In particular, the inspection pump of the production well costs tens of thousands of pounds per inspection. If the worn equipment needs to be replaced, the cost of lost work should also be considered. The double loss of equipment and production directly affects the production efficiency of the oil well.

No matter how much fraudulent companies do, they will never forget to incorporate these things. Professionals may be able to see the problem, but ordinary investors will never see it.

But the sniffing and drilling company is clearly insulting everyone's IQ. Even if there are investors who want to play the "Bo foolish game", I am afraid that such a stupid fool will not come to take over, so after the sniffing and drilling company goes public, Naturally, it failed to make any big waves in the market.

So the consternation of investors was palpable when 40% of the company's shares were suddenly acquired by several major British oil companies.

Not only that, but even the stocks circulating on the market seem to have been robbed overnight, which makes many people puzzled.

Are the executives, directors and major shareholders of these big companies suddenly crazy?

Until then, those "well-informed" talents in the investment world jumped out and opened up

Begin to promote the relevant background of the company.

Experienced people have not realized until now that it turns out that this is just people in the oil circle playing themselves, and they have no intention of bringing ordinary people to play.

In addition to the secret hatred, the small fish and shrimps still in the market were naturally swept away by these people, the shares issued by the sniffing drilling company were basically sold out, and the task of the securities company was completed ahead of schedule. .

After eating the meat of the sniffing drilling company, insiders in the oil industry held a cocktail party to celebrate everyone's "cooperation"

As part of the cooperation, Lockhart will of course bring several major shareholders of the company to participate to show his sincerity.

Mr. Farley's going was a given, but Lucius Malfoy also decided to attend the reception, which somewhat surprised Lockhart.

But since the major shareholder insisted on going, Lockhart could only agree, who made him just a wage earner with shares.

Although Farley and Malfoy were attending a Muggle reception for the first time, they were no strangers to the occasion. Although Lockhart was a little worried that they would say the wrong thing, the pure-blood families really did not embarrass the wizards in etiquette, and the knowledgeable bigwigs present did not doubt their identities at all.

As landed aristocrats, they behaved exactly as Lockhart had created for them - personable and polite, but with a hint of arrogance and a sense of condescension, and at the same time special Conservative, like to miss the time hundreds of years ago.

Although I haven't heard of where "Farley Village" and "Malfoy Manor" are, people don't really care about this. Anyway, such old "nobles" catch a lot of them in the UK, I'm afraid they are no better than the cod in the North Sea. less.

Seeing that the two were fully integrated into Muggle "high society", Lockhart was not worried

He thought that they would meet because of this, and he was promoting this with a good show attitude.

I don't know if they can still be as calm as in the original book after they have enjoyed the benefits and faced Voldemort's order to abandon everything.

P.So nothing happened, just set the wrong time

The two hundred and seventieth chapters give and take.

When the reception was slowly coming to an end, Prime Minister Major, who was also invited, quietly approached Lockhart.

"Dude...if your drilling company is really that good, can you do me a favor?" he whispered to Lockhart.

Originally, the matter that Major wanted to consult should belong to the category of "no solution", but if it was a wizard, maybe he could find something.

"What's your business? Private or business?" Lockhart replied calmly.

"It's all," said Major in a low voice. "Is that so, have you heard of a company called Bre-X?"

The Prime Minister's words turned Lockhart down.

"I really haven't heard of it," Lockhart replied honestly. "I don't even know what they do."

"They are also an exploration company." Major opened the mystery himself, "It's a Canadian company. Last year they said they had discovered a gold mine in Indonesia, and this year's new exploration report said that the gold mine may have a large amount of gold. It can reach more than 100 tons, and the ore grade is very high."

"More than a hundred tons!" Lockhart was also taken aback.

-If more than 100 tons are steel or copper ore, then this figure is a bit unremarkable, but if it is gold, it is a bit scary.

After all, the world only produces about 3,000 tons of gold a year. If it is put into an older era such as the Great Voyage Period, Spain worked so hard to defeat the Inca Empire, and the total amount of gold extorted from the Inca Emperor would only be ten tons.

At today's gold prices, that gold would always be worth $2 billion if mined—and that was $2 billion in the 1990s.

"This is a good thing. Is there anything we need to do? Your Excellency." Lockhart was very interested in this.

But Major frowned: \"It's hard to say it's a good thing."

"how?"

"That's it...even though the company announced a gold discovery and reported it, and Indonesia's gold production is high, several exploration companies have drilled holes in that mining area before, but what did they do? Didn't find any…”

Lockhart understood: \"You mean, you suspect something is wrong with them."

"Yeah, but the Indonesian government suddenly said that they want to cancel their development rights and dominate the gold mine, and senior officials of the Canadian government also came to me, saying that they want us to put pressure on the Indonesian government and are willing to let us invest and enjoy a part of the equity. ...Can you help us take a look at what's going on at that gold mine?"

