by Roxi Harms
Adam and Bruce chatted easily while they each devoured a plateful of juicy beef ribs in a nearby diner. On their return to the office, a message awaited them.
"Mr. Grunfeld would like to see you," Bruce's secretary announced to Adam.
Ernst Grunfeld was the patriarch of the Jewish family that owned Metallurg. Bruce had warned Adam not to be surprised by the dialysis equipment in Mr. Grunfeld's office. The man was not well. But when Grunfeld spoke, he was anything but frail.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Baumann. May I call you Adam?" he asked with a warm smile. "I hope the meetings downstairs are going to your satisfaction. I won't keep you for too long. I asked Bruce if you could spare some time for me, to tell me a bit about yourself. It's always nice to know a bit about the people you are considering doing business with. Makes for better partnerships. Baumann is a German name, if I'm not mistaken?"
"Yes, sir, it is. My family is Hungarian German."
"Why don't you tell me a little bit about your family and how you came to live in Canada, if I may ask, and involved with a mine in Peru?"
"Well, I was raised in Hungary until my family was deported after the war. My father was drafted into the Hungarian army, but because he wasn't a young man, he was just driving wagons, hauling supplies and that type of thing. I was only a young teenager at that time." Mentioning his time in the German military likely wouldn't reflect well on him, considering his audience, so Adam fast-forwarded over that part of the story. "Unfortunately, after the war ended, the Hungarian government stripped my father of everything we owned, and sent us to Germany as penniless refugees. The Germans really didn't want us there, but eventually we settled in. I trained as a bricklayer, and when I was 22, I emigrated to Canada. That was 20 years ago. I've had a variety of businesses since that time, primarily in construction and mining. I also own and operate a little amusement park that I built years ago in my hometown in Canada. I became interested in the mine in Peru last year when I travelled to Lima on a holiday." Adam explained how he'd come to visit the mine site. "I was tremendously excited by what I saw. So when the owner asked me if I would like to lease the property and build a proper mine to get at all that moly, I agreed. There's a great demand for molybdenum, as you know of course."
"You're quite right about that. And I suppose you and I have something in common besides an interest in molybdenum. The German government stripped my family of everything during the war too. We were some of the lucky ones that escaped. And we already had some international holdings so we were able to rebuild."
They chatted for a while longer before the old man dismissed Adam to return to the meeting.
As talks in the boardroom resumed, Adam was eager to reach an agreement. Based on what he'd learned in the first couple of months of the year, he was going to need a lot more time and money than he'd thought to get the mine open. Metallurg's involvement could be the answer.
Midway through the afternoon, Bruce indicated it was time for a break. Adam followed him out to a little courtyard and lit a cigarette. When Bruce had his own cigarette going, he turned to Adam and spoke quietly. "The old man told them to make a deal, so hold firm. You're in the driver's seat. They are very shrewd negotiators, but they have their orders from upstairs and he wants a deal by end of day. So don't give any more. Just hold your ground and wait."
"If you mine as well as you negotiate, this is going to be a very successful venture," one of the lawyers said as they shook hands a couple of hours later.
Metallurg would be providing half a million dollars for the construction of the mine. The first installment would come the following week. Adam would remain the majority owner, in full control of Minera San Diego. The only condition was that they had right of first refusal to buy all the molybdenum the mine produced.
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FORTY-THREE
Continuing on to Lima, Adam was on cloud nine. A multi-national company, the second biggest alloy producer in the world, was funding his new venture. Knowing he had the cash to do what needed to be done, he could focus on the work and figure out how to get around the obstacles that popped up everywhere he looked. And figure out he did.
Before his last trip home, he'd learned that there was a two-year wait list for telephone installations. He couldn't wait two years to set up a proper office, and obviously he would need phone lines for that. He also needed a more permanent place to live. The apartment was tiny, even for him, and Jean would be joining him eventually. A few weeks of asking around and turning over every rock he could think of, he'd found a solution to both problems – a house with a large office on the main floor that had a functioning multi-line phone system already built in. Next, he overcame the embargo on importing domestic goods by buying a houseful of furniture and appliances from ex-pats who were leaving the country. When his purchases had been moved into the new house, Adam stood back and surveyed his work with satisfaction. A couple of big hurdles out of the way.
But he still had a long way to go, even to finish setting up the house. Thankfully, Rudy Garcia, an American geologist he'd met through his persistent daily research and networking in the business circles of Lima, introduced Adam to his wife Mona. Learning that Adam's house still needed many things from linens to dishes, Mona swooped in and took over. She and Rudy had been in Lima for years, since before Velasco, when you could still buy what you wanted from whomever you wanted. The locals knew her. Tall, with flaming red hair cascading down over her shoulders, she intimidated them even when she didn't mean to, towering over them explaining what she needed in that booming voice. Adam went out shopping with her when he could, watching and learning with amusement, as they outfitted the house using the sources and methods Mona knew.
