Fleataxi
Deceased
The Mine
Author’s Note: Thanks to NV Cowboy for the use of his story “The Mime” which has been incorporated into this story.
Chapter 1
Kenneth Heinz IV was a 4th generation scion of the Heinz family fortune, a distant cousin of Teresa Heinz, the Billionairess wife of Senator Kerry. He was so distant that Teresa wouldn’t return his calls. Matter of fact, most of the family had written him off as a reprobate playboy who never grew up. If it weren’t for his trust fund, he probably would be destitute and living as a homeless bum in Beverly Hills. One of his pet ideas was researching old mining claims. The one thing he had ever done right in his life was to hook up with an excellent geologist who used to work for a big mining company until he got tired of the Third World. When Ken wasn’t getting blitzed in the local bar, he was poring through old mining claims at the Nevada State Archives. He had already located a few promising finds, but they were too small for his tastes. He had this grandiose plan to re-open a major silver mine and prove all those naysayers wrong, as he brought in the first million dollars worth of silver. He had a theory that some old mining claims were abandoned because 1800’s technology wouldn’t allow profitable extraction of the silver. With 21st century technology, the impossible was now the merely difficult. He had several other ideas, but they had to wait until he located a mine.
Steve Gibbons was out checking on another of Ken’s WAGs. He didn’t mind, they had located enough smaller claims to keep him in beer and food, as well as paying Steve’s child support. He looked much like the other Desert Rats wandering the Northern Nevada desert, driving a Toyota Land Cruiser with a full off-road kit, mining tools, a tent, and enough food and water to last several weeks because you never knew where or when you’d find water in the Nevada desert, or if it would be drinkable. He carried a test kit to test for heavy metals and other dangerous contaminants, and a Katadyn Voyager filter to get all the bugs out of the water he could drink. He went armed 24/7 with a Para-Ord P-14 Limited strapped to his waist, a lever action 30-30 cowboy rifle, and a .308 M-1a National Match with 10 magazines loaded with JHPBT hunting ammo that was well hidden in a secret compartment of the Land Cruiser. He didn’t have a hunting license on him, but it wasn’t 4-legged critters that the rifle was for! He had a lot of valuable stuff in his rig, and knew of several miners who had been robbed and either killed outright or left for dead.
He had pulled some soil samples from Ken’s latest find, and from what he saw, this one looked promising enough to venture inside the mine and check out its condition. He wasn’t too worried about cave-ins because it was so dry in Nevada that it took centuries for the thick beams to rot. He always carried 3 lights with him, a fanny pack with food, water, and a awesome first aid kit. He also carried a respirator and a air monitor that constantly checked the oxygen level, and for any explosive gasses. He used a safety line to the surface to find his way out – he got the idea from spelunkers who explored caves, who could get turned around in the darkness. It carried thousands of feet of fluorescent 10/50 Spyderwire on a self-deploying spool. Before entering, he tied the end to the bumper of his Land Cruiser, and double-checked his gear. As he entered the mine, he always said a quick prayer, even though he wasn’t really religious. So far it had worked for 25 years of exploring mines. He could count on one hand the number of geologists who were still in the business after 25 years. As he walked in, he lit the bright Xenon bulb on his headlamp that was connected to a 6vdc 12Ah gel cell on his belt kit. This lamp had enough battery power to last over a week between charges, if the batteries drained too far to power the big bulb he still had a white LED array that would stay lit until the battery was totally dead. He also had a Surefire Aviator in his kit with 2 spare batteries. As he walked into the mine, he mapped the passages with a grease pencil on several sheets of acetate just in case things got damp. He inspected the beams holding the ceiling up, and they were in remarkable shape, with no signs of rot or deterioration. It was cold and dark in the mine, but he was used to the risks. Occasionally, he’d come across a colony of bats. Bats were the only thing that bothered him – he felt it was because of all the Vampire movies he watched growing up. The deeper he got into the mine, the more promising it looked. It was full of silver-bearing ore. He took samples at regular intervals, storing them in small jars that were pre-labeled with numbers. He simply wrote the number on his map to indicate where he took the sample. He had 50 sample containers on him. When he filled all of them, he would be finished. This mine was in good shape, so it shouldn’t take too long to explore it. As he got even deeper into the mine he thought he was at least 100 feet down when he found it. He took out his handpick to take a sample, and his first effort almost bounced off the rock! Steve knew that Silver was almost always found in the presence of quartz, and by the looks of the mine walls, this area was the edge of a huge vein of microscopic silver, but the concentration of silver was so great that the dirt looked like it was a made of pewter. He took another swing with his pick, and this time it bit. Quickly he opened a sample jar, and positioning it directly under his pick, worked the pick loose, dropping the sample in the jar. Steve quickly sealed the jar, marked its position on the map, then as excited as he had been in years, quickly made his way to the surface.
When he got to the surface, he hid his samples in another secret compartment, quickly broke camp, started the Land Cruiser, and headed home.
Chapter 2
8 hours later, Steve reached his home outside of Fallon, NV. He lived next to an old assay office that had gone out of business, and Steve had bought it lock, stock and barrel with some help from Ken. He lived in a mobile home on the property, and used the building and equipment to perform tests on samples he brought back from the field. Ken refused to allow an independent lab to test his samples. Steve thought that was a little paranoid, but didn’t complain because it gave him a place to live, and he could do the basic tests himself. One thing that was immediately apparent after he did his preliminary tests is the concentration of silver in the ore went up progressively as he got deeper. His last sample was almost pure silver with a little quartz mixed in. He picked up a special cell phone from his Haliburton briefcase that had a one-time pad scrambling device attached, and dialed Ken’s cell number. Ken had a matching unit on his phone, and it never left his side. When Ken finally answered the phone, Steve could tell he was in a bar due to the noise, and the fact that Ken’s voice was slurred.
“Ken, I need to talk to you ASAP! I’m on my way to meet you. We need to talk face to face about this. Where do you want to meet?”
“Steve, I think I’m in a bar in Virginia City – I’m in no shape to drive, so you’re going to have to come here.”
“Ken, I’m leaving now, it will take about 8 hours to get there, try and sober up in the meantime – this is important!”
“You found something?’
“Not over the phone Ken!”
“Ok…OK! I’ll see you in 8 hours – bye!”
Ken turned to the bartender and ordered another double Scotch - it didn’t take him 8 hours to get sober enough to talk to Steve!
Meanwhile, Steve put all his samples and paperwork into a floor safe the previous owners had installed, and Steve promptly changed the combination, so he alone knew the combination. He packed his heavy artillery back in the gun safe, and moved the P-14 to a DeSantis Shoulder Holster with a double magazine holder on the opposite side to balance it. He shrugged his shoulders a couple of times to set the holster, put on a light jacket to cover the holster, then checked the contents of his briefcase. In it where his notes, and the one sample that showed almost pure silver. He locked the briefcase and spun the wheels to scramble the combination. Next he clipped the leash to the case that terminated in a handcuff. Steve thought that was way too paranoid, but as Ken was fond of saying “Just because you’re Paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you!” Considering what he was carrying, and the potential value of his discovery, he was glad Ken was a little paranoid!
Steve got in the Land Cruiser, and noticed the tank was almost empty. He hit a self-serve station on the way out of town, paying attention to his rearview mirrors. He made a couple of random turns until he was sure he wasn’t being followed, then headed out to US 50 to go to Virginia City. It would only take him 2 hours at the most, so he figured Ken would still be in the bar. Steve thought it better that Ken didn’t know he was so close, just in case. He drove on through the night, and arrived in Virginia City around 10pm. He stopped at a convenience store, called Ken using a pay phone, got the location of the bar, and went to pick Ken up. Ken’s driver’s license had been revoked years ago for his 5th DUI in 3 years. Ken either took taxis, or else hired a chauffeured limousine to drive him around. Ken was a happy drunk, and most of his so-called friends were barflies that Ken picked up the tab for. When Steve arrived, Ken was seriously in the tank, and Steve had to get help to put him in the vehicle. Luckily Ken was sober enough to tell him what motel he was staying in, so Steve drove there, deposited Ken in his room, and got the room next to Ken’s for the night. Steve made sure there was no mini-bar in Ken’s room before locking Ken in, then walking to his room, taking a shower and going to bed. He slept restlessly, and finally he could hear Ken moving around by about 8:00 the next morning. Steve got dressed quickly and then quietly knocked on Ken’s door.
He caught Ken just in time, he knew Ken’s hangover cure was to get drunk again, and he was dressed, and about to find a bar that was open at 8:00. Instead, Steve offered to drive Ken to a restaurant and eat some breakfast and drink some coffee – he needed Ken sober for what he was going to tell him. Ken was his usual grumpy self in the morning, but Steve was brooking no argument. They got into the Land Cruiser, and stopped at a nearby restaurant. Steve ordered a big breakfast, and Ken just ordered a Bloody Mary - his second favorite hangover cure, and some toast with butter. Steve’s plate arrived full of scrambled eggs, a large New York Steak, and hash browns. Ken started turning green at the sight of all that food, but was saved when the waitress brought his meal. He sipped the Bloody Mary, and between that and the toast his stomach settled down. Finally Ken felt good enough to drink some coffee, and after several cups, was finally wired enough to start sobering up. The restaurant was almost deserted, so Steve figured he could give Ken the preliminaries over breakfast. He walked over to the waitress, paid the tab with a $20 bill and told her to keep the change, then asked her if they had a carafe for coffee, and when she said yes, Steve asked her to fill it with fresh coffee and leave it on the table. They had some business to discuss, and didn’t want to be disturbed for an hour. Seeing how dead the restaurant was, the waitress readily agreed since Steve gave her about double what the meal cost. She paid for their meal, and pocketed the $10.00 tip, and handed Steve the full carafe of coffee. He thanked her, carried the carafe back to the table, poured himself and Ken some coffee, then put his briefcase on the table, dialed the combination, and opened it.
“Ken you might want to read this. The preliminary numbers indicate a huge deposit of silver ore, and the best news is it is relatively shallow. I went to the bottom of the old mine, and I was maybe 100 feet down! There isn’t much overburden, I found significant quantities of silver less than 50 feet down. If we can get a permit to pit mine this, we could dig down to the silver, extract the ore, and eventually go underground to follow the vein when we go too deep to economically pit mine. With modern equipment, it would be much cheaper to remove all the dirt and ore and separate it later, than to continue to mine it in shafts like the old miners did. First thing we need is clear title to the site, then we need an exploratory team to dig some bore holes, then finally we are going to excavate the entire vein down to 2000 feet if it goes that deep, then go underground to follow the vein after that point.”
“Steve, how sure are you of those numbers – I haven’t seen concentrations like this since the Comstock mine.”
“Ken, I’ve got the sample right here – as you can see, it’s almost 80% pure silver.”
“Steve, I need a ride to Carson City right now – the Department of Mines opens at 8:00 am, and we need to hurry up and file claims for a 10-mile radius of the site.
“10 Miles – are you nuts?”
“Relax Steve, I have some other ideas besides just a mine – I’ll buy as much land as I can around the site – I want to do something different. How’d you like to work at a self-contained town with one employer, and everyone got along?”
