that black or dark brown potatoes are lying quietly on the bottom of the sea, and it is very easy to salvage when they encounter the manganese nodules mining area-grab a lot.
Where they are now is the manganese nodule mining area. According to the photos of the seabed taken by Professor Luan and the others, the seabed is densely packed with manganese nodules, and people with intensive phobias will have scalp tingling when they see it.
And Professor Luan and the others are now exploring the location of this manganese nodule mining area.
Is manganese nodules a good thing? Yes! But because it is so common, Xiao Peng really looks down on it!
Tang Sheng was a little anxious after hearing this: "Mr. Xiao, don't underestimate these manganese nodules! In addition to manganese and iron, they also contain twenty or thirty elements such as nickel, cobalt, copper, molybdenum, and titanium. The same is true. Because of the different substances contained in manganese nodules, there is a big difference in value. This is a very good seabed resource."
Qian Congcong blinked and asked curiously: "Is our country short of manganese?"
Xiao Peng shook his head: "There is no shortage of this stuff. Our country has the third highest manganese content in the world, almost everywhere. So I am not interested at all."
Qian Congcong was also disappointed after hearing this.
As a result, Tang Sheng quickly explained: "Mr. Xiao, although our country says that there are many manganese ore, but there is also a lot of manganese demand. Our country has developed infrastructure, and manganese steel is used everywhere, including weapons. We also need a lot of manganese steel. Although there is no shortage of manganese ore in the country, compared with the manganese nodules in Haiti, it is drizzle! Let me just say that. Maybe the manganese content of a manganese-rich nodule mine we encountered exceeds the total content of all manganese ore in China! This is a good material reserve! And there are other elements in the manganese nodules. Depending on the elements contained, the value of the manganese nodules is also great. Besides, the manganese nodules are mainly composed of ferromanganese, which solves the problem. The country’s iron gap is a very valuable mineral resource."
Xiao Peng shrugged: "That's right, this is a resource that is cheap and in great demand. But I'm really not interested."
The biggest role of manganese is to add steel to make manganese steel.
This manganese steel is also very interesting. If you add about 3% of manganese to the steel, it is called low-manganese steel. The steel made like that is brittle like glass, and it will shatter with a light tap; but if you add more than 13% of manganese Made of high manganese steel, the steel will become hard and tough again! Moreover, it is not magnetic, so wear-resistant components such as rails, bridges, buckets and ball bearings of bulldozers and excavators are all made of high manganese steel. The alloy made of steel, manganese and nickel is the raw material used to make precision electrical instruments. Therefore, manganese steel is an extremely important alloy.
Steel manufacturing is a very rigorous and important science. For example, those protagonists in Traverse novels can make steel when they return to ancient times, just look at them, unless the protagonist was a professional steel mill engineer before crossing, otherwise he really couldn’t do it.
Tang Sheng said: "According to our sampling and inspection during this period, we found that the manganese nodules here are cobalt-rich manganese nodules with a large amount of copper inside. This is a very good element combination. We are now making sure that this is Not all manganese nodules are constructed this way."
"Cobalt?" Xiao Peng blinked, "Well, I understand why Professor Luan is so active."
Qian Congcong asked, "Brother Peng, what does this mean?"
Xiao Peng explained: "Our country lacks cobalt, and all this stuff is imported."
Qian Congcong asked, "What is the use of this cobalt?"
Xiao Peng said concisely: "'Petroleum for new energy vehicles' is the raw material for making batteries. However, this kind of resource is too concentrated, and it is only available in a limited number of countries, of which Congo (DRC) accounts for the world's proven Half of the reserves. 97% of our country’s cobalt imports are from Congo (DRC)."
Qian Congcong nodded and said, "I know that the Chinese people went to the Congo (Kinshasa) to mine mines. I have a friend who mines there and made a lot of money. But I heard that this year is not very good."
Xiao Peng stretched out his thumb: "That should be to develop cobalt mines. This year, the price of cobalt has plummeted, so the profit is not very good."
There are very few reports about the country of Congo in China. People hear the impression that it is very poor and chaotic, and there is a country next to it called Congo, but what people don’t know is that the eight major mining giants in China are in fact. The Democratic Republic of Congo has its own industry.
This is because almost the entire country of the Democratic Republic of Congo is built on an open-pit mine! Local people mining directly collect ore from the surface, there is no need to dig any mine!
In recent years, some bold Chinese people went to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Many Chinese people went to Africa with tens of thousands or even thousands of dollars, and went straight to the village to buy ores hand-picked by the locals, and then sold them. For mining and smelting plants, the profit is calculated by more than ten times! Many people broke out to become rich in this way. Once there was a Zhejiang businessman who entered the Democratic Republic of Congo with 150,000 U.S. dollars, and his profit reached 200 million renminbi two years later.
Of course, this is also based on risk. In the so-called'wealth and wealth, you can only see the winners,' and there are still many cannon fodder who have lost their lives and even lost their lives.
The local security situation is relatively bad. When every Chinese person arrives in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the embassy will remind them not to go out alone to reduce the number of outings. Almost everywhere, all the factories of Huaxia Enterprises are surrounded by walls like prisons.
In fact, the price of this cobalt mine was still very low ten years ago, because cobalt was originally used in manufacturing, but due to the saturation of demand, the price plummeted. One ton is about two hundred thousand. But at the end of 2016, new energy vehicle batteries began to use ternary lithium batteries, again requiring a large amount of cobalt, so within a year, the price soared to 700,000 per ton! Those cobalt-producing countries are all looking profitable, and they have increased the amount of cobalt mining, resulting in supply exceeding demand. In addition, various battery manufacturers have developed high-nickel batteries to reduce the demand for cobalt. In the end, the price of cobalt plummeted again, but now it costs more than 300,000 per ton.
If there are really cobalt-rich manganese nodules here, it will attract many mining groups to come and mine, but Xiao Peng is really not interested.
There is no other reason: I don’t like it!