Black Gold 1983

Chapter 10 Policy Dividends

Renye stared at the illegally mined shaft, half-covered by weeds, his mind racing with calculations.

It is February 1983 in the Gregorian calendar. The weather is freezing cold, and the policies are also frozen solid.

The state has explicitly prohibited private coal mining, and illegal mining is subject to severe crackdown. These mining rats hide in abandoned mining areas and steal coal. Once caught by the mine security department or the commune police station, they will be punished in various ways, from having their tools confiscated and being fined and detained to being prosecuted for damaging national mineral resources. They would not be wronged to go to jail.

If I were to touch this coking coal now, I'd lose everything, including my tools and all my legal mining rights. I'd be no different from those petty thieves.

It won't be more than two months before the weather warms up and policies are relaxed.

If Renye remembers correctly, in April 1983, in order to rapidly develop energy production and alleviate the energy shortage problem, the Ministry of Coal Industry proposed the "Report on Eight Measures to Accelerate the Development of Small Coal Mines," officially opening up mining to the public and allowing communes, collectives, and individuals to raise funds for mining.

The policy advocated is: "Large mines should be developed on a large scale, small mines on a small scale, and water should be used quickly."

By then, private mining will no longer be a pipe dream, and this coking coal, covered by the fault, will be able to be mined openly and legally.

In his previous life, he made his fortune in coal mining, so in this life he naturally has to start from the same old business.

If you want to earn enough money for "three turns and one sound" within three months, you have to start with the mine in front of you.

But this can't be rushed.

To start mining, two problems need to be solved first:

I. Start-up capital.

II. Mining rights.

Without money or power, having plans is utterly useless.

I'm currently penniless, so I have to start looking for resources and connections.

First, we need to meet with the village party secretary and village officials of Shigou Village to clarify the matter.

Back then, the Hongxing Mine used land in Shigou Village for mining. They signed a five-year agreement, and the compensation was paid in full. According to regulations, the mine did not have any problems.

But now the well is sealed off, the land has collapsed into wasteland, crops can't be grown, and the contract can't be renewed when it expires. This kind of thing is common around the mining area. Trying to get money back from the mine is hopeless and can't be resolved.

But if the mine can be reopened, the situation will be different.

After all, even though the land is abandoned, the coal underground is still there.

When the time comes, the village collective will take the lead and unite farmers to raise funds to run the mine. Everyone will have work to do and money to share. The losses from the subsidence can be gradually recovered from the coal. This is a hundred times more reliable than waiting idly to ask for compensation.

In this way, the problem of start-up capital can be solved.

If an agreement can be reached with Shigou Village, then the remaining issue is resolving the 'mining rights' problem.

This matter is complicated in some ways, and simple in others.

Although the West No. 2 mining area has been sealed off, production has stopped, and compensation has ceased, this land is still within the mining area of ​​Hongxing Mine, which is under the jurisdiction of Jincheng Mining Bureau, in terms of law, resources, and administration.

This isn't a matter of principle; it's simply how the system is structured.

Coal mining areas are "legal territories" allocated by the state to mining bureaus.

Unless the state issues an official document to reclaim, transfer, or cancel the land, regardless of whether the mine has been mined, how easy or difficult it is to mine, or whether it has collapsed, the land will always belong to the mining bureau.

To put it bluntly, although this land belongs to Shigou Village, the mining rights are decided by the Jincheng Mining Bureau.

Even if we manage to persuade the villagers of Shigou Village to collectively establish a mine, if the mining bureau refuses to grant mining rights, it will all be for nothing.

However, the document to be issued in April clearly stipulates that within state-owned mines, the mining bureau or state-owned mine should make unified plans, and any marginal coal that cannot be mined by large mines or residual coal left over from mining can be allocated to small coal mines for mining.

However, the mining area of ​​small coal mines is strictly prohibited from encroaching on the main mining fields of state-owned mines, and must not hinder the normal production and safety of large mines.

Simply put, the marginal coal areas that state-owned mines cannot exploit should not be kept indefinitely; they can be allocated to smaller coal mines for exploitation, thereby increasing productivity.

This West No. 2 mining area is a marginal coal area under the Hongxing Mine.

The so-called marginal coal areas are "fragmented coal, leftover coal, and residual coal" that large mines don't want, that are not cost-effective to mine in a regular way, and that are left on the edge of the mining area or in the gaps of the goaf.

To put it bluntly, it's just leftovers from the big mines – the leftovers, the leftover vegetables, the leftover bones.

However, Renye knew very well that the 460,000 tons of coking coal buried underneath were not scraps or waste materials at all.