“You’re kidding, Right? It was tried in the 30’s when they built Hoover Dam - as soon as the dam was built, the town dried up and blew away.”
“Steve, how long would it take to mine out this deposit?”
“Best guess is 30-50 years for the existing deposit, plus whatever we discover while we’re down there.”
“Ok, and how long did it take to build the Hoover Dam?”
“I don’t know – maybe 5 years max. OK, now I get it – you’re planning on the project lasting long enough that they establish roots there and branch out to other activities as the mine peters out.”
“Exactly Steve – and we will interview people who move into our town – we won’t let any riff-raff in, and we will have the best schools, medical care and everything the people could want! My family thought they were doing some good sending money to charities that put a Band-Aid on the problem. I plan on designing a model community that will fix the problem permanently! We’ll make the townspeople shareholders in the company, pay them well, and take care of everything they need.”
“Ken, that sounds like Socialism to me.”
“Steve, it’s not – here’s why:
In Socialism, citizens are forced by a coercive government to join the system against their will, often against their best interests. My situation is a private contract between an employer and an employee who is free to leave at any time. Everything I’m doing for them could be construed as benefits of employment, but I have totally cut out the middleman. Imagine if a doctor didn’t have to bill for services, didn’t have to fill out forms to justify procedures to Medicare or an insurance company, and was immune from malpractice lawsuits except for gross negligence – like amputating the wrong leg! They’d get paid by the mine company, partly in cash, partly in stock certificates. We’d build their houses for them, they would have no housing costs, no property taxes, no fees for gas or electric because we will be totally self-sufficient for energy. All they’d have to buy is their own food, clothing, gasoline for their personal car, any entertainment expenses, and a few minor expenses.
All their health, education, spiritual, housing, and recreational needs would be taken care of. They wouldn’t have to worry about getting laid off, and they could only be fired after numerous counseling sessions. We’ll be very picky about who we hire and let into our community, so that will eliminate a lot of problems.”
“Ken, how are you going to afford all this?”
I’ve already talked to some friends of mine who told me they could invest up to 100 million each into a silver mine if they got 30% of the stock, and 10% of the profit per year. I’m going to run this operation on a low profit margin, so they won’t cost us much per year. I’m so filthy stinkin rich that I don’t want a dime out of this, I just want to do the right thing for once. I’ve wasted my life being a drunken bum, now here’s my chance to make something of my life. And guess what – you found it for me!” Ken was practically gushing, so Steve shut him down fast.
“Ken, we still need to buy the land, and file a claim. We can’t do anything until we get that first.”
“Well, what are you waiting for – let’s get going!”
Ken seemed transformed – gone was the stumbling drunk of the previous night, and a real person emerged. His life finally had purpose, so he had some self-respect and would hopefully pull himself out of the bottle.
Chapter 3
A couple of hours later, they arrived in Carson City. Ken was wide awake and sober as a Judge. He even changed his clothes before they left. All in All, Ken looked like a new man. After driving around the State Capitol for 15 minutes trying to find a parking spot, Steve located one just as someone was pulling out, and zipped in right before anyone could cut him off and steal his spot. Steve remembered he was packing, looked around to make sure no one was within eyesight of him, and quickly took off the shoulder holster and slid it under the driver’s seat, then picked up his Haliburton briefcase, and carried it into the lobby. Ken followed Steve, because he knew where he was going. They were stopped briefly at the metal detectors, and asked to open the briefcase. Ken stepped in, talked to the security guard, who immediately tapped his partner on the shoulder, and gave him a brief nod, then they were let through without any further delay.
“Ken, What did you say to that guard?”
“I couldn’t help it, I showed him my State ID and he recognized my last name.”
“Good thing Rank Still Has its Privileges.”
“Let’s get into the State Mining Office before they change their minds.”
Ken set off at a brisk pace, and soon they were at the right office.
Ken knocked gently on the door.
“Enter”
Ken and Steve walked into the office of someone who needed to get outside more.
They were greeted by a man who looked 60 but was really 40 years old, with a grey wizened visage, short grey hair, horn rimed glasses, and a pocket protector in his white button down dress shirt. He was probably wearing black slacks and black wingtips. When he got up to greet Ken, Steve confirmed his suspicions. They were in the office of a major geek!
“Ken, long time no see, what can the State of Nevada do for you?”
“Dennis, I need you to search deeds and titles for some land I have a mining claim to. I plan to exercise that claim, and need to buy 200 square miles around it for my mining operation.”
“Ken, let me double check your claim first, then we’ll work on the land deeds and titles.”
Steve opened his case, extracted a piece of paper with the GPS coordinates of the mine, as well as the legal description. Dennis took the slip, and walked back into the stacks of documents. He was back 4 minutes later with a large sealed file folder.
“Found your claim – amazingly it was right where it belonged. Anyway, let’s go into the conference room. This is going to involve a huge amount of paperwork!”
As they walked into the conference room, they took seats near each other so they could pass paperwork back and forth.
“OK, first things first. Here’s your registered claim. It’s current for another 5 years. Since you are going to develop the claim, you need to fill out some more paperwork, and pay some fees to the State. How is title to be deeded to the property?”
“I’m sure my attorney has several Nevada Shell Corporations already on file, can I call you after I talk to my lawyer?”
“Sure, we won’t be ready to put the paperwork together for at least a couple of days. Next thing is we need to find out who owns the land around your mining claim.”
Dennis pulled out some paperwork, then some more, and finally a third piece. “Ken, today must be your lucky day. It seems all the land around the mine is either State or BLM land.”
“Won’t the BLM be a problem?”
“I don’t imagine with your family name they will raise any objections to selling you the land. The State land can be deeded to the mine, all it takes is paperwork. Because its open desert, we could sell it to you for less than 100 dollars an acre. I’m sure the BLM will be equally accommodating.”
“Dennis, I need to know an exact price because I have to line up investors. Even I don’t have that kind of money lying around. Also, I want ALL rights to the property.”
“That’s a little irregular for a mining operation. Why do you want all rights?”
“Dennis, I’ll tell you because I know and trust you, but this can’t leave this room. I intend to build a self-contained community at the mine site for all the miners and their families.”
“You mean a company town like the one they built for the Hoover Dam?”
“Exactly, except I plan on working the mine for at least 50 years.”
“Just how big is this strike?”
“Dennis, I can’t talk about that until I own all the land, the last thing I need is some problem buying the land to kill the mine project.”
“ Very well, I won’t say anything.”
“Dennis, everything we say in this room is confidential, and if you breathe a word of this to anyone, you will be getting a call from my attorney!”
“OK…Lighten up a little Ken! I’ve been doing this for years, I can keep my lips zipped!”
“You’d better, this project could be as big as the Carlin Trend!”
“No Shit! Man, I better keep it zipped – If we’re talking that kind of money, I don’t want to be the reason the State had to pay a multi-million dollar suit!”
“Now you’re getting the picture. Is there anything I need to sign, or do I need to leave a deposit for the property?”
“Considering the size of the purchase, a $100,000.00 deposit would be in order.”
“Would you accept a wire transfer from my trust fund? I’m going to need to know the account number to transfer it to.”
“Let me ask, I’ll be back in a minute Ken.”
Two minutes later Dennis arrived with his Supervisor.
“I understand you wish to wire transfer a $100,000.00 deposit?”
“Yes Sir, that is correct. I could write a check, but frankly I doubt your bank would be able to complete the transaction without any delays. It’s safer and cheaper to wire transfer that kind of money. If you’d give me the deposit account information, I can call my banker, and the money will be wire transferred within the hour.”
The Supervisor left and came back with a form that had all the banking information on it.
“Here you go Mr. Heinz, sorry about the delay, but I had to ask the Director. When he heard your name, he told me to expedite your transaction. Therefore, I will personally handle your wire transfer, receipt and deed or title transactions.”
“I just want to make sure Dennis gets credit for all the work he’s done.”
“Very well Mr. Heinz, you can use the phone at my desk to call the bank.”
They walked into the Supervisor’s Office, It was much nicer than Dennis’ cubicle.
Ken dialed a number from memory, and soon was talking to the President of the Bank of America. Ken told him he was putting the conversation on speaker phone, then continued.
“Jim, how are you doing?”
“Fine Ken, what can I do for you?”
“I’m sitting in the office of the State of Nevada Department of Mines, I need you to wire transfer 100 thousand dollars from my trust fund to the bank here in Nevada that the State uses.”
“No problem Ken. Can I talk to someone from the State?”
“Jim, he’s right here. I’m sorry I never got your name?”
“My apologies Mr. Heinz. My name is Bob Jones.”
“Very well, Mr. Jones- I’m prepared to transfer the funds if you have all the account information handy.”
“Yes Sir, I do” Bob read off the account information, and Jim read it back to him.
Jim then spoke to Ken, “The money will be in the account within the hour. Could you e-mail a receipt to my attention, and give a copy to Mr. Heinz?”
“Yes Sir, Right away!”
Ken then thanked Jim and hung up.
Bob was visibly shaken, he’d never handled that kind of money before, and he was speaking to the President of Bank of America! He called the bank, and 5 minutes later, the bank e-mailed acknowledgment of receipt of the wire transfer. Bob made a copy for Ken, and e-mailed a copy to Jim at B of A, then he wrote out a receipt for the deposit to Ken. Ken now felt better since the state was in receipt of the earnest money deposit on the land. In another week or two, he’d own the land, then he could start exploration and building.
Chapter 4
Dateline: Reno, Nevada 2 weeks later
Ken was amazed at what he had accomplished in two weeks. Maybe it was because he was stone cold sober for the first time in years. The first thing he did after leaving the State Mining office was to drive over to his friend Sam’s office in Reno, and offer him the job of Corporate Attorney for his new venture. Sam was the attorney who had successfully argued in Federal Court when his Aunt Theresa had tried to get his Trust Fund stripped from him and Ken institutionalized as too incompetent to care for himself. Sam did such a good job of defending him that not only did the judge rule in their favor, he further ordered the suit dismissed with prejudice, and that Theresa would not only pay all legal fees including Ken’s, but punitive damages in excess of $10 million. The result of that was that Ken was free to live his life as he wanted to without any further family interference, and the value of his trust fund had tripled. Sam worked for a prominent Reno Law Firm as a Junior Partner, so Ken’s offer was generous enough that Sam gave the firm his notice and quit right then and there, but not before he finished setting up Ken’s new mining venture using one of the Corporation’s Shell Companies they had already set up with the State of Nevada.
They then drove to a large suite of hotel rooms where Steve, Ken and Sam all went over the entire project, wrote the prospectus and proposal for the venture. When they were finished, Sam called the people Ken had recommended who had shown an interest in this kind of project, and who had verbally pledged up to $100 Million a piece, if Ken ever found a rich enough strike, never thinking he’d actually do it. Several days later when they had finished, Ken was looking better than ever, but Sam realized that Ken would never make the right impression with the people he needed to impress in a rumpled 5-year old suit, and he wasn’t even going to get started on his physical appearance. Sam suggested that they take Ken to his cosmetologist for a complete make-over, then to his haberdashery to get several new suits. When Ken objected, Sam told Ken that if he wanted $100 million, that he had to look like he was worth at least 10% of it. Ken relented, but then told Sam – No Armani’s!