Then there was the matter of a maid. He had a stove, and sure, he could cook if he needed to, but he didn't have time for that. And even if he did, he didn't have time to shop for groceries. If he was going to beat the system and get this mine running, he needed to focus. Mona had three maids. Her Maria would be perfect for him, she told Adam emphatically. Maria didn't speak any English but she was very capable of running the whole house on her own without direction from a woman of the house. The problem was that when Mona had talked to her about it, Maria had refused.
"Why won't she come?" asked Adam. He had stopped by to have a drink after work and find out what Rudy knew about a guy named Korteba who reconditioned used mining equipment. It was the only lead he'd come up with so far.
"Because you scare her," replied Mona.
"What do you mean I scare her?" Adam laughed out loud.
"Well, you have a very loud voice and you come in here and say ‘Good Morning!' and they say they can hear you two blocks away. These gals aren't used to that. They're used to Rudy." Rudy was soft spoken.
"Aren't they scared of you, Mona?" he laughed again.
"I'm a woman, so it's different. And the other thing is that your wife isn't here. Maria says she can't live in the house with a single man."
"Well, I won't bite, and I'll keep my distance, and I'll talk softly
to her."
"I'll work on it," Mona assured him.
While Adam focused on trying to understand how to do business in this country, the house desperately needed attention. He'd been taking his clothes to a little laundry nearby before he bought the washing machine and dryer along with all the other stuff from the American ex-pat. He was still doing that because every time he went to the grocery store he forgot laundry soap. The secretary had cleaned the bathroom she used, but the rest needed it too. He was out of coffee and milk again and the meat he'd bought the week before had gone bad before he'd had time to make the stew he'd bought it for. Now there was nothing in the fridge again. He was tired of dry noodles and he didn't have time to go out.
When Mona called to say she'd talked with Maria again and they'd come up with a plan, Adam breathed a sigh of relief. If Maria could bring her younger sister Carmen who was still in high school, and her miniature poodle Negrito, she would come. Ada
m would have to feed all three of them and pay her fifty dollars a month, the same as what Mona had been paying her. Under these conditions Maria would agree to run Adam's house and take care of him.
Two days later, Adam looked out from the veranda as he drank his morning coffee. There was Maria, Negrito under one arm and a big suitcase in her other hand. Her sister Carmen, laden with bags, followed along behind as they crossed the street towards the house. Adam grinned and headed downstairs to let them in. Another milestone.
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FORTY-FOUR
But on the business side, Adam wasn't having any luck.
The geologists from Metallurg had waived the need for a formal exploration phase when they'd come to perform the formal inspection of the mine that was stipulated in the contract.
"Strongest showing we've ever seen," they'd said.
The molybdenum was there waiting, but he couldn't get to it.
He'd visited the site again to do more detailed planning and his list of equipment needs had grown. In order to cut the road in through the mountainside he was going to need an industrial compressor, an industrial hammer drill and drill heads, a big electric generator to run it all, a backhoe or a front-end loader of some sort, and a couple of dump trucks. For the mine he needed a larger capacity ball mill, a new crusher, an electric motor to replace the gasoline truck motor they had out there now, a backup generator, and a myriad of other components. Building supplies to build bunkhouses, a decent kitchen and mess hall, and a new supply shed were also on the list.
His enquiries still turned up nothing, other than this Korteba fellow who reconditioned equipment, and Adam didn't want used equipment. He found a company that was government approved to sell the electric motors he needed, and apparently they had engines in stock. That would be one piece off the list. He went and had a look. Junk. They wouldn't last a month.
Adam ripped one page after another from the calendar on his office wall, and still he was no closer to opening the mine. Not even any leads on where to get equipment. More than six months already, and all he had to show for it was a house, a payroll, and three hundred llamas.
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FORTY-FIVE
"Miguel, Lucho! Dos truchas! Rapido!" the woman in the little roadside restaurant yelled out the back door towards the creek, as Adam and Cornelius settled at a tiny table made from an old plank resting on a couple of Coca-Cola crates. Cornelius, the foreman Adam had hired to be his right-hand man, had greeted the woman and ordered two breakfasts.
The restaurant was a shack perched on the bank below the road. It looked out over a scenic little valley with a creek running through it that sparkled in the morning sunshine. Adam and Cornelius had set out from Cusco early and they were hungry when they spotted the little sign in the middle of nowhere with "Desayunos Trucha Fresca" scrawled on it, and an arrow pointing down over the bank. A breakfast of fresh trout sounded perfect. Peru was full of these fun little surprises, and Adam rarely passed them up.
But that morning, his mind went back to business as soon as they were seated. "I visited a couple of mines that this Korteba has built. They looked pretty good, and everyone I've talked to had good things to say about him. His installations run well and apparently there's no more maintenance than you'd expect with new equipment. I'm thinking seriously about going with reconditioned equipment."
Adam stopped talking and the two men watched with a combination of awe and amusement as two little boys came to the back door of the shack and handed the woman a couple of shiny, dripping trout. They each held a little willow stick with a string tied to it in their other hand.
"Now that's fresh trout!" said Cornelius, as the woman cleaned the fish at lightning speed and threw them into a pan on the tiny stovetop set up along the back wall of the shack.