Lockhart thought about it for a moment and thought it wasn't very difficult.

"No problem, we'll try to give you an accurate result within a week," Lockhart said.

\"Really? A week?" Major was overjoyed.

\"Well...after all, there are goblins over there.\" Lockhart said.

With this kind of communication, it is likely that the result will be available within three days, but Lockhart also gave Major a margin.

Major was obviously relieved: "Great, this is a big deal after all, we have to be careful...more than a hundred tons..."

Major offered Lockhart another toast, and then went off to socialize with a radiant face.

Of course Lockhart knew why he was so concerned.

Although the United Kingdom is expensive as the "five permanent members", the gold reserves of the British are really not enough.

It's a lot, let alone compared with the United States, the mere 600 tons of reserves are even in the world.

Ten can't get in.

And as far as Lockhart knows, in 1999, the British did a stupid thing - because they were so cash-strapped, the Chancellor of the Exchequer - later Prime Minister Gordon Brown - put gold at its lowest. Half of it was sold, resulting in only 310 tons of gold left in the UK.

Although there are 4,600 tons of gold stored in London's underground vaults, most of it belongs to other countries and they have no right to use it.

What is more than 300 tons of gold enough for? Of course nothing is enough, not even a stable currency value.

And it’s not even known whether the 300-plus tons is a real number. Sharp-eyed media have discovered that there are cracks in the gold bars in the underground vaults in London, and such cracks usually only appear in gold with more impurities.

That is to say, even the last little bit of gold may not necessarily be "99.9% pure gold" as the British say.

Lockhart's previous officials were not very large, so he still had no access to such secrets, but he was still considered a "person in the system". If he thought about it with common sense, as long as it was something that the British government tried to deny, he would do it. Put a question mark in your mind.

Therefore, when the Venezuelan Maduro government came to power later, when it asked to extract 31 tons of gold from the British that they had in the United Kingdom, the British resolutely rejected their request and firmly refused to recognize the legitimacy of the Maduro government.

In addition to cooperating with the "ally" of the United States, the main reason is probably that the British authorities want to swallow this gold, even at the cost of damaging credit.

Lockhart had reason to suspect that the Bank of England knew that they couldn't take out that much pure gold at all, so in order to avoid a scandal, they decided to be shameless.

Of course, the Brits are still a shame now, and Brown's 300 tons of gold haven't sold yet. So when the Canadians want to share the ownership of the gold mine with the British, it must be a lie if Major wants to say that he is not interested, after the risk of halving the value of the British pound.

After the plane, Britain really needs gold to give its people confidence.

But the premise is that the gold must be real.

Lockhart decides to do Major this favor and make a good relationship. So that in the future when Britain has to sell that 300 tons of gold, Lockhart can buy it cheaply on behalf of the wizarding world - part.

After Lockhart became the Minister of Magic, in addition to the personnel power and judicial power, the most indispensable thing was financial power. With this batch of real money in hand, Lockhart's confidence in the wizarding world can be a lot tougher.

Five days later, Lockhart came to the Prime Minister's Office again after being notified by the portrait.

"I'm sorry, Your Excellency, there is no gold ore in the \"gold mine\' in Indonesia at all: or, in other words, there is no gold ore worth refining at all. ' Lockhart said regretfully to Major.

The disappointment on Major's face was palpable: "Really? So that means the Canadians lied to us?"

\"Well...maybe they didn't mean it either.\"

As Lockhart said, he took a small glass bottle from his arms:

"Our people took samples at the place where they put the drill bits. As a result, there is a huge gap between the data measured by the ore at the same location and the grades they announced. We believe that the company and the third-party exploration agency constructed a fake, Even the Canadians and Indonesians believed it, otherwise they wouldn't be fighting for this worthless mining area.

Major didn't doubt Lockhart's words, but he was a little too disappointed now.

"It seems that we can only mine the gold mines in the Kroniz mining area first, although it is a little less." He said annoyed.

But after hearing his words, Lockhart's expression was a little strange.

You mean, that gold mine in the Scottish highlands of Tyndrum? "he asks

Major raised his eyebrows: "Why, you all know that one too."

Lockhart did not answer him directly, but instead asked: "I wonder how much gold you want from that gold mine?"

"Uh..." Major recalled, "I remember the mining company saying that based on their estimates, there were at least five tons in it."

"I'm afraid not so much..." Lockhart said regretfully, "after all, it is also in the Scottish Highlands, and it belongs to the area where wizards are intensively active. It is also a gold mine developed by goblins earlier. Gringotts has a lot of gold reserves. It all comes from there.”

Major didn't understand what he meant at first, and when he wanted to understand, he found himself standing up.

"Hey...you're secretly...I mean, you don't have the right to embezzle what belongs to the country..."

