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Choquelimpie From Spain to Chile in 1984. Billiton was in turmoil, cutting jobs and down-sizing. The Choquelimpie project turned out to be the most interesting thing the group had going world-wide, and everyone wanted to interfere.
We signed an option to buy a small producing gold and silver mine located 4,500 m above sea-level in the far north of Chile. The existing owners were allowed to still truck ore out, even as we explored - a heart-breaking situation for us. We felt they were stealing our mine.
We explored under harsh conditions with poor support - almost opposition from the local company management at times - at record speed. We did an excellent job under circumstances so difficult we even fell out with friends we respected and admired.
After we'd been successful, purchased the mine and stopped the former owners from exploiting the ore-body the engineers moved in, and the exploration crew was all but ignored. When the mine was opened nobody from the exploration group was invited to the ceremony. Instead there were lawyers, accountants, overseas visitors and the Superintendent of the First Region, a military man.
The trip up to Choquelimpie started in Arica at sea level. The road led up the green oasis river valley then climbed up through the Atacama desert, which was totally barren. Eventually you rounded a corner to behold another oasis, fed by Andean ice caps, on which the village of Putre was located. Improbably we had built a modern hotel there.
Putre was at an elevation of about 3,000 metres above sea level, and the air was beginning to become a little thin. It took away your appetite and made it difficult to sleep well. The next morning the visitors continued up to 4,000 m on to the Altiplano where the River Lauca flowed, where chinchillas (vizcachas) played in the rocks, and where from time to time you might see a condor gliding above.
The mine and processing plant were set up a small valley at 4,500 m, near to the heart of an extinct volcano. Walking around at that elevation left you gasping for breath. Safety was important, and the engineering was impressive. The mine was built in benches up the mountainside, and the product was a dirty black sludge of amazing value.
It seemed so unjust not to invite the key exploration personnel to the official opening on March 9th 1989, that I determined that I would not work that day. Instead I requested a day's holiday for the whole exploration department in Santiago, and this was granted.
Choquelimpie, for me, is a wonderful example of how not to manage people! But our treatment at the opening did provoke me into writing verse for the first time in years, and that verse continues to satisfy me these many years on. Choquelimpie was important to me. I lived it and loved it.
Choquelimpie
(Santiago, 1989)
And now that it's all over, bar the shouting,
There'll be an outing.
Stringing silver lines at 30,000 feet across the world they come, some,
Linking with others, to the north, up they go, slow.
Positional talking, business chat, airy wave of hand,
Along the fertile ribbon, then rising through the sand
And, too much later, taking in the scene,
Hotel! (just as was promised!) in a patchwork green.
Legal beagle, counting drinks, with military grace,
To manage dinner (not too much), something on the rocks, save face.
Then pass the night (but barely sleep) until it's light
And breakfast, bus, vizcachas, condor's flight.
They'll marvel at the river and the plain,
The green steel and the Safety,
The spread heaps and the rock stair,
The filthy, precious dross, and gasp . . .
But only for air.
And A and B and C
And X and Y
Will not be there
Nor U nor I.
We knew the pain, the hope, the strain,
The working through with scant support,
The checks, the typing,
And when the ink was dry, we breathed a sigh.
We knew the rain, the muck, the cold,
We fought the hill, we fought our friends,
We brought the drill, we sought the gold.
We felt the thrill that triumph sends!
We wept with rage - the trucks still rolled!
And when we'd won, they threw us out!
And came and measured, built a project there,
And we pretended that we didn't care!
We soldiered on as if there was no doubt
We'd be remembered and invited back to shout.
And now that it's all over, bar the shouting,
There'll be an outing.
But A and B and C
And X and Y
Will not be there,
Nor U nor I.
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