Sam laughed, “I doubt they MAKE an Armani Suit in your size!”
With that settled, Sam put all the paperwork in his briefcase, which was a much nicer version of Steve’s briefcase, but just as secure. Sam made a few calls, and when they reached the lobby, the doorman ushered them into a jet-black Cadillac Stretch Limousine. Steve was impressed, but Sam said it was all part of the image. From here on out, they’d be traveling first class until they actually got the mine open. Besides, Sam told them, Ken’s trust fund could afford it. They drove to an exclusive Cosmetologist shop, where not only Ken, but Steve got the full treatment, over Steve’s loud objections. Sam placated him by telling him if he were going to be at the meeting, he couldn’t go looking like a Desert Rat. Steve agreed, and submitted grudgingly to the preening and pampering. Several hours later, they drove to the haberdashery, where both Ken and Steve were fitted for suits, and Sam ordered 6 suits each with all the accessories. When they were finished, they went back to the hotel to make some phone calls, and arrange the first meeting of the Nevada Silver Mine, Inc.
Several days later, they were flying a chartered executive jet to New York City to meet his prospective Board of Directors. When they landed, they were met by a chauffeured limousine, and driven to Rockefeller Center. The meeting was to be held in the Conference Center of one of the major investors. Several hours later, he had his financial backing, on the condition that he remain clean and sober. He swore that he’d never touch another drop of alcohol. Now that he was sober, he really didn’t want to. With the letters of finance in hand, and a promise to tender Preferred Stock Certificates and Board positions to the 6 principal contributors, he left for Nevada. Later that afternoon, he arrived at the State Department of Mines. This time he was met at the door by the Director of Mines, who bowed and scraped like a lackey. It’s amazing what 2 weeks, a make-over, limousine, and Letters of Credit worth $200 Million can do.
The Director had all the paperwork transferring title to 250 square miles around the mine site to the corporation, and made copies of the Letters of Credit. When they were finished, Ken signed the paperwork, legally taking title to the land. He now had airtight deed and title to the mine, and 250 square miles of land around it, including all rights. Ken was ready to celebrate, and then remembered his promise. Instead the three of them had a more subdued celebration at a local steak house in a private room that Sam arranged for them.
The next day, they drove out to the mine site, and walked the site, while Steve took GPS readings for a later survey team and exploration team. They would drill 1,000 ft test holes in a grid to determine where the bulk of the silver was buried. Meanwhile, Ken was on the phone to a friend of his, placing orders for used mining equipment, including Haulpacks, Front-end Loaders, sorters/separators, smelters and other equipment. His friend nearly fell off his chair when Ken told him where he wanted them delivered, until Ken told him he had Letters of Credit in his possession worth $200 Million. That got his attention. All of a sudden, the salesman was trying to sell him everything under the sun. Ken agreed to some of it, but said NO to most of it. Ken ordered used equipment were he could, and new when he had to. By the time he had finished, he had spent between the land and the equipment between $30 and $50 Million of the $200 Million, and he still had a bunch of stuff to do.
When he finished, Steve used the Cell Phone to call a friend of his that owned a Mine Survey and Exploration company in Reno. His friend gave him a reasonable quote, and Ken accepted on the spot. That gave Sam an idea, and when Sam and Ken were done talking, Ken took Steve aside, and asked him if he wanted to be the Vice President of the Mine. Ken new squat about mining, except how to locate promising sites in the archives. He didn’t know anything about operations. Steve asked him how much it paid, and Ken asked him how $1 million per year grabbed him. Steve’s eyes almost popped out of their sockets, as his jaw tried to hit the floor. “Ken, are you serious?”
“Steve, this mine is going to earn between $20 and $100 million per year for over 50 years. Obviously, neither one of us is going to be alive for another 50 years, so I wanted to make sure I took care of the guy who gave me my self-respect back!”
“Ken, you got your own self-respect back, I just checked out a mine you found.”
“OK, whatever, but you’re one of the few people who believed in me when no one else did, and I can repay that kind of loyalty.”
“You know of course that my Ex-wife’s attorney will immediately try to grab it all.”
Sam chimed in, “Not if I can help it. By the time I’m through burying your assets in corporate paperwork, no one could touch you.”
“Nice to have a pro working FOR me for once!”
“Steve, as the Corporate Attorney, I also represent all the Corporate Officers, that includes you if you accept the position of Vice President.”
“Of Course I accept, I’d have to be nuts to turn it down!”
With that, they got back into the limousine and drove back to Reno.
Chapter 5
Dateline: Reno, NV two weeks later
Ken and Steve were in the14th floor suite of Mine offices in Reno when the FEDEX driver showed up. He had a package that required Ken’s signature from the Mining Survey Company. Rubbing his hands together gleefully, Ken signed the form, and the driver handed over a 3 inch thick document in a sealed FEDEX envelope. As soon as the driver left, he grabbed a penknife from his pocket and slit the package open. As Ken read the summary page, Steve started reading the body of the report, which was highly technical. When Ken finished reading, he jumped up and down yelling excitedly “We’re Rich!!! I’ve Done it!”
When he finally calmed down, Steve walked over to him and gave Ken a big hug. “If these guys are right, the deposit we’re sitting on is over 100 times the size of the Comstock Mine! Not only that, but most of it is shallow enough to pit mine for at least the first 20 years, then we’ll have to go underground. Also, it says here there are sufficient quantities of other metals to make it worth mining them. I’m glad you bought all that acreage, it looks like this vein goes on forever – it’s about 3 times the size of the Carlin Trend! We could easily mine this for the next 50 years at today’s price. I think you should contact the board, and get authorization based on this report to double the size of the claim, and triple the footprint of the site itself!”
Ken got on the telephone to the Director of his Board, then e-mailed the summary sheet to him. He was so excited that he authorized doubling his share immediately, and buying all the land he needed. He’d clear it with the rest of the board. Ken called Sam into the room, explained the situation to him, and asked his opinion as to how best to expand the claim and the mine. Steve then explained the extent and expanse of the known deposit. It seemed that every bore hole had significant quantities of silver ore, and they had drilled over 1000 bore holes in a 2-mile square grid pattern, some going as deep as 1000 feet. The ore traces started at 50 feet below the surface, and went down several hundred feet in layers. Sam suggested chartering a Bell Jet Ranger helicopter to fly him to Carson City, where he would file the paperwork and fees personally. As the Corporate Attorney, he had full Power of Attorney to take care of it. As soon as they finished, Ken told Sam to do it, and to call him from Carson City as soon as it was done. Sam called the charter company at Reno-Tahoe Airport, and told them to warm up a Jet Ranger for a quick round trip to Carson City. He asked the manager where the nearest heliport to the Capitol was. The manager assured him that if there wasn’t one at the capitol, he’d arrange transport to and from the Capitol. Sam told him that the pilot might have to wait at the airport for several hours. The manager said no problem, he’d reserve it for the rest of the day, but just bill them for actual time. Sam said he’d be there in 15 minutes, and hung up. Sam grabbed all the paperwork he’d need, stuffed it in his briefcase, and ran downstairs to jump in the limousine, told the driver to go to the airport and hurry! An hour later, he was in the office of the Director of Mines.
“Sam this is most irregular, but all your paperwork appears in order, and you do have the right to expand your claim as long as no one else has a competing claim. The nearest claim is over 100 miles away, so you’re OK. I’ll handle the extra land transfers as well. All the land you require is state land, so there is no problem. All I need now is a deposit for the land.”
“Bob, I’ll do one better, I have an additional Letter of Credit here for $200 million dollars, I’m sure that will more than cover the deposit, any fees, and the cost of the land.”
“I’m sure that would be sufficient. Let me give you a receipt for all the fees, and the sales of the land. If you could wait an hour, I can have the title transferred to the Corporation.”
“Bob, I’m not going anywhere until I have the title in hand – do you have a restroom? I drank too much coffee!”
“Sure, you can use the executive washroom, here’s my key – third door on the right.”
“Thanks Bob!”
About an hour later, the Director came out to the lobby with a huge pile of paperwork.
“Sam, let’s go in my office, we’ve got a pile of paperwork for you to sign, then the titles will be transferred to the corporation.”
They moved to Bob’s office, and Bob was passing paperwork to Sam.
“Wait a minute Bob, I specified all rights – it seems this land doesn’t include water rights – does someone own the water rights?”
“I’m sure that’s an oversight, let me go into the files and check the originals.”
15 minutes later Bob was back. “I’m sorry Sam, the clerk checked the wrong box, This is the corrected copy showing ALL rights are transferred.”
Sam carefully read over all the paperwork, and half an hour later, was ready to sign the title.
Bob handed him the form he needed to sign to transfer the title to the Corporation. Sam read it carefully, then signed for the corporation. Bob reached over to shake Sam’s hand “Pleasure doing business with you Sir.”
“Thanks Bob, now I have to go, The helicopter is waiting and the meter is running.”
“You flew a helicopter down here from Reno?”
“Sure did – rented a Bell Jet Ranger – we wanted to make sure we got the land quickly.”
“Well we definitely broke all speed records.”
“Thanks Bob, We appreciate it – now I’ve got to go!”
Sam turned and hurried out of the office, making sure he picked up all the documents. The Chauffeur saw him coming, and had the door opened and the car running before he got there. As soon as the door closed, Sam called the office on his Cell phone.
“Ken, Great News – I got all the land we wanted with All the rights, and we expanded the claim even beyond the boundaries you gave me – it cost less than a thousand dollars extra to triple the size of the claim to match the property the corporation owns. I have the signed title paperwork and the claim in my briefcase.”
“Great Sam! Excellent Work, now hurry up back so we can get the documents in the safe.”
Right as they ended the call, the limousine pulled up to the Jet Ranger, the rotors were already turning, so Sam thought that the Limousine driver had called ahead. Sam quickly stepped out of the Limousine, gave the driver a $50.00 bill for a tip, then boarded the helicopter. As soon as he was aboard, the pilot radioed for clearance to lift off, and then the chopper jumped 50 feet into the air and tore its way back to Reno. The office building had a heliport on the roof, so the chopper pilot landed there. Sam stepped out while the rotors were still turning, making sure to duck until he was inside the doorway. As soon as he was inside the building, the Jet Ranger spooled up and took off. Sam took the elevator down to their office, handed the paperwork to Ken, got a big hug for a job well done, and Ken put the paperwork in the safe.
“Now that we’ve got that accomplished, what next?”
Steve spoke up. “Ken, the equipment should be delivered next week, and the ads will go out this week nationwide. Several papers had a question as to the wording of the ads.”
“Did they accept the ads as written?”
Sam jumped in. “Ken, Steve told me of the papers that objected, I called them back as the Corporate Attorney and talked to their legal department. They told the editor that it was OK to run as written. They thought it was bizarre, but legal.”
“I don’t care what those Whinny-Ass Liberals Think! I’m a private employer, and I can hire who I want, and when I want!”
