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Show existence of the ore had been verified, there still was the problem of finding, in the last remaining 3 months, a market of a size and duration that would justify the tremendous investment required to open up the mine, build a town, construct a port, do all the fantastic things required in an area completely desolate--where rain never falls, where the nearest drinking water was forty miles away, where there were no railroads, not even any good roads. There was another little problem--we didn't have the money to do this job by ourselves. For your information, the number of investors with a handy five million dollars for purposes such as ours in far-off Peru are a touch scarce and, 1 might add, a scarce touch! We found the money and the market--but, under the sales contract, unless we started delivering ore in 4 months we would suffer great penalties. Everyone said that it couldn't be done. But Allen Christensen had the courage of his convictions. He had ordered millions of dollars of equipment months before, confident he could solve all the problems to be met along the way. I well remember the day we exercised the option for the Peruvian Mining Concession. Allen said: "Ed, we just entered the shipping business." I said: "What are you talking about?" He replied: "Like it or not, we'll end up operating bulk ore carriers, so we can control our ocean freight cost." I said: "The shipping business I don't like." But he knew then what all our directors know now. We've purchased three large ships and more are in the offing. The shipping business is profitable. I have to admit that that kind of business, I like. And now he's pondering the next step--What to do with 2-1/2 million tons of shipping going one way with full cargoes of iron ore and traveling back empty? It is not economic to use the back haul for the general cargo business and, while 1 do not know the answer, I am confident 6 |