By December, Korteba had a line on a used ball mill and a cone crusher for Minera San Diego. They were only 60-ton capacity, but it would be a good start. Adam gave him the go ahead to do the design for the mine, purchase the components, and start the reconditioning work.
Around the same time, he had a breakthrough on road-building equipment. The South American Industrial Exposition, an international trade show for large and small construction equipment, would be held in Lima later that year. The exhibitors couldn't legally sell anything in Peru, but Metallurg could transact with them through U.S. banks. At the end of the show a couple of months later, the vendors packed up and went home, leaving behind the equipment Adam needed to begin road construction.
To celebrate, he booked a week-long layover in Panama on his way home for the holidays. Jean would have things under control at home, and there were so many more countries and cultures to explore in this part of the world.
Shortly after Christmas, Adam received a telephone call from Bruce Clymber in New York. Metallurg was getting impatient. A year had passed since they had begun investing, and the price of molybdenum was continuing to climb.
"We're sending a couple of our best men to help you," he explained. "They're geologists, but more importantly, they've both set up mines around the world. Hopefully, they can help move things along down there. The old man upstairs is getting nervous."
First, Adam took the two visitors from Metallurg to Korteba's shop to inspect the equipment that was being rebuilt for him. They needed to see that he was making some progress on sourcing equipment. And they'd believe Korteba when he explained the business environment in Peru and the challenges Adam had been up against.
After a day at Korteba's shop, the experts from Metallurg had indeed begun to understand what was taking so long.
Next, they were supposed to help Adam plan the most expeditious approach to installing the equipment and getting the mine operational. Only one of the geologists would be able to travel to the mine site though. The other had visited the site when Metallurg had decided to waive the formal exploration phase, and suffered badly from altitude sickness.
Five minutes after arriving at the mine site the geologist who had come along said he needed to lie down. He was as white as a sheet.
Adam heard moaning from the tent a few minutes later. Then his name being called out.
"Adam... Adam!"
"What's wrong?" Adam responded.
"For the love of Allah, take me off this mountain."
"Try to get some sleep. Sleep is good for altitude sickness. You will feel better."
"Adam, I can't sleep. I'm dying. I will give you my wife and my daughter, and my cabin on the island in southern Turkey if you take me down the mountain."
He moaned for a while longer. Then finally, the tent went quiet.
A couple of days later, the two Metallurg geologists left Peru. But first, they assured Adam their report would inform the big bosses in New York that he was doing everything that could be done in the circumstances, and they had no recommendations.
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FORTY-SIX
1973
That spring, Adam was optimistic. It was looking like it was going to be a productive year. Maria was congratulating him regularly on his command of Spanish. "El jefe es un hombre muy inteligente," she told him. The boss is a very smart man. He practiced constantly, adding new words daily as he chatted with everyone he encountered, laughing along at his mistakes. And more importantly, all of the road-building equipment was in position, ready for construction to begin. They'd walked the route several times, marking it all out. It wasn't just the last section, between the llama herder's hut and the mine that they needed to build. Several miles of road back from there were too narrow and rough to get the mining equipment through. They would be building about ten miles of road in total. When the road was done they would haul in materials and build a proper camp, but tents would have to suffice for a while longer.
Despite Adam's optimism, progress on the road was slow. One week he had to pay off a lien that had mysteriously appeared on the dump trucks he'd purchased. Another week half the crew didn't show up. Then a mudslide covered the road they had just cut into the nex
t section of hillside, and it had to be redone. Always it was something and each time the schedule slipped a bit more. To mitigate the time the road was taking, Adam and Cornelius began hauling in small items using a pickup truck and the llamas. Then, when the road was complete enough to get small trucks over, they transported the rest of the building materials for the camp and the mine housing.
In the meantime, back in his shop in Lima, Korteba was busy integrating the additional mill and crusher Adam had purchased under the table from a German miner he'd met in Lima, and the electric motor that Diego had helped smuggle in from Chile. Together, all of this would give them 100 tons of capacity.
Once again, the year was almost over. Adam decided to spend a few more days at the mine site prior to heading home for Christmas. He wanted to help Cornelius make some progress on the buildings at the site. The road was finally nearing completion, and everything had to be ready to go after the holidays.
He'd done the two-day trip with Juvenal or Cornelius many times, but this would be the first time he would be driving from Lima to the mine by himself. The downpour started a couple of hours after he'd turned off the highway onto the dirt road that wound up and down through the mountains to Chalhuanca where he would spend the night. It was the wet season in the Andes. He'd heard about these storms, but so far, he hadn't experienced one. Within minutes, water from the slope above was rushing onto the road. The windshield wipers slapping back and forth on the highest speed weren't enough to keep the window clear. Slowing to a crawl, Adam considered his options. Darkness was falling. The road was narrow and winding, with steep drop-offs in places. His best guess was at least another half-hour at normal speed to reach the little hotel where they always stayed. If he turned back, the nearest town would be considerably further.