“Ken, I’m afraid you’re going to have problems with Affirmative Action.”
“Why – I’m hiring Blacks, Mexicans, and everyone else!”
“OK, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there – just means extra work for me.”
“Sam, if you need to, hire staff. I can’t let my dream fail just because some nosy bureaucrat wants to stick his 2 cents in! You’re the Attorney – Deal with it!”
Ken went on, “OK, what do we have left to do?”
Steve decided to field this question.
“As soon as we hire the employees, we need to set up housing for them, power and water for the mine and the community, then we are going to need basic services, shopping, schools, basically everything a community has to have.”
“What about churches?”
“Ken, I sent letters to local churches, offering to supply the buildings if they would provide the pastors. We can pay them too.”
“Any takers?”
“So far, several non-denominational ministers have expressed interest, and several main-line churches.”
“Great, what else?”
“We’ve had the usual crackpots and flim-flam artists trying to get into the community – probably to fleece the flock.”
“OK, Steve, use your best judgment. What if we allow the members to select their own ministers, and have the people who are interested come to preach?”
“Excellent – it would work for an audition. We’ll pay the ministers per diem so they can’t take a collection, and will be unable to fleece the flock.”
“OK, next item. We’re going to need a lot of electricity to run this place.”
“Way ahead of you Ken – I have several friends who were into Alternative Energy, and a couple are Electrical Engineers, and one built and designed Steam generators. The first thing we need to do is set up a monitoring site at the mine to determine wind velocity and direction, as well as the amount of sunlight – actually, we don’t need the sunlight figures – I know what it’s like out there after being a desert rat for 6 years. What they proposed is every house have a Thin-film PV roofing system, a Solar hot water booster, and fluorescent fixtures. They save a ton of electricity. In order to keep things simple, we want to make the mobile homes all electric, even if it’s less efficient – that way we don’t have to import propane. My friend has an idea for a huge Heliostat that can generate thousands of MWh per day. We can back that up with diesel generators, and also we can probably build a huge wind farm with those huge wind turbines that I’m sure you’ve seen in the Cajon Pass up I-15. Also, I had the survey company do some extra tests, and we might have geothermal capability right on the property. I’m sure Sam would love to file all the paperwork with the PUC for the corporation to become a Power Company so we can receive all the State kickbacks we can get by using geothermal and other Alternative Energy Systems.”
“Great Steve, but what’s all this going to cost?”
“Far less than the cost of running a 100Kv transmission line onto the property, and all the monthly expenses to the power company. I just thought of something – the power company can bill the Mining Company for all the power it uses – and we own both of them!”
“Steve, sometimes you’re so smart you scare me!”
“OK, how about water?”
“Ken, once we begin de-watering the mine, we’ll have more water than we know what to do with. We could put a huge treatment plant on the property, treat the de-watering output to better than EPA standards, and pump it to all the homes. Everyone would have their own septic system. I suggest putting the houses on 2 acre lots minimum so they have enough room to have animals or raise a garden. That reminds me, we need to grade roads and stuff. I guess we can use mine equipment for road building and snow removal if necessary. Also, I highly recommend we bury the electrical and phone lines.”
“Why is that? I’ve always seen above ground telephone poles.”
“For one thing it’s cheaper, and safer. Also, we only have to dig one trench along the road, run the phone, water and electric in one trench. If you put the water on the bottom, the phone and electric systems are OK.”
“Dang, that reminds me – PHONES! I know MA Bell is going to charge a ton of money to wire the entire complex for phones.”
“Ken, I’ve got an idea. It will cost a bundle to install, but it would be worth it in the long run. How about running your own local phone company, installing fiber optic cable phone lines between the houses, and if they need to get out of the town, use a microwave system to tie into the phone system. That way you can transmit TV and telephone as well as DSL quality internet access all through the same line. It would cost about the same as having Ma Bell come in and install conventional phone service, but this way you’d own the system, and the only cost would be the microwave access service. As long as no one dug up the fiber optic cables, they’d outlast the houses.”
“Steve, I’m glad I’m paying you a million dollars a year – you’re worth every penny! OK, let’s make the arrangements and get this done. I want to get the best prices for everything, so think “economy of scale” If we’re going to need 100 of something eventually and only need 10 now – get a contract for the 100 price, and have them shipped as needed.”
“Ken, we need to interview the key people, then they can interview the supervisors, who can interview the employees.”
“OK, but I want to make sure everyone we hire meets my guidelines that I laid down: No drinkers, druggies, problem children, Affirmative Action Crybabies, or other dead weight types, that goes for the families as well. Make it clear to them that we will not tolerate people who cause problems, or can’t get along with their neighbors. Also, NO Lawyers!”
Sam kind of gulped at that comment, then he realized that with him and his staff running things – they didn’t need any more lawyers.
“One other thing, if anyone has a propensity to sue instead of working out their problems civilly, I want them told to look somewhere else! Living here is conditional on working here, and working here is conditional on getting along, pulling your weight, and going above the call of duty if necessary! Am I clear on this?”
“Crystal – Ken. What are we supposed to tell them about wages?”
Steve, Sam – I’m going to explain my dream to you – so sit down, grab something to drink, and take a load off. Some would accuse me of Socialism, or something else, but I feel we do a worker a disservice if we pay the bulk of his wages in cash, then expect him to go buy everything he needs from someone who is out to make a buck. I propose that we take care of our workers, not as a Socialist Nanny, but as a caring employer. We can provide goods and services for a much lower cost than they can buy them on the open market due to the fact we can buy in huge quantities and pass the savings along to them. Also, we don’t need to make a profit at our grocery store, only cover our costs, so the cost of food will be cheaper. Eventually people from surrounding areas might shop at our stores since the prices are much cheaper. I don’t have a problem with that as long as we can handle the volume, since outsiders buying goods and services from us drives up the volume, which lowers the cost per unit. Remember when Hillary tried cramming Universal health care down our throats? Well it wouldn’t have worked due to the huge amount of middlemen. Imagine this, A doctor is hired by the mine to work X number of hours per week at a fixed salary, and doesn’t need to bill, cover medical malpractice, or hire people to do billing or anything else not directly related to patient care. Hospital Care would be the same way. The costs would be so low it would be cheaper for us to hire the doctors and nurses directly instead of paying premiums to an insurance company. Employees and their families would have free medical care, and it would still be cheaper than paying an insurance company. We could do the same thing with dentists and optometrists. We could buy gasoline and diesel at huge discounts, and charge prices that would cover our costs including the kid to take the payments and run the pumps if necessary. We’d hire our own teachers, principals and administrators. We would have a lot more Indians than Chiefs, because we wouldn’t have to justify our budget or teaching methods to hundreds of bureaucrats. We wouldn’t need theaters, bars, or liquor stores since no one drinks, and the movies are piped right into your house free. Instead we would have community centers with dances and social activities, as well as gyms, pools, and other recreational activities. Personally, I’d love to have indoor and outdoor shooting ranges if we can work out the liability issues. Basically the only things people would have to pay for is their food, personal clothing, and personal gasoline. The mine would provide busses to run workers back and forth to the mines, and the kids to schools. If we have any senior citizens, we could provide van transportation for a nominal cost. Even with all these benefits, we’d still make money hand over fist, and we could pay our employees less in cash, reducing their income tax burden.”
After a few minutes, Steve spoke first.
“Ken, it’s a beautiful idea, and if Sam can work out the legal issues, it will not only be profitable, we’ll have the happiest, most productive workforce in the USA.”
Sam chimed in “It’s brilliant! I can handle the legal stuff. I’d make one suggestion – I’d ban Unions.”
“Sam, that’s excellent – any employee who we hire should have to sign a voluntary waiver of union representation. Also, we should post the property as Private property, and tell Security that Union Officials are not welcome on the property. That includes the housing areas.”
Ken, you let me hire the staff I need, and I’ll make it happen.”
“Sam – get on it today – I’m giving you carte blanc to hire whomever you need to.”
“OK guys – let’s make this happen!” With that the meeting ended.
Chapter 6
The next morning, they met back in the office. Steve talked to Ken, “Guess What? I was talking to a friend of mine the other day, and gave me a better idea for the communication system. He said that Fiber Optic was too expensive and fragile. What he recommended was Coax cable. He said we could run TV and Internet access through the cable. All we’d need would be to add conventional phone wire just in case someone doesn’t want to use their computer as their phone. He e-mailed me the plans, and even suggested a company that could build the entire system for us, including the microwave relays, the switches, and a huge internet server. We could also co-locate the mine’s computers so that administrative people could work from home several days a week, reducing day care costs. What we’d have was a secured Wide Area Network protected by the best firewall software, and DSL speed Internet access from anywhere on the property. We would literally be our own Internet Service Provider, so we wouldn’t have to pay anyone else, and we could hire the people to run the internet, and maintain the computer system for the mine. He said it would cost about $10 million to do it right, but the annual costs would be next to nothing. Also, since we own the ISP, we could legally block access to Internet Pornography, which would solve a lot of problems. Seems a lot of good men have been getting sucked into it without realizing it, and next thing they know they are spending $50.00 per month to a company that is no better than a drug pusher. They even sell lists to other scumbags, and send them e-mail to sign up for their “free” service. Of course they don’t find out there’s a fee until they get the bill the second month on their credit card.
“Damn it Steve, I want to make sure that NEVER happens to anyone who works for me! I know all about addictions, and I’m NOT about to help someone else get addicted! Make sure that the contract calls for an absolute internet block for pornography – All we need is for some kid to surf over to one of their sites!”
“All ready took care of it Ken. I signed the contracts for the service and installation last night. Also, I got some updated figures from the AE guys, seems we can be totally energy independent, including the mines, all the buildings in town, and all the houses for about what the Power Company would have wanted to run a 100KV line into the property. I called a company in Idaho who will give us a huge discount if we order all our houses from them. They have 10 models available within a few thousand dollars of each other, so we can offer the employee a choice. They’ll set up a factory next to us to build the houses, and deliver them and set them up for 1 low cost. They almost fainted when I told them I wanted between 10 and 30 thousand houses built in the next 2 years, and we could advance them the money to build the factory, and take it off the back end of the contract. Naturally they readily agreed. I got some quotes for a water treatment facility that could handle that kind of volume. I sent an e-mail to the director of the Nevada division of the AMA, asking for doctors that would be willing to work under the conditions stipulated, as well as nurses, and other technicians and everyone else we need to set up a major hospital and clinic. While they won’t be working in the Taj Mahal, they won’t have any overhead, and could end up significantly better off financially at the end of the contract due to the stock bonuses. The director asked if HE could come and work for us. I told him we’d have to interview him for membership in the town and the company – we weren’t just letting anyone in. He was surprised at that, then he remembered we were forming a “company town” and wanted to be careful who we hired.
That reminds me – we need to hire a security force. Before we can do that, we need to meet with the local Sheriff and get his blessing. I’d like to hire POST graduates, and get the Sheriff to deputize them so they can make arrests on mine property.”
“Steve, that’s a lot of stuff you got done in one night – burning the midnight oil again?”
