170 UTAH INTERNATIONAL: A BIOGRAPHY OF A BUSINESS government abolished Peru’s twenty-year-old mining code. The new law significantly expanded government’s role in mining and established a state enterprise, Empresa Minera de Peru (Mineroperu), which monopolized foreign mineral trading and metal refining. Marcona executives worried particularly about the probable impact of the mineral marketing provision. After representatives of the Ministry of Energy and Mines clarified this provision and other matters, the company reaffirmed its desire to cooperate with the Velasco régime. In return, the government informed the company that Mineroperu’s monopoly in marketing minerals would not immediately interfere with the Marcona-San Juan’s profitable marketing and distribution business. These assurances led Marcona’s leaders to conclude they could continue advantageously under the new reforms, yet they sensed that the current changes signaled only the beginning of trouble for foreign firms. As a result, Marcona adopted a repositioning strategy, which included using the media to communicate its position. Inasmuch as the Velasco regime had taken de facto control of the Peruvian media, the company turned to the international press for a forum. In an interview with Forbes magazine on March 15, 1970, Robinson hinted that Marcona could and would leave Peru if the revolution’s policies became unbearable. “I am really quite discouraged with Peru,” he said. “They don’t know what they want and may have to go pretty far to learn the economic facts of life.” He stressed the firm’s new role as a leading international transportation company, saying, “If we had to, we could rapidly deploy our fleet elsewhere in the ore market and not show a substantial drop in revenues.” The article then editorialized: “Without Marcona, where would the Peruvians sell the ore and how would they ship it?” Robinson added diplomatically, “It’s nice to have a staunch boat, but it’s better to have a calm sea.” The Velasco régime responded to Marcona’s gentle message with similar restraint. Aware of its dependence on Marcona for its market contracts and especially for its transport fleet, the government assured Marcona that as long as the firm strove to expand production, it had nothing to fear. Consequently on December 28, 1970, Robinson announced that Marcona had reached an agreement with Lima, requiring the company to invest