Empire of the Ring

When the royal family said it would manage the Almaty's gold mines, none of the officials opposed it. Rather, Youngho had to sweat hard to refuse their request because they wanted the royal family to take care of all the gold mines across the country. Until now, there had been many distrust as the central bank had been one of the contributors that acted as the maid of power and pull down the national economy.

The reason they wanted Youngho to own some gold mines was because officials were well aware that he was using a lot of royal money to increase Kazakhstan's armed power. Even now, the royal family was buying weapons with its own money.

After the meeting, Youngho was drinking tea with the Prime Minister in his office.

"Thank you, Mr. Prime Minister, for your decision."

"I was reluctant to leave Almaty's gold mines to the central bank. When you offered to take the gold mine instead of the money you lent to the government, I clapped my hands in my head."

"I didn't want gold mine out of personal greed, but it will inevitably look like the royal family has done it out of greed on the surface."

"It was a fair deal between the royal family and the government. Rather, it may be a better option for Kazakhstan to manage in the royal family."

"And I'd like to designate a few special areas where alluvial gold is widely distributed. It's an asset that's going to be passed on to future generations, and it's also a justification for potential illegal mining."

"That's great. Kazakhstan has been cursed by illegal gold trading in the underground market. This will hopefully end it for good."

"You can't take away the hopes of people living in remote areas since they like to collect alluvial gold for fun and for some benefits. Only large distribution areas should be managed by the royal family and residents should be allowed to freely collect alluvial gold from other areas close to their homes. Instead, let's make sure that that alluvial gold would be traded in designated exchanges."

"All right. We'll have guards to keep the security of the special zones."

As the owner of the gold mines near Almaty was transferred to the royal family, the surrounding areas were designated as special zones.

When he returned to the royal territory, Park Jong-il criticized him, saying that the royal family already had 480 tons of gold in store.

"You used the president's slush fund to make all sorts of purchases, and you're now taking over the gold mines, too?"

"Don't be surprised. The gold mines are estimated to have more than 3,000 tons of gold deposits."

"You really are greedy for gold."

"Come on! This is for the future of our children and the next generations of Kazakhstan."

"Hey, with that money, please invest a little bit in developing nuclear weapons, too. It's so expensive to do nuclear tests and experiments."

"Oh, don't overdo it. If the world finds out that it's not just nuclear research but it's a nuclear bomb research, we'll be embarrassed globally."

"Don't worry, we're studying nuclear weapons for peaceful purposes. You have to study it publicly, so no one will suspect you. Many countries around the world have one or two for research purposes anyway."

"That's ridiculous."

Park Jong-il was finally building a nuclear research facility in the royal territory.

Then he was now recruiting nuclear researchers. Youngho thought that he would do it more secretively, but he was rather doing it quite openly.

"So, 3,000 tons of gold is quite a lot, right?"

"Hey, this is a global amount. Uzbekistan's Muruntau gold mine boasts the world's best reserves, with an estimated minimum of 2,500 to 5,300 tons. Having 3,000 tons of gold is enough to change the world's gold price. Think about it. The U.S. gold reserve is about 8,000 tons."

"Then we'll have a lot of money in the future, so we don't need to make currency swaps with foreign countries. I won't have to do anything in Turkey, then."

"When are you going to Turkey?"

"I'm a royal envoy. I'll have to make arrangements beforehand before going. What if I don't get anything out of my trip?"

"You're only going there to say thank you for responding to the currency swap. What more do you want from Turkey?"

"In-soo is dying to resume security services at hotels in downtown Istanbul. Should I just leave it? He said that there are not enough jobs for the new junior security guards from Korea to do."

"Hey, you didn't tell Korean people that the security company consists of Korean Special Forces, did you?"

"If I did, you wouldn't have left me alone for a long time. How can I dare to do so?"

For young Koreans, Kazakhstan was recognized as a pilgrimage site these days.

Especially, former Special Forces soldiers were now dreaming of being mercenaries in Kazakhstan as there was a Foreign Legion in the royal territory.

There were even times when former Special Forces from Korea flew to Kazakhstan after only buying a one-way plane ticket to be hired at the royal territory. Those people were determined to get hired and would not return to Korea until they succeed.

So, In-soo had been hiring them as guards of Zeynep Security Service and training them so that they could adapt to living and working in Kazakhstan. Then Cha In-soo, who became impatient, thought of resuming his hotel security business in Istanbul because he wanted to take on more security duties.