“No, it’s just your enthusiasm is contagious. The Mine is all I think of, and I keep coming up with ideas.”
“Steve, you keep this up, and I’ll have to raise your salary! Is there anything I can do?”
“Yeah, I need you to contact the major fuel distributors – not the local ones, the really big fish and get a contract for enough diesel to last us 5 years. The prices are going up again, and I want us to get our price locked in now! If you have to, call some of your Wall Street buddies, and get the names and numbers of the CEOs of some big suppliers. Don’t talk to anyone less than a VP – no one else has the juice to sign a deal like we want, for the prices we want to pay.”
“Steve, I’ve got an idea – since we’re buying all our fuel from them, how about leasing them some space to open a gas station?”
Sam chimed in, “Bad idea Ken, if you want to control the price they charge for fuel, you need to own the whole operation. All we need from the fuel company is the fuel and the equipment. We’ll buy the tanks and equipment outright, pay them to install and maintain the equipment, and hire a couple of teenagers to act as attendants.”
“Ok, Sam, you’re right – I need to remember the only way to really control costs is to own the whole operation. Steve, what’s the status on interviewing the core people?”
“Ken, the ads just went out last week, and we’re starting to get flooded by applications. We need to get some people in here ASAP to handle the applications.”
“OK, Steve, but I still feel WE should review the applications of the core people, interview and hire them. Then we can let them hire their own people with the understanding that THEY are personally responsible for anyone they hire. Sam, can you contact a local Temp agency to hire a couple of people with Personnel experience to review the applications. I want to see them before we hire them to explain EXACTLY what we are looking for.”
“Great idea Ken – If they’ve got the experience reviewing applications, and we indoctrinate then with who we’re looking for, they could be valuable, instead of Personnel Drones.”
Sam left the room for a minute to make some calls.
“Ken, what’s the status of the mining equipment you bought?”
“It’s being delivered in the next two weeks.”
“I was afraid of that, it means we will have to sign a short-term contract with a local supplier and pay more until we get our own depot installed.”
“Not so fast, Steve, let me make some calls – If I can get hold of the guy I’m thinking of, he will give us a great price, and ship us the equipment right now, and send people to install it. While he’s installing the equipment, I have him supply a portable tank and keep it full of diesel. He probably knows a local supplier, and can buy for less than we can.”
“Great idea Ken – I love it when a plan comes together.”
Sam walked back in. “I called a Temporary agency the firm used, and they told me they would have 3-6 people here tomorrow.”
“Great, that is one problem solved, anything else that you need right now? OK, I need to make some phone calls, I’ll buzz you when I’m done so we can get back to work.”
Steve and Sam got up and walked from the Conference Room to their luxuriously appointed offices. They didn’t have any support staff yet, so Steve poured his own coffee from the coffee maker in the hall, then walked back into his office.
Meanwhile, Ken opened his Rolodex, and called a friend of one of his Directors who owned a huge Texas Oil Company. “George, Ken Heinz – thanks for talking to me. Anyway what I need is a huge fuel and equipment contract for a silver mine. I want a 10-year contract for enough diesel to run a pit silver mine the size of the Carlin trend and sufficient tankage and equipment to deliver it to Haulpacks and shovels. Also, I need enough gasoline, diesel and equipment to open a large gas station with 10-20 pumps.”
“Ken, what do you need all that for?”
“George, I’m the CEO of the Nevada Silver Mine, Inc. You know one of my Directors Patricia Russo at Lucent Technologies.”
“Ken, Patricia and I go way back – If she’s backing you, you’ve GOT to be legit! What can I do for you?”
“George, like I said, I’m the CEO of Nevada Silver Mines, Inc. We are opening a huge site in Northern NV, and we plan on mining silver for at least the next 50 years. We need a long-term contract with very favorable pricing, and all the equipment to store and distribute all the fuel we’ll need for a major silver mine. PLUS, we’ll need a gasoline station capable of handling the recreational needs of all of our workers. We’re setting up a Company Town, like they did for Hoover Dam, and we’re looking at having 30,000 workers at peak production. We insist on owning the gas station outright, but we will give you a lucrative maintenance contract and fuels contract for the station. I’m trying to keep the middlemen out of this project, so naturally I thought you’d be interested in the project.”
George did some quick mental arithmetic, they were talking enough diesel to run a major mine for 30-50 years, plus all the gasoline the employees would need. “Ken, we’d love to bid on the project, let me get George Jr. in on this, I can guarantee we will give you the best price and service possible.”
“Great, have George Jr. call Steve Gibbons, our VP of Mine Operations – he’ll know all the details. Thanks for your time.”
When the phone call ended, Ken buzzed Steve, who picked up his intercom. “Go ahead Ken.”
“Steve, you might be expecting a call from George Kranz Jr. I just got off the phone with George Sr. at Texaco. They are real interested in bidding on the project.”
“OK Ken, I’ll keep my ears open.”
“I told George we want a sole-source contract for all our fuels and equipment – I want to get as long a term and as best of a price as I can. If they want to, I want them to be in charge of building the gas station, as well as the fuel depot for the mine.”
“OK Ken, I’ll let you know what they come up with.”
Ken hung up the phone and realized he hadn’t eaten anything all day. He buzzed Steve and Sam and asked them what they wanted to eat. Sam said there was an excellent Chinese Restaurant right down the street that delivered. Ken and Steve said that sounded good, and told Sam to go ahead and order for them. About an hour later, the delivery driver showed up, and Sam paid him, then they met in the conference room for a working lunch.
Chapter 7
Later that afternoon, Steve got a call from George Jr. at Texaco. “Steve, JR from Texaco here – got a minute?”
“JR – like in Dallas?”
“You would be surprised how many times I hear THAT lame joke! Daddy called me JR long before the show – OK!”
“Sorry, I just thought it was funny with you calling from Dallas, TX and all. Anyway, what can I do for you?”
“I need some information to work up a preliminary estimate of how much fuel you’re going to need.”
“JR, I can make it real easy for you – the mine is eventually going to be twice the size of Newmont Mine in Carlin, NV.”
“Steve – that big?”
“Yup, the preliminary data indicates a major shallow deposit of silver-rich ore that we need to surface mine to extract until we get too deep to surface mine. I think it’s going to take us 20-30 years to mine out the existing deposit before we need to look for more underground.”
JR just gulped in response. 30 years worth of fuel for 30-50 Haulpacks, shovels, loaders, graders and other mine equipment could easily amount to more than 1 million gallons per year. Between the fuel, equipment, tanks, and maintenance costs, the total contract could exceed $100 million over 30 years. His commission alone would be in excess of $1 million. Plus his dad said they wanted a contract to provide gasoline and diesel for a huge gas station, as well as the tanks and equipment. He’d have to be shrewd and get the best contract possible for Texaco. “Steve, that gives me an idea about how much fuel you’ll need, but why do I see that you want to own the gas station, our normal policy is a lease agreement.”
“JR – We’re insisting on owning the gas station and everything attached to it – you see, we’re going to sell fuels just above our costs including maintenance and salaries.”
“You can’t do that – every dealer in town charges 30-50% margin – they’d be driven out of business within a week!”
“JR, this station is on OUR property, and we control everything on it. If you can’t do this the way we want – We’ll find someone else!”
“Whoa, hold on a sec there pardner – I didn’t say we wouldn’t do it, it’s just very unusual. Where did you say this mine was anyway?”
“It’s in the middle of 300 miles of desert, the nearest town, Winnemucca NV is over an hour away. I highly doubt we’ll put a dent in your dealer’s profit margin.”
“OK, if that’s the case, it makes my job convincing the board much easier.”
“If we give you the contract, we need you to supply diesel in a portable tank immediately because we are having mine equipment delivered this week, and they need fuel.”
”OK, let me check around – if necessary, we’ll buy one from a local distributor and lease it to you.”
“What about the fuel for it?”
“With the quantities you’ll be buying, we can give you Distributor rates. You’ll have to pay to have it trucked from the refinery.”
“How about rail? We’ve got a rail line within a mile of the property, and we could easily build a spur line for deliveries.”
“Great Idea Steve, for the quantities you’ll be buying, they could load up a train with tanker cars, and deliver the whole load to you. It would be way cheaper than paying to truck 10,000 gallons at a time. You might also consider having the rest of your supplies shipped by rail for the same reason. I’m going to get busy on this quote. Can I have your Fax number so I can send this to you?”
“JR, I’d prefer e-mail if that’s OK with you – it’s a little more secure.”
“OK, what’s your e-mail address?”
“It’s steve@nevadasilvermineinc.com”
“Got it – you guys have your own internet identity already – you’re moving fast.”
“You don’t know the half of it – I’ve got about 5 hours of sleep a night for the last couple of weeks.”
“Well, get some sleep, and I’ll have this to you in a day or two.”
“JR, Time is of the essence for this quote – we have to have diesel on the property by the end of the week.”
“Steve – here’s what I’ll do, I’ll call a local distributor, have them deliver their biggest portable tank, and keep it full, and bill us for the fuel until we get this rolling – that way you’ll have fuel, and I won’t have to rush this.”
“You’re buying the fuel?”
“Of course, didn’t I just say that?”
“Thanks JR! Nice working with you!”
When they hung up, Steve quickly walked into Ken’s office. “Ken, you must have one heck of a contact at Texaco. They are going to have a local distributor deliver their biggest portable tank, keep it full, and Texaco is paying the bill until the contract is signed.”
“Steve, the cost of the fuel is a drop in the bucket compared to the potential contract – we’re talking about around $100 million worth of fuel and equipment over 30 years, they can afford $50 thousand worth of fuel and tank rental. While it is a nice gesture, don’t get swayed by it, and give them more profit margin than they should.”
“Ken, they were talking distributor rates!”
“Steve, that’s great, but did they make you pay for shipping?”
“He did mention us paying freight. Why?”
“We need to negotiate the freight costs, it could double the cost of the fuel.”
“Ken. JR suggested shipment by rail – that would greatly reduce our costs.”
“Good idea – see if they can negotiate a better shipping rate with the Railroad – they probably provide all their diesel fuel to run their locomotives. Also contact Southern Pacific directly, and get them to install and pay most of the cost of running a spur line onto our property. Don’t give them any more right-of-way than they need to run the track and install the switches – they always try to get more right of way then they need, then they sell it.”
Sam walked in at that point and overheard the last part of the discussion. “Ken – it would not be in our best interest to give them ANY right of way – just grant a temporary easement to install the tracks, without any transfer of title – if there is anything valuable under their right-of-way then they might try to take it from us.”
Steve commented “I’m REALLY glad we have a Pro working on OUR side!” and high-fived Sam. Ken thought about it for a minute, then he figured out what Sam was driving at – why give anyone any access or right to his land? It would just be inviting trouble. That reminded Ken of something.
“Steve, make sure those utility contracts you’re signing don’t transfer any rights to our property. They should be a straight materials and labor contract, with no right of way or easements granted.”
Sam jumped into the mix, “Ken, as Corporate Attorney, I review all contracts before ANYONE signs them – that way we don’t get taken.”
“Great Sam, you’re definitely earning your keep. By the way, did those temps show up?”