-

Therefore, before the policy was officially issued, Renye not only had to persuade Shigou Village to jointly run the mine, but also had to write down in detail the location and geological conditions of the West No. 2 mining area, as well as the feasibility of mining only the corner residual coal without affecting the normal production and safety of Hongxing Mine.

Once the policy is relaxed in April, the village committee and commune will first stamp the documents, then the Jincheng Mining Bureau will be asked for their "boundary demarcation" approval. After that, the documents will be submitted to the municipal and county-level coal management departments for approval and permits. Only then can the mining of this area be carried out legally and compliantly.

As for these mining rats... Renye glanced at the rats tied up at the pit entrance. Although they had found the right coal seam, they didn't understand the geological depth, let alone the policy direction.

Once he completes the legal procedures, this illegally mined shaft can be easily modified to function as a ventilation shaft, safety exit, or auxiliary material discharge shaft.

Renye had just finalized his plan when he suddenly felt a chill on the back of his neck!

It's not the wind.

But someone is behind it all!

He tried to turn around abruptly, but was struck hard on the back of the head.

It wasn't a punch, but a blow to the head, with astonishing force, causing Renye to see stars.

"boom--"

Renye staggered a step, his body went limp, and he collapsed to the ground like a lump of mud.

Before losing consciousness, he vaguely heard someone talking.

"Who is this?"

"I don't know him, he's from another village, right?"

"Whoever it is, get them out of here first."

"Take it down?"

"If he runs off to the mine and reports back, are we still going to be in business?"

"Then... what if we take it down?"

"Keep him locked up for now, we'll talk about it after we figure out the details."

Renye tried to struggle, but his hands and feet wouldn't obey him at all, and he had no strength at all.

Darkness surged up like a tide, not slowly creeping in, but crashing down on him, pulling him down into a deep, dark place, so that he couldn't even scream.

-

I don't know how much time has passed.

It might take half an hour, it might take a day, or it might just be a blink of an eye.

Renye's consciousness seemed to sink into an abyss, floating and sinking in the darkness.

The first thing to recover was the sense of smell.

The damp, musty air, mixed with the smell of coal dust and a strong stench of urine, assaulted his nostrils, making him gag.

Then comes hearing.

There was the sound of water dripping, one drop at a time, slowly and steadily, hitting the stone with a soft patter, like a countdown.

When Renye opened his eyes, everything was pitch black, and he couldn't see anything.

He moved his hands and feet and found that his wrists were tied with ropes. The rough hemp ropes dug into his flesh and burned painfully.

His feet were also tied up, tightly bound, making it impossible for him to move.

My head was still throbbing with pain. I touched it and it felt sticky! Damn, I'm bleeding! Luckily, not much.

Renye took a deep breath and didn't rush to shout, but instead calmed himself down.

What kind of situation hasn't he seen in his past life? Back when he first started working in the coal mines, he had fought with others for resources, been cornered in his office with a knife to his neck, and been beaten up by his own men. He had experienced things ten times more dangerous than this, so this little situation wasn't enough to make him panic.

Looking around, the place wasn't big; it must be the pit we'd just been in.

Just as he was getting a feel for his surroundings, he heard footsteps overhead.

It wasn't just one person, it was several.

There were people talking, their voices muffled, carried through the soil, not very clear, but you could tell they were arguing.

Renno pricked up his ears, trying hard to catch those sounds.

"...We can't let them go! If they let them go and report to the mine, we're all finished!"

"But we can't just lock people up down there! What if someone dies? That would be a legal problem!"

"Get sued? Mining coal isn't considered getting sued? Stealing coal from a state-owned mine, you'll be sentenced if you're caught!"

"But you can't kill someone! That's illegal!"

"Who said I killed him? I only hit him once, he won't die!"

"So what do we do now? We can't just keep it locked up forever, can we?"

"Keep it locked up for now, let me think about it."

"Think about it? What are you talking about! I told you we shouldn't have done this in the first place, but you wouldn't listen!"

"What's the point of saying all this now! The deed's already done!"

The arguing continued for a while, then fell silent.

Renye realized there were at least three people, and possibly four.

The voices were all young, with local accents, and they were from either Shigou Village or some nearby village.

He leaned against the wall at the bottom of the pit, closed his eyes, and his mind raced.

The argument between these individuals illustrates one thing: they are not on the same page.

Some people are ruthless and want to go to extremes. Others are timid and afraid of causing death.

This internal disagreement is his greatest opportunity.

Furthermore, the fact that they didn't kill themselves to silence them shows that these mining rats weren't quite at the level of desperados.

Ultimately, they were just a few farmers who wanted to get rich, not professional criminals.

Such people have weaknesses.