The story is based on the biggest scam in the history of the world’s mining industry – the Canadian gold scandal. It took place in the 1990s, involved huge amounts of money and was so bad that it would be an understatement to say that it fooled the whole of Wall Street and the whole world. The first half is a smooth narrative and the second half is a high-energy reversal. So much so that when the factory manager saw the end, he continuously spat fen in his mouth and almost lost control. As the netizens commented, the prototype is just too diao, the novel wouldn’t dare to write like that!
The main character of the story is named Kenny. He is a rich kid, his family started from nothing by mining gold. When his father dies, Kenny inherits the business, but unfortunately, within a few years, the family business falls into disrepair. Thankfully, Kenny didn’t stay down. So what if he didn’t have any money? He had his own way. To save money, he spent his time alone in the corner of a noisy bar, calling clients one by one to sell his projects. In time, Kenny lost his hair, his belly and his house. ……
He went from being a spirited young man to a greasy middle-aged man, tormented by life and literally stripped of his face. To this day, his projects are still being rejected by industry bigwigs. Will Kenny give up on this? No, no, no. He will never stop until he has achieved his goal. Besides, he never wanted to give up on his dream, and his passion for gold hadn’t waned a bit.
So he got on a plane and travelled alone to Indonesia, to the place where the gold was hidden underground, in search of an investment opportunity. But Kenny was a businessman, mostly dealing with money, and didn’t know much about technical things like ore composition. So he approached Mike, a connoisseur in the field. He was an Oxford and MIT graduate, but didn’t like fancy labs, preferring to plant himself in the rainforest and work hard. He is known as a “field geologist”.
Mike has his own theories on mineral exploration and has just discovered the largest copper mine in Southeast Asia. But how could such a great man want to work with Kenny, who had nothing to lose? Perhaps it was because he was overconfident and unappealing to the gold-daddy’s. And so, the two men backpacked, took a boat into the depths of the Indonesian jungle and said they would do it. Mike took the local workers with him, braving the elements, and scrabbled through the rainforest, exploring inch by inch.
Kenny, on the other hand, was on the run, trying to persuade the big boys to invest and get the start-up capital. The trials and tribulations they went through are something that only someone who has been in business before would understand. It was particularly touching to see Kenny, who was half dead from dysentery, give his entire fortune of US$2,300 and let Mike use it all for the project.
The heartening thing is that the sweat wasn’t in vain. The good news came from Mike, “8 ounces of gold per tonne”, which meant there was a gold mine in the area. They had finally made it. It’s a wonderful feeling, a little bit of alluvial gold changes everything. With “gold” in his hands, Kenny was transformed, he formed Washoe Mining and became a big man in the eyes of everyone. Entrepreneurs and Wall Street bankers with a nose for gold also rushed to invest and subscribe to Waxhaw Mining to get a piece of the action.
In a flash, this gold mine, which had not yet been mined for gold, drew a lot of money. Waxhaw Mining goes public, raises funds …… The figures in the prototype were said to be even more impressive, from the initial listing of the mine at $0.45 per share to $270 per share.
However, just as Kenny was enjoying the beauty and wealth, there were people who wanted to squeeze them out of the project. These people are also financial tycoons, successful entrepreneurs and even the Indonesian government. In the face of these, Kenny doesn’t budge, angrily tearing up the contract and pushing away the $300 million he has in hand, he also wants to defend his and Mike’s absolute title to the gold mine.
After all, the project was like their child, built up bit by bit with one hand. It was especially tear-jerking to hear his heartfelt sentiments – this is my dream, I dreamed it; if you can even sell your dream, what do you have left?
I’m not going to lie, the factory manager saw this, as early as inwardly cursed the evil capitalism do not know how many times, at the same time, more Mike and Kenny between the sympathetic friendship and moved. The good thing is that Kenny is a smart guy. He saves the day in the end and eventually recovers everything that was lost.
Everything is happily ever after, and it’s a thrill to watch. But the story doesn’t end here, and the moment of truth is here – the independent lab structure denies Mike’s test results and confirms that there is no such thing as a gold mine. Mike himself even sold off his company’s shares, circling away $164 million before the story was exposed. Wall Street bigwigs, entrepreneurs, politicians, retail investors …… Investors of all stripes were spared, and conservative estimates put the losses in the scam in the billions of dollars.
At this point, is the FBI a fool for Kenny? Or complicit? The investigation was launched. In response to the findings, there has been a lot of heated discussion in the fandom. Some people think Kenny is too poor to be cheated not only by Mike’s money but also by his feelings; some think it’s not that simple.
Here, the factory manager leaves you in suspense, but first a hint, Kenny’s expression after seeing the cheque sent by Mike at the end of the film is worth playing with. Also, some details suggest that Kenny knows something from the beginning and, the whole movie is almost entirely Kenny’s narration to the FBI. In short, just be careful there are potholes.
However, none of the above can overshadow the shock of the hoax itself. It’s a joke that a single, powerful individual has managed to fool the incredibly savvy capitalists. Could it be that those people were really just mistakes? In this regard, the plant manager thinks that Mike is right – the only truth is that no one cares what the truth is as long as they can get rich. Why didn’t anyone look closely at the lab report when they could have read it with open eyes and noticed that the gold in the sample was wrong? The reason is simple. The reason is that everyone wants to believe the report. Because this so-called “gold mine” could make them rich.
It can be said that no one is absolutely innocent in this vicious war caused by the “gold”. At the same time, we can see that, driven by the interests of capital, the basic trust between people depends on acting. Money is like an aphrodisiac, making people hyperactive and out of control until they lose their bottom line. It allows dreams to be sold, eyes to be blinded, and even human lives to become less important.
Seeing this, look at recent domestic and international. One sacrificed the economy to save people first, the other saved the market without regard to human lives. When you compare the two, you can see the difference!