“Just came in a minute ago – do you want to meet them?”
“Yes, bring them in.”
A few minutes later several very nervous ladies were ushered into the Executive Conference Room. Ken stood up and spoke. “Ladies, we need your help to quickly and fairly evaluate a huge quantity of resumes we are getting for our silver mine. Now before we start, I need to tell you what and who we are looking for.
First of all, we want qualified applicants – they must be the best at doing their jobs. Secondly, they must be willing to live and work in a Company Town. This means that the company will provide things for them that they would normally have to pay for. This will result in a reduction of pay, but they only have to pay for a few things in our town, like food, clothing, and recreational gas for their cars. We are looking for Conservative, God-fearing people, we don’t care where they go to church, as long as they go. We will not discriminate based on the color of their skin, but at the same time, we’re not interested in the type who is expecting a free ride, or sues everyone at the drop of a hat instead of working out their problems. We’re not interested in people with drug or alcohol problems, unless they have had a year in a 12-step program of clean and sober living. Unfortunately, the Federal government has attempted to dictate who we hire, but Sam here has a legal way around it. Sam ...”
“Thanks Ken. Ok, what we are doing is really a security check on people who are working in a sensitive environment if anyone asks. If they cannot pass our security checks, they cannot be employed. It seems that the people we want to exclude are the same people who can’t pass a standard security check. That’s our legal out. We want to hire the best people available, and also people we would be comfortable living and working with. What we need you to do is weed out the bad apples. Ken, Steve and I will be doing the final interviews for the key positions. The best way to do this is to sort all incoming applications into piles based on the position applied for, then rank them by experience. Once you have them ranked, we need to see the resumes for the key people, I’ll give you a list later today as to who we consider key people. You don’t need to make any decisions about people, just rank the applications fairly and quickly. Once we get the various managers hired, they’ll be responsible for interviewing their own people. Any questions?”
One middle aged lady raised her hand. Sam nodded, and she continued “Where is this mine, I know a bunch of people you might want to hire, that would love to live in a place like this.”
Steve answered the question, “It’s about 100 miles southwest of Winnemucca. Right now, it’s the middle of the desert, but we are in the process of building a company town for up to 30,000 workers. We need to get the ball rolling as soon as possible. If you know people, get their resumes, and forward them to Sam. We can’t guarantee anything, since we will be really picky about whom we hire, and frankly, there won’t be that many admin positions because we aren’t reporting to a holding company, or anyone else we don’t have to. What we are looking for is heavy equipment operators, especially with surface mining experience.”
When he finished, Ken asked Sam to handle the negotiations with the railroad. Ken asked him if he had any pressing business. “Not at the minute.”
Ken said, “Great, here’s the number for the CEO of Southern Pacific, they own the track next to our property, Bill Bliss is the CEO, he’s a friend of George’s at Texaco. Call him, and negotiate the best deal you can for them to lay a spur line from their track onto our property.
“Ken, how long do you want the spur line – our property is over 20 miles on a side now – 20 miles of track can get expensive. Maybe I’ll talk with Steve, and find out where he plans to put the tank farm and warehouses for the project, and run the spur line to it.”
“Thanks Sam – I’m glad I hired you guys – you seem to think ahead, and your ideas are saving the company a ton of money! Go ahead, get with Steve, and you two work out the details.”
Sam and Steve met in Steve’s office where he had a preliminary plan for the mine. They talked for a while, and agreed between themselves the best place to put the fuel farm, warehouses, and where to run the spur line. With their new information, Sam knew he only needed 10 miles of spur rail line. Sam walked into his office with the new information and placed a call to Bill Bliss. When he was finished, he had an agreement to split the cost of the spur line, and to get started installing it as soon as the contracts were signed. Nevada Silver Inc. got lucky since most of the railroad’s track repair crew was idle, and the railroad gave the company a break on the price, because it would keep critical crews busy during their normally slack time when they faced layoffs. Bill e-mailed a copy of the contract to Sam, who reviewed it, and hand carried it to Ken for signature, then signed as a witness. They were getting 10 miles of spur line and all the equipment necessary to load and offload flatcars and boxcars at below the railroad’s cost. But the railroad was getting a renewable 30 year delivery contract. Sam insisted on an escape clause in case the railroad was sold in a hostile takeover, or was sold by the parent company. Bill agreed reluctantly, but didn’t worry too much, because if Sam needed to exercise his escape clause, he wouldn’t be working for the company anymore. By the time they needed the spur line to deliver the huge quantity of materials and fuel they would need, it would be finished.
Meanwhile Ken called the company that was selling them the heavy equipment, and suggested if they could wait a week or two, they could deliver some of the equipment that could be transported by rail when they had the spur line finished. The salesman was ecstatic, it would cut his shipping costs by 2/3! Ken then asked for most of the savings back as a credit. The salesman readily agreed, because it wouldn’t affect his commission. Next he called the company that was going to build all the houses for them, and advised them that by the time they needed the houses and materials, they would have a heavy load capable spur line onto the property, running right past their factory. All they had to do was build a loading dock. The owner of the company took a look at his figures, then told Ken he could reduce his price by at least 10% due to the reduced shipping costs. Ken told him to send a revised contract to Sam at their legal office for review. Next, Ken called all the other suppliers who were shipping heavy items to them with the ETA of the spur line, and they agreed to ship everything that could go by rail that way. Ken asked them to review their contracts in view of the reduced shipping costs, and send amended contracts to Sam. When they were finished, Ken decided he wanted to make a road trip, called a dealership, and ordered a fully loaded Hummer. They said it would be detailed, fully fueled, and delivered within the hour. Ken made sure he ordered the fully loaded model in desert tan with the diesel engine, AC, leather upholstery, Automatic Transmission, and the Central Inflation feature. Then he called Steve and Sam and told them that they needed to clear the decks, and be ready to visit the Mine in a little over an hour. When Ken told Steve that he bought a Hummer for the corporation, Steve let out a Rebel Yell that made everyone on that floor jump about a foot. He always wanted to drive a Hummer! He told Ken that all he needed now was a cigar and an Austrian accent. Ken went back into his office, and made a few calls, then the Sales Manager of the dealership showed up almost exactly an hour later with the keys and a contract to sign. Ken signed for the vehicle, putting it in the company name, while Sam called the Corporation’s insurance company, and advised them of the purchase. About 15 minutes later, they met in the lobby. Ken and Steve both had Eagle day packs with them, and when Sam asked “what’s in the bag?” Steve told him you never go out into the desert without an emergency kit. Steve smacked his forehead, turned to Ken, and said that they needed to do some shopping before they went. Ken said “You’re the driver, I just need to make one stop on the way out.” The Hummer was sitting right in front of the door, Steve got into the driver’s seat, Sam sat in the passenger seat, and Ken took the back seat. They threw their gear in the back, then got in. Steve turned the ignition, and the diesel rumbled to life. After adjusting his seat and the mirrors, they were ready to go. The first place they went was a sporting goods store Steve knew about to put together a kit for Sam and a vehicle kit. The Hummer was already equipped with a full emergency kit, but Steve wanted to add a few items. As they walked through the sporting goods store, Steve kept throwing items in the cart. He told Sam and Ken to buy some loose fitting tan colored clothes, a good large desert hat and some high-top boots and hiking socks. While they were finding stuff, Steve bought some clothes for himself, then he grabbed a large survival knife, and Sam looked a little funny until Steve explained to him “I know it looks like something Crocodile Dundee or Arnold would carry, but where we are going, a big knife is an essential survival tool.” He got him another Eagle day pack with a Camelback hydration kit, and all the various items needed for an emergency kit. Turning to Ken, Steve whispered something, and Ken nodded. Next they headed over to the gun rack. Steve selected a Mossberg 590 with the 8-shot mag and the bayonet lug, and filled out the paperwork while Ken picked out 200 rounds of buckshot and 50 rounds of slug. Sam spoke up again “Ken, is this really necessary?”
“Sam, you must have lived in the city all your life. Where we are going, the nearest town is over an hour away. I’d rather get pistols or something more concealable, but all we can buy and take with us today are shotguns, and they’re very effective inside 25 yards, or out to 100 yards with slugs. Steve is an expert with the Mossberg 590 because he spent the last 6 years prospecting for me out in the desert, he’s been in his share of tight spots. You have to remember, even if you can call the cops, they are at least an hour away, so you have to be able to defend yourself. The shotgun stays with the vehicle, so don’t worry about it.”
That mollified Sam, and by the time they were done, Steve had filled out the paperwork, and used his company credit card to pay for all the purchases, including 4 5-gallon water containers. Steve asked the store manager if they had a good clean source of drinking water handy. The manager told them to drive their Hummer around the back, and he’s show them where to fill up. They changed into their desert cammies - Ken and Sam looked like a couple of dorks with their pasty white arms. Steve drove around the back filled up their water containers, and all 3 camelback units. Next they drove to Costco, stocked up on “traveling food” and bought a case of drinking water in 1 liter bottles. When they were finished, Ken said they had one more stop to make. He gave Steve directions, and they stopped in front of a tobacconist shop. When they walked in, Ken walked up to the proprietor, who walked into the back room, and came back with a big box. Ken handed him his corporate credit card, then they carried the box out to the Hummer. Steve couldn’t contain himself anymore, so Ken let him open the box. Inside was a box of Cohiba Corona Especial Naturals, a 100-cigar Burl wood humidor, a 5 cigar travel case, a Quantum Outback Lighter, and a pair of genuine “Arnold Swartzenegger” Ray-ban Sunglasses.
“I figured that since you had the Hummer, you should have the glasses and cigar to go with it.”
Steve had a good laugh, put on the glasses and grabbed a cigar. “I’ll Be Back! [fake Ahnold accent]”
Ken laughed and said “Don’t quit your day job!”
The three of them laughed their heads off, and Steve started the Hummer, and drove out of town to I-80.
Fleataxi
Author’s Note: Thanks to NV Cowboy for the use of his story “The Mime” which has been incorporated into this story.
Chapter 1
Kenneth Heinz IV was a 4th generation scion of the Heinz family fortune, a distant cousin of Teresa Heinz, the Billionairess wife of Senator Kerry. He was so distant that Teresa wouldn’t return his calls. Matter of fact, most of the family had written him off as a reprobate playboy who never grew up. If it weren’t for his trust fund, he probably would be destitute and living as a homeless bum in Beverly Hills. One of his pet ideas was researching old mining claims. The one thing he had ever done right in his life was to hook up with an excellent geologist who used to work for a big mining company until he got tired of the Third World. When Ken wasn’t getting blitzed in the local bar, he was poring through old mining claims at the Nevada State Archives. He had already located a few promising finds, but they were too small for his tastes. He had this grandiose plan to re-open a major silver mine and prove all those naysayers wrong, as he brought in the first million dollars worth of silver. He had a theory that some old mining claims were abandoned because 1800’s technology wouldn’t allow profitable extraction of the silver. With 21st century technology, the impossible was now the merely difficult. He had several other ideas, but they had to wait until he located a mine.
