Start 1861: I Just Inherited the Dutch Throne

Privy Council Meeting, Melbourne, Kingdom of the Netherlands, December 26, 1881.

"According to data from the Australian Ministry of Mines, there are 66 operational gold mines in the Australian mainland of the Netherlands, of which 14 gold mines have large-scale production, and 11 of them are in Western Australia. Not only in mainland Australia, but also in the entire Netherlands. The royal palaces are among the provinces with the highest concentrations of major gold producers, accounting for nearly 70% of the country’s total gold production.”

As Minister of Mines and Energy Hester read out his department report.

The entire Privy Council members listened quietly. Of course, there was still the sound of pens taking notes from time to time.

William IV recorded a lot of data. Next to him, the Australian Archduke and Prince Albert, who had long been designated as the Crown Prince of the Netherlands, sat on the right hand side of William IV. On the left hand side were Prime Minister Lyndon and other members of the Privy Council. member.

Today is the first time Prince Albert has attended the Privy Council meeting, because just yesterday, Prince Albert just celebrated his 16th birthday.

In the Netherlands, 16-year-olds can already have direct contact with politics. At 16-year-old, you can also have votes and participate in national and local elections.

Not long ago, a boy who was less than 17 years old was elected as a municipal councilor in Western Australia less than a year after becoming a member of the Socialist Party. This caused a huge sensation in the Netherlands.

Many newspapers even promoted this boy as a new political star of the Socialist Party, because he actually became a freshman at the University of Western Australia in July.

With both morality and intelligence, his political career is infinitely broad.

, allowing the Socialist Party to successfully obtain another wave of free advertising.

It is also the envy of the Christian Party and the Liberal Party.

This year's Dutch general election has been scheduled to start on December 30, which is still four days away. Therefore, although international politics is currently operating frequently, within the Netherlands, all parties have already started to move, and the game has already begun. The four days counting back are now the most worsening stage of the game.

Hester Road continued to report: "Currently, the largest gold mine in mainland Australia is the largest, with five main mining areas."

William IV asked without thinking: "Which five are the specific ones?"

Hester: "The first one is the Boddington gold mine. This mining area is located 130 kilometers southeast of Perth, Western Australia. It is currently the largest gold mine in the Kingdom of the Netherlands."

“As of the end of November 1881, Boddington’s average gold production was 45,000 ounces, and this figure is expected to increase to at least 90,000 ounces per year during its remaining life.

The mine was founded in 1867 and was purchased by the mining department of the East India Group in 1873. In 1876, the East India Group also acquired the remaining shares of the German Gold Company and became the sole owner of the mine. It is expected that the life of the mine will also reach 80 years. The mining department of the East India Group approved a reduction worth 400 million guilders (4,000 Thousands of pounds (1 pound equals 10 guilders)), the East India Group would soon expand, which would add decades to its operations. "

Prince Albert also took notes carefully. Seeing this, William IV nodded secretly.

Hester: "The second gold mine is the Kalgoorlie Super Gold Mine. In 1873, two brothers, Dan and Paddy Hannan, discovered nearly 100% of the ore near what is now known as the Kalgoorlie Super Gold Mine. 10,000 ounces of gold, which led to the gold rush in the region, is also in the province of Western Australia. Kalgoorlie is a major mining city and commercial center in the south-central part of the province. With a current population of 600,000, it is the second largest city in the province. Perth, the capital, is located 547 kilometers east of Perth.

In 1875, the Dutch United Group established a mining department. Under the leadership of general manager Alan Bond, he bought all the individual leases and mined in the mines to mine gold at a lower cost. He was very lucky and the entire area was merged into Kalgoorlie Super Gold, this gold mine has produced 80,000 ounces of gold annually in the past five years, even surpassing the Boddington Gold Mine to take the first place, which also makes United Mining Group of the Netherlands the largest annual gold producer in the Netherlands. business"

William IV made the final decision at the time, allowing the three major consortiums to compete for this mineral. The final result was the Dutch United Group, which allowed the group to successfully ascend to power.

For this reason, the Far East Group had some complaints at the beginning. Unfortunately, the royal family was the majority shareholder, so there was no real incident of the customer bullying the owner.

"The Telfer Gold Mine is the second largest Dutch gold mine. It is located in the great desert of Western Australia and is owned by the Far East Group. It has been six years since this gold mine was put into production in 1875 and has produced a total of 180,000 ounces of gold. It was reopened after renovations in 1879. In 1880, the annual output exceeded 40,000 ounces. Many people even predict that this year's output will catch up with the 45,000 ounces of the Boddington Gold Mine. After that, the annual output will increase by 0.3-0.5 million ounces. , eventually reaching an annual output of 550,000 ounces."

The Telfer gold mine consists primarily of the Main Top and West Dome open pits and the Telfer underground mine. The ore mined from these sites is subsequently subjected to large-scale flotation and cyanidation to produce gold fines.

The mine is also surrounded by several exploration projects, and the prospecting prospects are relatively good, which means that the mine is fully capable of continuing its growth in gold production. Far East Group is also using a new exploration model to identify expansion targets in more areas.

"The Jundi Gold Mine ranks fourth. It was acquired by the Far East Group in 1874 for 83.5 million Dutch guilders. The output in 1875 was 29,000 ounces. It is located in the northern part of the goldfields area in the western part of the Australian continent. Open-pit mining began in 1873, and two underground mines began in 1877. Mining.

Currently, all of the ore at the Jundy Gold Mine comes from underground operations. There are three underground entrances into various underground vein structures. These are Barton, Gateway and Far East. Both entrances of Barton and Far East contain three active working mines. body, and the entrance contains two. This mining is carried out in the upper hole open field mining sequence. "

"The fifth is the Koval Lake Gold Mine. The Koval Lake Gold Mine in New South Wales belongs to the Far East India Group. The Far East Group Mining Company acquired the Koval Lake Gold Mine from the Barrick Gold Company in 1877. The gold mine Located 350 square kilometers west of Sydney, the capital of New South Wales, the current annual output is between 2.3-2.6 ounces."

The Lake Kovar gold mine is an open-pit mine with approximately 1 million ounces of gold resources distributed around it. Part of the known production has been since at least 1920. Far East Group Mining Company calls the mine the most attractive gold asset in the Kingdom of the Netherlands and plans to The mine was further explored for gold.

Combining the above five major gold mines, the total output has more than doubled the gold output of South Africa occupied by the UK. Even if India and other places are included, the gold output and discovered storage minerals of the Australian continent alone exceed the territory ruled by the UK. . The above is the report I made today on the distribution and mining situation of gold minerals in the Australian continent."