60: Professor Zhang and his delegation arrived in Dahe Township.

Qin Chuan went to the provincial capital; basically, only a few township leaders were aware of it, while other general cadres and staff knew very little.

Everyone realized that they didn't seem to see Secretary Qin Chuan.

Where did Secretary Qin go?

Gradually, the news started to spread.

It turned out that Secretary Qin Chuan had gone to the provincial capital with the goal of inviting a team of experts to come over and prepare for a comprehensive exploration of the Jiucailing Coal Mine.

The first and second days were fine, with not many people discussing it. By the third day, the entire Dahe Township gradually became lively, and many people were talking about it.

"Does the Jiucailing Coal Mine really need a comprehensive re-exploration? Wouldn't it be fine to just continue mining according to the current model?"

"That's where you don't understand. As far as I know, there has never been a comprehensive exploration of this coal mine to date. It is very necessary to conduct a comprehensive and in-depth scientific exploration!"

"Right, right, right. I also feel that Secretary Qin Chuan's line of thinking is correct. What if there are surprise discoveries?"

"Experts have come to conduct field inspections before, but they didn't conduct a comprehensive exploration. That expert said that the reserves of the Jiucailing Coal Mine could be as high as tens of millions of tons!"

"The reserves are that large? If there really are tens of millions of tons, then our Dahe Township will be able to completely turn things around!"

"..."

By the time Qin Chuan returned to Dahe Township, it was already afternoon.

He took the train back to Sanjiang County, had lunch in the county, and then went to the offices of County Party Secretary Cao Zhengwang and County Magistrate Zhang Yuansong to sit for a while and report on the situation.

Upon returning to Dahe Township, he heard quite a few people chatting about the Jiucailing Coal Mine and couldn't help but smile slightly. It seemed that many people were full of expectations for this coal mine.

Entering his office, he had just sat down for a few minutes when Director Hu Qibin, who must have heard that he had returned, immediately came over.

"Secretary, you are back."

Qin Chuan said, "You came at a great time. Tomorrow afternoon, the expert team from the Provincial Coalfield Geological Exploration Team will arrive at our Dahe Township. You need to prepare for the reception work..."

Both sides had already agreed that Professor and Chief Engineer Cheng Weijia would lead his technical team to arrive first tomorrow afternoon. Afterward, a large number of exploration workers and a massive amount of exploration equipment would arrive in Dahe Township one after another to conduct a comprehensive exploration of the Jiucailing Coal Mine.

With so many people coming, it was definitely necessary to do a good job with the reception and arrange their food, accommodation, and transportation, etc.

"Secretary, rest assured, leave this work to me." Director Hu Qibin said confidently.

Then, like many others, he was also full of hope for the Jiucailing Coal Mine and asked, "Leader, what will the reserves of our coal mine be like? Are they really quite large? Many people outside are saying that the reserves might be as high as tens of millions of tons!"

Qin Chuan smiled.

He thought to himself, what are tens of millions of tons? Its reserves could be as high as one billion tons.

One billion tons!

What kind of concept is that? It wasn't just a golden rice bowl, but a golden mountain, a huge golden mountain.

With such high coal reserves, Dahe Township would be overflowing with wealth!

However, because the exploration hadn't started yet, Qin Chuan didn't say anything about the reserves being as high as one billion tons, but instead said, "Let's hope so. I hope the reserves are truly in the tens of millions."

Seeing that the leader had said so, that the reserves might be in the tens of millions, Director Hu Qibin was slightly excited!

Secretary Qin had returned from the provincial capital!

The office gradually became lively. The township leaders all came over to sit for a while, report on the work of the past few days, and chat about the Jiucailing Coal Mine.

Ma Zhengnan also came over.

In addition to reporting on the work of the past two days, he focused on reporting the construction situation of the Central School.

"Secretary, the progress of our Central School is very smooth. The pile foundations for the teaching building have been basically completed, and we are now starting to pour the concrete..."

After hearing the report, a sentence came to Qin Chuan's mind: whether the project progress is fast or not depends entirely on the situation of the project funds from the Party A. If the project funds are in place, the speed can take off!

"Let's go. Let's go to the Central School together to take a look."

Not long after, Qin Chuan arrived at the Central School.

It was bustling with activity here, a scene of busyness!

The pile foundations of the teaching building were basically completed. Each pile foundation was over a meter in diameter and twenty to thirty meters deep. The steel bars had been inserted, and the concrete was being poured. At the latest, it would all be finished by tomorrow.

The student dormitory building and the teacher dormitory building had also finished their markings. Several pile drivers stood tall, digging the holes for the pile foundations.

In another ten days or so, the students would all be on summer vacation. By then, they could go all out with construction, and it would look different every day; the project progress would be even faster.

...

Professor and Chief Engineer Cheng Weijia and his group of more than ten people arrived in Dahe Township as scheduled.

This was the technical team. Dozens of exploration workers, as well as a large amount of exploration equipment, would arrive one after another starting tomorrow and the day after.

On the second day after arriving in Dahe Township, Professor and Chief Engineer Cheng Weijia took the initiative to propose starting work. Qin Chuan personally took them to the Jiucailing Coal Mine.

The distance was not far, only four or five kilometers.

The mountain of Jiucailing was not very large; it was only two or three hundred meters from the foot to the top. The coal mine was located in an open area at the foot of the mountain.

Because Wang Jun had an accident and the contracting contract was about to expire, this coal mine was currently in a semi-shutdown state. Many workers were on leave, and the coal mine appeared relatively quiet.

In the coal mine storage yard, pitch-black coal was piled into a small hill. There were only a few large trucks loading coal, which was completely different from the usual situation where there were long queues.

Professor and Chief Engineer Cheng Weijia looked over the coal mine and immediately had an idea in his mind. He estimated that the daily coal output was at most one thousand tons, with an annual output of about two or three hundred thousand tons; it could only be considered a small coal mine.

Such a coal mine would not have very large reserves, perhaps a few million tons, or a little over ten million tons.

Thus, he shook his head slightly.

Thinking of the bet agreement and looking at Qin Chuan beside him, he couldn't help but smile. He was sure to win these millions in exploration fees.

After standing there and looking over the coal mine, Professor and Chief Engineer Cheng Weijia looked at the coal storage yard not far away, his gaze resting on the pile of coal that was almost like a small hill, enough for several thousand tons.

Looking at this coal, he couldn't help but step forward and say, "Let's go. Let's go take a look at the quality of the coal from this mine first."

They were all experts.

Even without instruments and equipment, just relying on the naked eye and experience, they could get a pretty accurate idea.

What the coal quality was like, whether it was good or not, could basically be seen. In addition to the coal quality, many other things could also be seen, such as the era when this coal was formed, what the coal deposit was roughly like, and so on.

Thus, the group walked to the coal storage yard and arrived in front of this pile of coal.

Professor and Chief Engineer Cheng Weijia, as a professor and also the Chief Engineer of the Provincial Coalfield Geological Exploration Team, didn't mind the dirt at all; he directly picked up a piece of coal and began to examine it seriously.

Gradually, his expression changed.

Everyone noticed this change, and a doctoral student he was leading asked, "Mentor, what is it?"

Professor and Chief Engineer Cheng Weijia's tone was slightly excited, "You all, take a look at this coal!"