Steve Gibbons was out checking on another of Ken’s WAGs. He didn’t mind, they had located enough smaller claims to keep him in beer and food, as well as paying Steve’s child support. He looked much like the other Desert Rats wandering the Northern Nevada desert, driving a Toyota Land Cruiser with a full off-road kit, mining tools, a tent, and enough food and water to last several weeks because you never knew where or when you’d find water in the Nevada desert, or if it would be drinkable. He carried a test kit to test for heavy metals and other dangerous contaminants, and a Katadyn Voyager filter to get all the bugs out of the water he could drink. He went armed 24/7 with a Para-Ord P-14 Limited strapped to his waist, a lever action 30-30 cowboy rifle, and a .308 M-1a National Match with 10 magazines loaded with JHPBT hunting ammo that was well hidden in a secret compartment of the Land Cruiser. He didn’t have a hunting license on him, but it wasn’t 4-legged critters that the rifle was for! He had a lot of valuable stuff in his rig, and knew of several miners who had been robbed and either killed outright or left for dead.
He had pulled some soil samples from Ken’s latest find, and from what he saw, this one looked promising enough to venture inside the mine and check out its condition. He wasn’t too worried about cave-ins because it was so dry in Nevada that it took centuries for the thick beams to rot. He always carried 3 lights with him, a fanny pack with food, water, and a awesome first aid kit. He also carried a respirator and a air monitor that constantly checked the oxygen level, and for any explosive gasses. He used a safety line to the surface to find his way out – he got the idea from spelunkers who explored caves, who could get turned around in the darkness. It carried thousands of feet of fluorescent 10/50 Spyderwire on a self-deploying spool. Before entering, he tied the end to the bumper of his Land Cruiser, and double-checked his gear. As he entered the mine, he always said a quick prayer, even though he wasn’t really religious. So far it had worked for 25 years of exploring mines. He could count on one hand the number of geologists who were still in the business after 25 years. As he walked in, he lit the bright Xenon bulb on his headlamp that was connected to a 6vdc 12Ah gel cell on his belt kit. This lamp had enough battery power to last over a week between charges, if the batteries drained too far to power the big bulb he still had a white LED array that would stay lit until the battery was totally dead. He also had a Surefire Aviator in his kit with 2 spare batteries. As he walked into the mine, he mapped the passages with a grease pencil on several sheets of acetate just in case things got damp. He inspected the beams holding the ceiling up, and they were in remarkable shape, with no signs of rot or deterioration. It was cold and dark in the mine, but he was used to the risks. Occasionally, he’d come across a colony of bats. Bats were the only thing that bothered him – he felt it was because of all the Vampire movies he watched growing up. The deeper he got into the mine, the more promising it looked. It was full of silver-bearing ore. He took samples at regular intervals, storing them in small jars that were pre-labeled with numbers. He simply wrote the number on his map to indicate where he took the sample. He had 50 sample containers on him. When he filled all of them, he would be finished. This mine was in good shape, so it shouldn’t take too long to explore it. As he got even deeper into the mine he thought he was at least 100 feet down when he found it. He took out his handpick to take a sample, and his first effort almost bounced off the rock! Steve knew that Silver was almost always found in the presence of quartz, and by the looks of the mine walls, this area was the edge of a huge vein of microscopic silver, but the concentration of silver was so great that the dirt looked like it was a made of pewter. He took another swing with his pick, and this time it bit. Quickly he opened a sample jar, and positioning it directly under his pick, worked the pick loose, dropping the sample in the jar. Steve quickly sealed the jar, marked its position on the map, then as excited as he had been in years, quickly made his way to the surface.
When he got to the surface, he hid his samples in another secret compartment, quickly broke camp, started the Land Cruiser, and headed home.
Chapter 2
8 hours later, Steve reached his home outside of Fallon, NV. He lived next to an old assay office that had gone out of business, and Steve had bought it lock, stock and barrel with some help from Ken. He lived in a mobile home on the property, and used the building and equipment to perform tests on samples he brought back from the field. Ken refused to allow an independent lab to test his samples. Steve thought that was a little paranoid, but didn’t complain because it gave him a place to live, and he could do the basic tests himself. One thing that was immediately apparent after he did his preliminary tests is the concentration of silver in the ore went up progressively as he got deeper. His last sample was almost pure silver with a little quartz mixed in. He picked up a special cell phone from his Haliburton briefcase that had a one-time pad scrambling device attached, and dialed Ken’s cell number. Ken had a matching unit on his phone, and it never left his side. When Ken finally answered the phone, Steve could tell he was in a bar due to the noise, and the fact that Ken’s voice was slurred.
“Ken, I need to talk to you ASAP! I’m on my way to meet you. We need to talk face to face about this. Where do you want to meet?”
“Steve, I think I’m in a bar in Virginia City – I’m in no shape to drive, so you’re going to have to come here.”
“Ken, I’m leaving now, it will take about 8 hours to get there, try and sober up in the meantime – this is important!”
“You found something?’
“Not over the phone Ken!”
“Ok…OK! I’ll see you in 8 hours – bye!”
Ken turned to the bartender and ordered another double Scotch - it didn’t take him 8 hours to get sober enough to talk to Steve!
Meanwhile, Steve put all his samples and paperwork into a floor safe the previous owners had installed, and Steve promptly changed the combination, so he alone knew the combination. He packed his heavy artillery back in the gun safe, and moved the P-14 to a DeSantis Shoulder Holster with a double magazine holder on the opposite side to balance it. He shrugged his shoulders a couple of times to set the holster, put on a light jacket to cover the holster, then checked the contents of his briefcase. In it where his notes, and the one sample that showed almost pure silver. He locked the briefcase and spun the wheels to scramble the combination. Next he clipped the leash to the case that terminated in a handcuff. Steve thought that was way too paranoid, but as Ken was fond of saying “Just because you’re Paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you!” Considering what he was carrying, and the potential value of his discovery, he was glad Ken was a little paranoid!
Steve got in the Land Cruiser, and noticed the tank was almost empty. He hit a self-serve station on the way out of town, paying attention to his rearview mirrors. He made a couple of random turns until he was sure he wasn’t being followed, then headed out to US 50 to go to Virginia City. It would only take him 2 hours at the most, so he figured Ken would still be in the bar. Steve thought it better that Ken didn’t know he was so close, just in case. He drove on through the night, and arrived in Virginia City around 10pm. He stopped at a convenience store, called Ken using a pay phone, got the location of the bar, and went to pick Ken up. Ken’s driver’s license had been revoked years ago for his 5th DUI in 3 years. Ken either took taxis, or else hired a chauffeured limousine to drive him around. Ken was a happy drunk, and most of his so-called friends were barflies that Ken picked up the tab for. When Steve arrived, Ken was seriously in the tank, and Steve had to get help to put him in the vehicle. Luckily Ken was sober enough to tell him what motel he was staying in, so Steve drove there, deposited Ken in his room, and got the room next to Ken’s for the night. Steve made sure there was no mini-bar in Ken’s room before locking Ken in, then walking to his room, taking a shower and going to bed. He slept restlessly, and finally he could hear Ken moving around by about 8:00 the next morning. Steve got dressed quickly and then quietly knocked on Ken’s door.
He caught Ken just in time, he knew Ken’s hangover cure was to get drunk again, and he was dressed, and about to find a bar that was open at 8:00. Instead, Steve offered to drive Ken to a restaurant and eat some breakfast and drink some coffee – he needed Ken sober for what he was going to tell him. Ken was his usual grumpy self in the morning, but Steve was brooking no argument. They got into the Land Cruiser, and stopped at a nearby restaurant. Steve ordered a big breakfast, and Ken just ordered a Bloody Mary - his second favorite hangover cure, and some toast with butter. Steve’s plate arrived full of scrambled eggs, a large New York Steak, and hash browns. Ken started turning green at the sight of all that food, but was saved when the waitress brought his meal. He sipped the Bloody Mary, and between that and the toast his stomach settled down. Finally Ken felt good enough to drink some coffee, and after several cups, was finally wired enough to start sobering up. The restaurant was almost deserted, so Steve figured he could give Ken the preliminaries over breakfast. He walked over to the waitress, paid the tab with a $20 bill and told her to keep the change, then asked her if they had a carafe for coffee, and when she said yes, Steve asked her to fill it with fresh coffee and leave it on the table. They had some business to discuss, and didn’t want to be disturbed for an hour. Seeing how dead the restaurant was, the waitress readily agreed since Steve gave her about double what the meal cost. She paid for their meal, and pocketed the $10.00 tip, and handed Steve the full carafe of coffee. He thanked her, carried the carafe back to the table, poured himself and Ken some coffee, then put his briefcase on the table, dialed the combination, and opened it.
“Ken you might want to read this. The preliminary numbers indicate a huge deposit of silver ore, and the best news is it is relatively shallow. I went to the bottom of the old mine, and I was maybe 100 feet down! There isn’t much overburden, I found significant quantities of silver less than 50 feet down. If we can get a permit to pit mine this, we could dig down to the silver, extract the ore, and eventually go underground to follow the vein when we go too deep to economically pit mine. With modern equipment, it would be much cheaper to remove all the dirt and ore and separate it later, than to continue to mine it in shafts like the old miners did. First thing we need is clear title to the site, then we need an exploratory team to dig some bore holes, then finally we are going to excavate the entire vein down to 2000 feet if it goes that deep, then go underground to follow the vein after that point.”
“Steve, how sure are you of those numbers – I haven’t seen concentrations like this since the Comstock mine.”
“Ken, I’ve got the sample right here – as you can see, it’s almost 80% pure silver.”
“Steve, I need a ride to Carson City right now – the Department of Mines opens at 8:00 am, and we need to hurry up and file claims for a 10-mile radius of the site.
“10 Miles – are you nuts?”
“Relax Steve, I have some other ideas besides just a mine – I’ll buy as much land as I can around the site – I want to do something different. How’d you like to work at a self-contained town with one employer, and everyone got along?”
“You’re kidding, Right? It was tried in the 30’s when they built Hoover Dam - as soon as the dam was built, the town dried up and blew away.”
“Steve, how long would it take to mine out this deposit?”
“Best guess is 30-50 years for the existing deposit, plus whatever we discover while we’re down there.”
“Ok, and how long did it take to build the Hoover Dam?”
“I don’t know – maybe 5 years max. OK, now I get it – you’re planning on the project lasting long enough that they establish roots there and branch out to other activities as the mine peters out.”
“Exactly Steve – and we will interview people who move into our town – we won’t let any riff-raff in, and we will have the best schools, medical care and everything the people could want! My family thought they were doing some good sending money to charities that put a Band-Aid on the problem. I plan on designing a model community that will fix the problem permanently! We’ll make the townspeople shareholders in the company, pay them well, and take care of everything they need.”
“Ken, that sounds like Socialism to me.”
