KEO.PLUS

The trip to New Zealand took a week and a half and consumed considerable human and material resources.

Of course, all this was worth it. If all the plans in New Zealand can be successfully completed, not only can Australia annex New Zealand, but Arthur himself would also gain a territory of significant size.

New Zealand currently has three forces: the stationed military, colonial government and advisory council; their mutual checks and balances ensure New Zealand’s stability.

In addition, Arthur has arranged for a royal relief committee in New Zealand, headed by Joshua Brock.

All these guarantees ensure that New Zealand’s development will not go beyond Arthur’s control.

Three days later, on May 14th, Arthur successfully reached the port of Sydney in Australia, returning home.

Whenever Arthur returned from abroad, the port of Sydney was always packed with welcoming crowds.

This time was no exception. In addition to the welcoming parade arranged by the government, the port of Sydney was filled with crowds who had arrived spontaneously.

There was no speech this time, because Arthur’s prestige in Australia has already reached its peak, no longer needed to maintain it with frequent speeches.

Upon returning to Australia, the first stop for Arthur was the gold mine located along the border of New South Wales State.

Three months have passed since the discovery of this mining area.

Detailed surveys and division of the mine have been carried out by the Ministry of Industry over these three months, fully enclosing the mining area to protect it from interference.

The survey took a whole month, and nearly another month was spent preparing for excavation and gathering indigenous peoples.

Now, after more than a month of mining, there is already a stockpile of tens of thousands of tons of gold ore, and it is being refined.

There is no shortage of gold mines in Australia, which has resulted in many gold ore refineries.

While many of these are private workshops run by gold prospectors, there are also several large official Australian factories.

The closest refinery to the new mining area is in the southern part of New South Wales State, which is also the second largest gold refinery in Australia.

The largest gold refinery is located in Victoria State, which is the only state that can economically compete with New South Wales State.

Upon reaching the mining area, Arthur first met with the stationed military.

Originally, the First Division should have been stationed here, but since the First Division was just reorganized and still in training, the task of protecting the mine was given to the Guards.

The First Infantry Battalion of the Guard Infantry Division is currently stationed near the mining area.

The military deployed at the gold mine operate on a rotation schedule, with new troops being deployed after a certain period of time.

Protected by the military, Arthur successfully entered the large storage area in the mining district, which houses all the gold-bearing ore extracted from the mine.

The gold ore here will be loaded into vehicles and transported to a nearby refinery to be transformed into pure gold. This will then be cast into fixed- weight gold bars and moved to more secure locations.

Although the storage area is only a few dozen kilometers from the refinery, and a horse carriage would take four to five hours to travel this distance, for safety reasons, each transport of gold ore involves the use of at least several hundred cavalry troops for protection, and at least a hundred stationed military personnel following for protection as well.

Safety measures of this magnitude in Australia make it impossible for any force to snatch this batch of gold ore from the military. It is an arrangement approved by both Arthur and the government for the protection of their own interests.

And particularly about the refinery, it goes without saying that in addition to its own security forces, there is a military presence of several hundred troops stationed nearby. The sole purpose is to protect this gold-producing refinery.

Arthur cannot take these gold matters lightly as they are crucial for the success rate of issuing his own currency in the next step.

Thanks to the efforts of several thousand indigenous people, the mining efficiency of the gold mine is already very remarkable. The maximum daily mining volume can reach seven thousand tons of gold ore, with each indigenous person able to mine more than two tons of ore per day on average.

It is precisely because of the large number of indigenous people involved that not only has the gold mine’s mining efficiency rapidly developed over a short period of time, the actual cost of mining the gold has not increased significantly.

However, there is a drawback to this strategy, that is, the consumption of indigenous labor is too high, to the point where dozens of indigenous people die each day in the mining area.

But compared to the thousands of indigenous people recruited each month, such consumption is far from equal, and besides, few Australians care about the life and death of these indigenous people.

They live in a society where the law of the jungle reigns. If anyone is to blame, it can only be the weakness of their own ethnic group and country.

After touring the mining area, Arthur took his dedicated vehicle and headed to the gold refinery.

It has been a week since the first batch of gold ore was transported to the refinery, and on this day, the first batch of gold bricks was being accepted for inspection.

Accompanying Arthur to the refinery were Prime Minister Evan and Minister of Industry Pierre.

Comparatively, the car was much faster than a horse carriage.

After only being able to travel by horse carriage in New Zealand, Arthur could finally experience the speed and convenience of the car again.

The mining area is about sixty kilometers away from the refinery. A horse carriage might take three to four hours, but a car could reach there in just over an hour.

Of course, this is only possible with a smooth highway. Without a smooth highway, modem cars would not be able to get very far.

Just over an hour later, Arthur and his party had already arrived at the refinery.

The refinery is located near the industrial area of New South Wales State. It is an industrial area that has been in development since the Australian Colonial era. While its scale is not very large, it is diverse in the industries it covers.

At the entrance of the refinery, the person in charge had already gathered the staff of the refinery to wait for their arrival.

Seeing Arthur and the others disembark, the person in charge of the refinery, Adam Rot, went forward and respectfully addressed the group, “Your Highness, Prime Minister Evan, Minister Pierre, welcome to the refinery.”.

Arthur nodded and asked, “Has the first batch of gold been successfully refined?”

“Of course, Your Highness. We have successfully refined the first batch of about four thousand tons of gold ore, and have produced exactly forty-eight 500- gram gold bars. During the refinement of the gold ore, a loss of at least fifty grams of gold was incurred due to the outdated refining equipment that we are using,” Adam Rot reported.