Chapter 805 Passionate Friend (2/2)

”The production is amazing,” said Li Du.

”No, production has been falling,” Blanchette said, shaking his head. ”In fact, a dozen years ago, 95 percent of the world's black opal was produced here. The reason for the decline is that the entire mine has already been excavated.” He continued, ”An area of about 60 kilometers in Lightning Ridge has been mined. This is not an easy task.”

Li Du felt that what he said was a bit alarmist. Yesterday, he had released the little bug to search underground. Admittedly, he did not find a black opal mineral deposit, but he found that many areas were not yet explored.

”I'm going to show you this place, which is sort of an unexplored area, and it was bought by a guy who had other businesses and didn't go into development,” Blanchette continued.

He sipped his beer and added, ”Now his business seems to be in trouble. He has a capital problem and wants to sell the mine. If you want to buy a piece of land, I bet it's the best option.”

Li Du asked, ”What's this guy doing? What is the size of the mine? What price is being asked for it?”

Blanchette leaned closer to Li Du and whispered, ”Keep your voice down, Li. The sale information hasn't come out yet. Don't let anyone else know, or the price will go up.”

Li Du wondered, would it be useful if he lowered his voice? If he wanted to sell the mine, he would certainly have given Li Du the information for bidding.

However, Li Du was not familiar with this place, so he nodded and listened to Blanchette.

”His name is Chris Bontra, and he works in urban greening in Sydney. He has about 20 acres in the mine, and I think we can get it for 50,000,” he said.

That was a low price. He had seen the price of mines on Bob's laptop, and they typically cost around 50,000 an acre.

If a mine had produced a lot of gems, it was possible to sell it for hundreds of thousands per acre.

After explaining the location and conditions of the mine, Blanchette asked, ”Are you interested in buying it? If you're interested, make your decision early. If you wait, you will have to pay $800,000 or even $1 million.”

Li Du thought about it and decided to visit the mine.

Li Du was ready to leave when he ran into some people in the parking lot who had clashed with him earlier.

Li Du laughed. ”What's the matter? Still want to fight?”

Aubrey grunted. ”For the sake of buying us a drink tonight, let me tell you something. Blanchette is a shady man, don't get too close to him.”

With that, they got in the car and left.

Li Du didn't care. He returned to his hotel for a rest.

The next day, Blanchette met up with Li Du and said, ”Stop having breakfast and go to Chris. I heard from his son that he wants to release the information about selling the mine today.”

The two drove straight out of town, and about ten kilometers from the center of town, Blanchette's pickup truck drove down the road into a fenced mine.

Inside the mine was a wooden hut where a white man with a mustache was on the phone.

”D*mn, he's putting out the message. We need to move.”

Then he went up and put his arm around the mustachioed man.