Fifteen baskets of colorful ores were dumped by the golden-haired sniffer in front of the big house led by Knight Solovy. They didn't even know what these minerals were called, they just picked them all up as long as they thought they looked good. Of course, with Fraser's targeted training, they still understood several important minerals such as gold, silver, copper and iron, and they picked them up regardless of their quality. Fortunately, the Petukhov family had its own craftsmen, and Knight Solovy invited them over, and they were able to barely identify most of the minerals. By the time Leo heard the news and rushed to the Solovie Knight Territory, the mineral vein had already been found. In a small valley more than ten miles southwest of the Solovyvi Knight Territory, hot air constantly came out of the cracks in the rock walls, and the stream in the valley was also warm. Deep in the valley, there are yellow and green pools of water, all of which are hot springs of varying temperatures, some of which are even boiling. Behind the hot spring is a small cave, less than one meter high, which only short kobolds can fit into. A useful mineral sample found by the golden-haired sniffer was discovered here. Fifteen large baskets of ore, but only one useful vein was found.
Other ores are either scattered on the surface or are of insufficient grade, or are simply worthless. But this is already very impressive. It only took three days. It is even more professional and faster than the exploration experts with modern exploration equipment! The craftsman was leading a group of young and strong villagers to dig out the cave. After digging five or six meters deep and breaking through the surface soil and rock layers, golden veins were revealed. The ores that have been mined are all golden and look extremely dazzling under the sunlight. Leo picked up a golden stone and looked at the small square metal pieces on it. He was shocked. "Is this a gold mine?" "No." Knight Solovi sighed, "It's pyrite." "Pyrite is also called fool's gold. It looks like gold, but it is useless and can hardly be used to smelt iron, so no one buys it in large quantities. Only a small number of civilian jewelers will use it to make some cheap ornaments." "However, this vein also contains some yellow tin ore and chalcocite, and there may even be gold mines. Although the quality is not high, mining them can still bring a lot of profits." Leo played with the pyrite in his hand and wondered, "Isn't pyrite used to make sulfur?" Knight Solovy said, "Sulfur? Never heard of it." The Empire already had gunpowder technology, but it was only briefly used in the South, and the people in the North had no idea about it. The current alchemical muskets of the empire are still in the "strange and tricky" stage. Except for the magical alchemical product "Denise's Fireball", ordinary muskets are imitated from the dwarf muskets of decades ago. Neither muskets nor cannons were powerful enough, while the plate armor of the knights in the extraordinary world was twice as thick and defensive as that of the Middle Ages. Some alchemical and enchanted armor can even block crossbows. The power of ordinary muskets is not even as good as the wildlings' yew longbows, not to mention the military enchanted crossbows or imperial steel longbows. Therefore, the emergence of gunpowder was not taken seriously and did not even spread to the north. In the North, sulfur is still a material used only by alchemists or witch doctors. Knight Solovy's words just now were just relaying his craftsman's words to Leo word for word.
In fact, he had no idea what pyrite, stannite, and chalcocite were, let alone their uses. Even if they were born into aristocratic knight family, they had not received nine years of compulsory education, nor had they been exposed to the rich information on the Internet. These mineral knowledge were only passed on by a small number of craftsmen who specialized in this. Leo was happy. "If you think pyrite is useless, I'm willing to buy it, but the demand is not high at the moment." Knight Solovy said, "I only want the tin and copper ores that are found inside. I'll give you this useless stuff... a batch will do. You can send someone to take it away yourself." He originally wanted to give them all to Leo, but he was not a fool after all. Since the other party needed it, it proved that it had value that he did not understand. Send a batch over, and it won’t be too late to bargain once you understand the value of pyrite. Leo nodded happily and said that he would help Uncle Solovy take away the useless slag for free. The useless ore in the eyes of the other party is equivalent to the high-quality hematite in the Gnoll Valley in Leo's eyes. Pyrite is the main source of sulfur. No natural sulfur mines have been found near Isenbol, but pyrite is almost everywhere. However, the pyrite ore scattered on the surface has different grades, and most of it does not reach the level of industrial ore. In the past, Rio could only purchase sulfur for making gunpowder from Isenpol, and it was impossible to mass-produce it. So until now, gunpowder is still at the stage of fireworks and firecrackers, and can only be used occasionally to set off firecrackers for the little mouse and Freya. Only the ogres in Fraser's hands can rely on their talent for prospecting to collect scattered pyrite and sulfur stones and refine better quality sulfur. Therefore, Frasa has more powder kegs, so much so that an explosion occurs in the Gnoll Valley every week, scaring the new villagers who have joined the River Bend and making them look back frequently. But relying on the ogres to pick them up one by one is far from mass production. The sulfur produced can only barely supply the mining in the Gnoll Valley. And the supply is extremely unstable and basically depends on luck. For gnolls, picking up ore is as easy as for humans to collect wild fruits. It is even easier for them than for humans to collect wild fruits. They just need to sniff and look, and even if the fruits are buried underground, they can dig them out. Some minerals with pungent smells, especially their favorite sulfides, can be smelled by them even if they are buried more than ten meters underground. So basically you won’t miss it if you encounter it, but the problem is that you have to encounter it. Leo was quite happy after harvesting a batch of pyrite. He stood in front of the mine and looked at the hot spring in the valley. The entire southern part of Isenpol is blocked by a branch of the Borokbak Mountains. This branch is not high in altitude, but quite steep. The small ridges extending from the branches formed small valleys behind the Solovie Knights' Territory. Compared with the plains at the foot of the mountain, this kind of valley is difficult to be developed by humans, and apart from finding mines in it, it has almost no other use. And because of the frequent smell of sulfur and the presence of large wild beasts who come here to avoid the cold and build nests, the villagers call it the Devil's Valley. It is said that there are demons lurking here, and even the most daring hunters are reluctant to approach this area.
According to Knight Solovy, most of the streams flowing in these valleys are still warm, and some of them have not even completely cooled down when they flow into the canals in the territory. Thinking of this, Leo couldn't help but ask: "Uncle Solovy, have you heard of Hot Spring Villa?" Knight Solovie repeated doubtfully: "Hot springs? Villa?" "Yes." Leo raised an eyebrow at the Solovi Knight. How can you make money in the primary and secondary industries as opposed to the tertiary industry?