"How can you handle the resentment if we send the inexperienced guards to Istanbul and get hurt?"

"They're quite good. They can handle a bunch of lousy terrorists."

"Just tell In-soo to train them for local circumstances. We need guards to protect the royal gold mines."

"Then you're going to leave the gold mine security to the new recruits?"

"I'm going to have to send a veteran guard with them. Ten guards in each gold mine would suffice, wouldn't it?"

"Yep. Then I'll have to tell In-soo not to even dream about Istanbul."

Yongho needed more guards because he planned to designate other gold mines as special zones, not just Almaty's gold mines.

***

Previously, Park Young-sun hurried to Almaty's gold mines after his conversation with Youngho. He, who went there with all sorts of exploration equipment, came back with a surprising message.

"Your Highness, I have good news! There's a tremendous amount of reserves in Almaty."

"They're buried in the rocks. Can you check it in a matter of days?"

"We'll be able to find out more details about it when the weather gets warm, but we can still know the potential amount of reserves. We don't know if it's going to be gold or silver, though."

"I see. What's the big news? Tell me because I'm ready for it."

"Hahaha… You're quite eager."

"You said it's a huge amount of reserves."

"Yes. It's estimated to be more than 3,000 tons. It could be the world's best reserves."

Hearing this, Youngho had gathered the ministers to announce that the royal family would be in charge of the Almaty's gold mines.

As Almaty's gold mines were confirmed to be owned by the royal family, Park Young-sun insisted that he would be in charge of the exploration in the freezing cold.

"Even if you went out now, it's impossible to work because of the snow. It's not too late to start when spring comes."

"I'm not going to do equipment exploration. I plan to listen to the stories that had been passed down among nomads living near the mines."

"It's still going to be cold out there."

"In spring, nomads move around, so it won't be easy to meet them. This is the right time. Your Highness, after listening to your words, I looked up data from the state university and I was able to get a rough idea of where the gold used to be. But in the eras of the Imperial Russian and the Soviet Union, people used new exploration techniques to mine."

"Did Russia give up collecting alluvial gold?"

"Yes. It gave up because alluvial gold was not economically viable. And of course, the mechanization of mining equipment played a role in the decision, too. Because of that, the government almost neglected alluvial gold mines, so they had been occupied by the residents of remote areas. That's why the underground gold market was activated."

"I see. Little bits of alluvial gold had become a mountain now. I guess the government had underestimated the power of alluvial gold."

"They didn't appreciate the importance of alluvial gold in remote areas so far. The oil fields were bursting all over the place, so it did not think alluvial gold was so important. And a few years ago, the price of gold was so low that it wasn't even profitable. It was a divine move to make Almaty's gold mine as a royal property this time. The government had used so much of the royal funds, but the mines will make you at least ten times more than what the government owes you."

"How much would it be in terms of the value of the Almaty gold mines?"

"They have an astronomical value. At this point, it's going to be about 200 billion dollars. It's a strategic asset that can't only be valued by the market prices. It's worth a few times than the market value."

"Phew, that's quite mind-boggling."

"It's a blessing to Kazakhstan and to you, Your Highness."

"There's no personal greed at all. I'm satisfied that our descendants will have a strong background to spread their wings."

"That's why I'm saying it's Kazakhstan's blessing. You're a great leader."

"I'm sure the former president had that kind of mind, too. He became a dictator because the government system could not support his plans and ambitions. Our royal family, in that sense, could be a real dictator."

"That's quite absurd. Administrative, legislative and judicial branches are independent and the royal family has symbolic authority only."

It was called symbolic authority, but the royal family actually held too much power.

"People of Kazakhstan will praise you for generations. Without the revolution, they would have stayed the same as a poor country. What complaints would they have when the rich royal family stepped in to guide the country when it was necessary?"

"It's like saving a stranger from the sea, and he'll turn your enemy. They'll only serve the royal family in times of need, but they'll soon change after they become well off."

"That's why I said taking over Almaty's gold mines was a divine move."

"To be honest, I was greedy. So, I asked for it, but everyone agreed."

"No one knows how much gold reserves are deposited in Almaty. The more funds the royal family has, the more the government has to rely on the royal family. If the world faces an economic crisis in the future, thanks to the gold held by the royal family, Kazakhstan will command the world."