On the afternoon of August 22, 2024, we arrived at Loulan Airport in Ruoqiang County. Located in the southeast of Bayin'guoleng Mongol Autonomous Prefecture in Xinjiang, Ruoqiang County was once a major route along the ancient Silk Road, and is the largest county in China, as well as being rich in a wide variety of mineral resources.
The company has oil and gas, lithium, fluorite, tungsten, copper, gold, rare metal mines and other projects here, this time our destination is located in Ruoqiang County, Xiaodaban metal mine. Xiaodaban mine is located in the north of Qimantag Mountain in East Kunlun, with an altitude of 4020-5096 meters. The mine is close to Mangya City, Qinghai Province, surrounded on three sides by China's three major uninhabited areas (Arjin, Coco-Cecil, Lop Nor). There is no power plant or electricity facilities in the mining area, no network communication, power generation and communication have to be solved by ourselves, and we are fully prepared for this trip.
When we arrived at the destination, Mr. Liu, who is in charge of the Xiaodaban project, received us personally, and after a quick dinner, we drove to the mine.
This was our second visit to the Xiaodaban mine, the last being in September 2023, when the road to the mine was still bumpy and easy to get lost for the uninitiated. A year later, the road has improved significantly. More than two hours of travel, the vision is full of boundless wilderness, until the sky becomes deep blue, into the infinite black, the base camp's lights are hidden in the field of vision, "lack of oxygen is not lack of spirit, hardship is not afraid of suffering," the words hang prominently in the door, the light hit the above, like a kind of sacred faith.
In order to facilitate the daily operation of the construction, the base camp has been relocated from last year's altitude of more than 3,000 meters to an altitude of more than 4,000 meters, from the start of the car we can clearly feel the body has a plateau reaction.
Mr. Liu arranged us in a relatively comfortable dormitory, equipped with two oxygen cylinders per person, and repeatedly urged us to inform him in time if we were not feeling well. In this way, we went into the dormitory with the fatigue of traveling and the tortured body by plateau reaction. The so-called "dormitory", in fact, is a color steel room, can not keep warm, but in the wilderness this is the only "base", is the home of all workers in the mine.
At night, lying on the bedpan, accompanied by headache and dizziness, the plateau reaction is still obvious. The wind in the wilderness blew from the roof, bringing up gravel and dust, "rustling" on the colorful steel plate, each sound is like stepping on the temples. Some of the winds sought the cracks into the room, so that the room was already very cold and cooled down a few degrees. The stove placed in the center was the only source of heat in the whole house, and it was also resisting the cold of the wilderness as hard as we were.
Neither of us could get used to the new environment, and we didn't sleep a wink.
There is no electricity and no signal in the mine, only at night will be temporary power generation, we can only grasp to charge the cell phone in this period of time, satellite phone can only be used when necessary. Under such circumstances, our life after work has returned to the way it was before the information age, reading books, chatting with dormitory colleagues, and life has become slow but with a sense of granularity.
Some colleagues have not returned home since the resumption of work this year, and family contact is also very little, and occasionally in the place where there is a signal to the family to report a peace, ask about the situation at home has been satisfied.
The next day, at dawn, we had to start shooting, and at eight o'clock, we had breakfast with our colleagues in the mine. Because of the high altitude, limited water and fire, and limited stockpile of materials, it was impossible to make three meals a day exquisite and delicious, but the mine's chefs did their best to ensure that everyone's nutrition was as good as possible. On that day, our breakfast consisted of cold vegetables, steamed buns, eggs and porridge, which was simple but well-balanced.
The temperature in the morning is still very low, and the colleagues in the mine told us that the military coat is a necessity for them, one for each of them, and they need to carry it with them all the time from the time they enter the mine to the end of the work in the mine. But compared to the high altitude and steep cliffs, the UV rays and cold are not insurmountable difficulties.
In addition, wild yaks and wolves are often found around the base camp and the mining area. Here, they have to overcome not only the difficulties posed by the objective environment, but also the psychological barriers caused by some objective problems.
After breakfast, Mr. Liu led us to start shooting. The road to the operation area was even more rugged and steep, and the shooting locations were spread out in different parts of the rolling mountains, some in the middle of the mountains, some on the top of the mountains, and some even deeper into the mountains. Passing by a gypsum mine, we saw an excavator working deep in the mountains, surrounded by nothing but rolling hills. From our point of view, it looked like a small, small object that could not be easily found set in a magnificent painting of mountains and rivers.
We lamented the power of nature to devour everything, while admiring the strong psychological quality of the mine workers, while the side of Mr. Liu looked at the distance indifferently, said that these are normal work arrangements.
After traveling in the mountain for nearly half an hour, we arrived at a drilling operation area. There were several trays of specimens that had been drilled and labeled, and the specimens were neatly placed on the hillside about 20 meters away from the drilling wells. Mr. Liu told us that these specimens needed to go through layers of laboratory tests before the results could be determined.
The working life in the field is monotonous, boring, hard and dangerous, and it is impossible to describe the various flavors of it, and those who have not really worked here can't understand the fear of being wrapped up in loneliness and the emptiness of the desert.
In this boundless space, the only fun and magic is to make a breakthrough in their work, whether it is above 4,000 meters or above 5,000 meters, as long as there is a breakthrough, even if the result is not big, it will make them feel the edge of life and have something to rely on spiritually, so that they can continue to persevere.
At eleven o'clock in the morning, after three hours, we finished shooting at the Xiaodaban mine.
This trip has given us a better understanding of field workers, and has given us a greater sense of respect for the development of the energy industry. What nature gives to human beings is not only the gift, but also the challenge it gives us before we get the gift.
As the dangerous mountains and rivers, the lack of supplies and the environment to which ordinary people are not accustomed exist objectively and cannot be changed, we can only accomplish the exploration tasks by overcoming psychological difficulties, possessing solid professional knowledge and skills, maintaining good physical, intellectual and non-intellectual qualities, as well as the ability to adapt and to learn. Only by holding fast to the spirituality of hard work and perseverance can the gifts of nature be unearthed for the use of mankind.