"We were mining this gold mine in the 14th century, let alone Scotland, and Wales had not yet become part of the kingdom of England," Lockhart reminded. "Your accusation is unfounded."

Chapter 276 Serving the Royal Family

Probably thinking that the person in front of him was a wizard, Major had to sit down again feebly

His expression was irritable, and at first glance, there was fire in his heart but he couldn't express it.

Seeing him like this, Lockhart obviously didn't know what he was thinking.

People, they are afraid of hope and then disappointment. Even if Lockhart's intelligence can indeed save them from losses, the problem is that in the heart of the Prime Minister, this gold is "gain and loss" instead of Never.

"Why don't you ask us a little more if you're having a hard time with this?" Lockhart started fishing.

The Prime Minister listened to what he said, and his spirit was instantly revived.

"Is there a gold mine? Where is it? Is it easy to dig?" he asked impatiently.

"It's easy to dig, but it's not easy to dig," Lockhart replied in an official tone.

Major laughed exaggeratedly, making it as fake as possible: "Okay! Do we need to pay attention to these things in our relationship? Just say it outright - this gold mine is in our territory. up?"

"It's still there, but it's hard to say in a few months." Lockhart sighed pretentiously.

Major was furious when he heard the words, and this time he really wasn't pretending.

"Who? Ming-level rebels and thieves want to split our country?" He growled angrily, "This is the territory that God has given us, and every inch of glory belongs to Her Majesty the Queen, who dares to let it out, even if it's just for a moment. To gram dust, we want to...

Lockhart had to interrupt him: "That gold mine is in Northern Ireland, sir

Major's angry roar that was comparable to the head of state suddenly got stuck, and he himself was like an osprey with his neck tied, so choked that he couldn't spit out anything, and couldn't swallow anything.

Under Lockhart's playful gaze, Major pretended to be calm and poured himself a glass of water, swallowing the words he just wanted to say but didn't say into his stomach along with the water.

\"Northern Ireland?" repeated Major, \"Is there any gold in Ireland?

If not mistaken, he and the Northern Irish party are now in a state of superficial consultation, a substantial war, and Prime Minister Major has always tended to be tough on Northern Irish. If there is a split, the one most likely to split it is Prime Minister Major himself.

Lockhart was amused in his heart, but still serious on the surface.

"Of course there is gold in Ireland. Among the various artifacts unearthed in the Bronze Age, the proportion of gold in the native civilization of Ireland is the highest. And if I remember correctly, when Queen Maeve trained wizards in Ireland, her source of funds was also gold. Mine... let's be honest, we're surprised that you Muggles haven't discovered these gold mines."

Major was unaware of the little thorn in Lockhart's words, because he was now engrossed in the big gold mine: "Can you tell me roughly, where is that gold mine? "

\"There is an island of fire in Northern Ireland. Under one of the dead fires is buried ore that can produce about 210 tons of gold. According to the goblins, the thickness of the ore layer is 40 meters, and the grade is very high. The average grade of ore per ton About 30 grams of gold, there is a 9-meter-thick ore layer in the core local area, and the gold content here is 900 grams per ton." He told Major.

\"Oh, my God." Major exclaimed.

Then he suddenly thought of something: "Then why don't you..."

"Because we have so much gold, and we don't need that much at all." Lockhart knew exactly what he was asking.

"Too much?" Major seemed to have heard some interesting words, "Does anyone think there is too much gold?"

"Or, it's too much relative to our total economy." Lockhart replied half-truly, "Our wizard's currency is gold, silver, and copper. Not only will it cause inflation, but it will completely destroy our monetary system, turning it into a "lame standard"

Although Lockhart's analysis is true, in fact, wizards can't think of those

Especially the goblins of Gringotts, who don't mine those gold mines simply because they can't do anything about the thick mass of igneous rock. As for inflation, it has nothing to do with them. Anyway, after they dug gold, they basically hid it in the vault and did not circulate much.

"So that's the case." Mei Jie finally felt relieved, "Ha, we didn't even do a good job of the double standard of gold and silver, but you guys were able to come up with the triple standard."

After being relieved, his heart was occupied by something called "greed" - 210 tons, this number is too tempting.

Since it is a gold mine in the British mainland, it means that this batch of gold can be eaten by the British and not distributed to foreigners at all.

Although the vast majority of these gold mines are smelted into gold bars and then used as national reserves, there are still many places where they can be operated.

For example, they can use a part of the mine to sell jewelry, which will generate far more profit than simply smelting it into gold bars. The mines and river water can also be used to attract gold prospectors, not to mention the stock market, futures and financial markets. It is impossible not to be fluctuated by the discovery of a large gold mine... So 100 tons of gold can be taken out of this batch of gold.

It's good to have a reserve.

Even better, it's all British own, so Major has a lot to gain from the tycoons at home.