“Steve, it’s not – here’s why:
In Socialism, citizens are forced by a coercive government to join the system against their will, often against their best interests. My situation is a private contract between an employer and an employee who is free to leave at any time. Everything I’m doing for them could be construed as benefits of employment, but I have totally cut out the middleman. Imagine if a doctor didn’t have to bill for services, didn’t have to fill out forms to justify procedures to Medicare or an insurance company, and was immune from malpractice lawsuits except for gross negligence – like amputating the wrong leg! They’d get paid by the mine company, partly in cash, partly in stock certificates. We’d build their houses for them, they would have no housing costs, no property taxes, no fees for gas or electric because we will be totally self-sufficient for energy. All they’d have to buy is their own food, clothing, gasoline for their personal car, any entertainment expenses, and a few minor expenses.
All their health, education, spiritual, housing, and recreational needs would be taken care of. They wouldn’t have to worry about getting laid off, and they could only be fired after numerous counseling sessions. We’ll be very picky about who we hire and let into our community, so that will eliminate a lot of problems.”
“Ken, how are you going to afford all this?”
I’ve already talked to some friends of mine who told me they could invest up to 100 million each into a silver mine if they got 30% of the stock, and 10% of the profit per year. I’m going to run this operation on a low profit margin, so they won’t cost us much per year. I’m so filthy stinkin rich that I don’t want a dime out of this, I just want to do the right thing for once. I’ve wasted my life being a drunken bum, now here’s my chance to make something of my life. And guess what – you found it for me!” Ken was practically gushing, so Steve shut him down fast.
“Ken, we still need to buy the land, and file a claim. We can’t do anything until we get that first.”
“Well, what are you waiting for – let’s get going!”
Ken seemed transformed – gone was the stumbling drunk of the previous night, and a real person emerged. His life finally had purpose, so he had some self-respect and would hopefully pull himself out of the bottle.
Chapter 3
A couple of hours later, they arrived in Carson City. Ken was wide awake and sober as a Judge. He even changed his clothes before they left. All in All, Ken looked like a new man. After driving around the State Capitol for 15 minutes trying to find a parking spot, Steve located one just as someone was pulling out, and zipped in right before anyone could cut him off and steal his spot. Steve remembered he was packing, looked around to make sure no one was within eyesight of him, and quickly took off the shoulder holster and slid it under the driver’s seat, then picked up his Haliburton briefcase, and carried it into the lobby. Ken followed Steve, because he knew where he was going. They were stopped briefly at the metal detectors, and asked to open the briefcase. Ken stepped in, talked to the security guard, who immediately tapped his partner on the shoulder, and gave him a brief nod, then they were let through without any further delay.
“Ken, What did you say to that guard?”
“I couldn’t help it, I showed him my State ID and he recognized my last name.”
“Good thing Rank Still Has its Privileges.”
“Let’s get into the State Mining Office before they change their minds.”
Ken set off at a brisk pace, and soon they were at the right office.
Ken knocked gently on the door.
“Enter”
Ken and Steve walked into the office of someone who needed to get outside more.
They were greeted by a man who looked 60 but was really 40 years old, with a grey wizened visage, short grey hair, horn rimed glasses, and a pocket protector in his white button down dress shirt. He was probably wearing black slacks and black wingtips. When he got up to greet Ken, Steve confirmed his suspicions. They were in the office of a major geek!
“Ken, long time no see, what can the State of Nevada do for you?”
“Dennis, I need you to search deeds and titles for some land I have a mining claim to. I plan to exercise that claim, and need to buy 200 square miles around it for my mining operation.”
“Ken, let me double check your claim first, then we’ll work on the land deeds and titles.”
Steve opened his case, extracted a piece of paper with the GPS coordinates of the mine, as well as the legal description. Dennis took the slip, and walked back into the stacks of documents. He was back 4 minutes later with a large sealed file folder.
“Found your claim – amazingly it was right where it belonged. Anyway, let’s go into the conference room. This is going to involve a huge amount of paperwork!”
As they walked into the conference room, they took seats near each other so they could pass paperwork back and forth.
“OK, first things first. Here’s your registered claim. It’s current for another 5 years. Since you are going to develop the claim, you need to fill out some more paperwork, and pay some fees to the State. How is title to be deeded to the property?”
“I’m sure my attorney has several Nevada Shell Corporations already on file, can I call you after I talk to my lawyer?”
“Sure, we won’t be ready to put the paperwork together for at least a couple of days. Next thing is we need to find out who owns the land around your mining claim.”
Dennis pulled out some paperwork, then some more, and finally a third piece. “Ken, today must be your lucky day. It seems all the land around the mine is either State or BLM land.”
“Won’t the BLM be a problem?”
“I don’t imagine with your family name they will raise any objections to selling you the land. The State land can be deeded to the mine, all it takes is paperwork. Because its open desert, we could sell it to you for less than 100 dollars an acre. I’m sure the BLM will be equally accommodating.”
“Dennis, I need to know an exact price because I have to line up investors. Even I don’t have that kind of money lying around. Also, I want ALL rights to the property.”
“That’s a little irregular for a mining operation. Why do you want all rights?”
“Dennis, I’ll tell you because I know and trust you, but this can’t leave this room. I intend to build a self-contained community at the mine site for all the miners and their families.”
“You mean a company town like the one they built for the Hoover Dam?”
“Exactly, except I plan on working the mine for at least 50 years.”
“Just how big is this strike?”
“Dennis, I can’t talk about that until I own all the land, the last thing I need is some problem buying the land to kill the mine project.”
“ Very well, I won’t say anything.”
“Dennis, everything we say in this room is confidential, and if you breathe a word of this to anyone, you will be getting a call from my attorney!”
“OK…Lighten up a little Ken! I’ve been doing this for years, I can keep my lips zipped!”
“You’d better, this project could be as big as the Carlin Trend!”
“No Shit! Man, I better keep it zipped – If we’re talking that kind of money, I don’t want to be the reason the State had to pay a multi-million dollar suit!”
“Now you’re getting the picture. Is there anything I need to sign, or do I need to leave a deposit for the property?”
“Considering the size of the purchase, a $100,000.00 deposit would be in order.”
“Would you accept a wire transfer from my trust fund? I’m going to need to know the account number to transfer it to.”
“Let me ask, I’ll be back in a minute Ken.”
Two minutes later Dennis arrived with his Supervisor.
“I understand you wish to wire transfer a $100,000.00 deposit?”
“Yes Sir, that is correct. I could write a check, but frankly I doubt your bank would be able to complete the transaction without any delays. It’s safer and cheaper to wire transfer that kind of money. If you’d give me the deposit account information, I can call my banker, and the money will be wire transferred within the hour.”
The Supervisor left and came back with a form that had all the banking information on it.
“Here you go Mr. Heinz, sorry about the delay, but I had to ask the Director. When he heard your name, he told me to expedite your transaction. Therefore, I will personally handle your wire transfer, receipt and deed or title transactions.”
“I just want to make sure Dennis gets credit for all the work he’s done.”
“Very well Mr. Heinz, you can use the phone at my desk to call the bank.”
They walked into the Supervisor’s Office, It was much nicer than Dennis’ cubicle.
Ken dialed a number from memory, and soon was talking to the President of the Bank of America. Ken told him he was putting the conversation on speaker phone, then continued.
“Jim, how are you doing?”
“Fine Ken, what can I do for you?”
“I’m sitting in the office of the State of Nevada Department of Mines, I need you to wire transfer 100 thousand dollars from my trust fund to the bank here in Nevada that the State uses.”
“No problem Ken. Can I talk to someone from the State?”
“Jim, he’s right here. I’m sorry I never got your name?”
“My apologies Mr. Heinz. My name is Bob Jones.”
“Very well, Mr. Jones- I’m prepared to transfer the funds if you have all the account information handy.”
“Yes Sir, I do” Bob read off the account information, and Jim read it back to him.
Jim then spoke to Ken, “The money will be in the account within the hour. Could you e-mail a receipt to my attention, and give a copy to Mr. Heinz?”
“Yes Sir, Right away!”
Ken then thanked Jim and hung up.
Bob was visibly shaken, he’d never handled that kind of money before, and he was speaking to the President of Bank of America! He called the bank, and 5 minutes later, the bank e-mailed acknowledgment of receipt of the wire transfer. Bob made a copy for Ken, and e-mailed a copy to Jim at B of A, then he wrote out a receipt for the deposit to Ken. Ken now felt better since the state was in receipt of the earnest money deposit on the land. In another week or two, he’d own the land, then he could start exploration and building.
Chapter 4
Dateline: Reno, Nevada 2 weeks later
Ken was amazed at what he had accomplished in two weeks. Maybe it was because he was stone cold sober for the first time in years. The first thing he did after leaving the State Mining office was to drive over to his friend Sam’s office in Reno, and offer him the job of Corporate Attorney for his new venture. Sam was the attorney who had successfully argued in Federal Court when his Aunt Theresa had tried to get his Trust Fund stripped from him and Ken institutionalized as too incompetent to care for himself. Sam did such a good job of defending him that not only did the judge rule in their favor, he further ordered the suit dismissed with prejudice, and that Theresa would not only pay all legal fees including Ken’s, but punitive damages in excess of $10 million. The result of that was that Ken was free to live his life as he wanted to without any further family interference, and the value of his trust fund had tripled. Sam worked for a prominent Reno Law Firm as a Junior Partner, so Ken’s offer was generous enough that Sam gave the firm his notice and quit right then and there, but not before he finished setting up Ken’s new mining venture using one of the Corporation’s Shell Companies they had already set up with the State of Nevada.
They then drove to a large suite of hotel rooms where Steve, Ken and Sam all went over the entire project, wrote the prospectus and proposal for the venture. When they were finished, Sam called the people Ken had recommended who had shown an interest in this kind of project, and who had verbally pledged up to $100 Million a piece, if Ken ever found a rich enough strike, never thinking he’d actually do it. Several days later when they had finished, Ken was looking better than ever, but Sam realized that Ken would never make the right impression with the people he needed to impress in a rumpled 5-year old suit, and he wasn’t even going to get started on his physical appearance. Sam suggested that they take Ken to his cosmetologist for a complete make-over, then to his haberdashery to get several new suits. When Ken objected, Sam told Ken that if he wanted $100 million, that he had to look like he was worth at least 10% of it. Ken relented, but then told Sam – No Armani’s!
Sam laughed, “I doubt they MAKE an Armani Suit in your size!”
With that settled, Sam put all the paperwork in his briefcase, which was a much nicer version of Steve’s briefcase, but just as secure. Sam made a few calls, and when they reached the lobby, the doorman ushered them into a jet-black Cadillac Stretch Limousine. Steve was impressed, but Sam said it was all part of the image. From here on out, they’d be traveling first class until they actually got the mine open. Besides, Sam told them, Ken’s trust fund could afford it. They drove to an exclusive Cosmetologist shop, where not only Ken, but Steve got the full treatment, over Steve’s loud objections. Sam placated him by telling him if he were going to be at the meeting, he couldn’t go looking like a Desert Rat. Steve agreed, and submitted grudgingly to the preening and pampering. Several hours later, they drove to the haberdashery, where both Ken and Steve were fitted for suits, and Sam ordered 6 suits each with all the accessories. When they were finished, they went back to the hotel to make some phone calls, and arrange the first meeting of the Nevada Silver Mine, Inc.
Several days later, they were flying a chartered executive jet to New York City to meet his prospective Board of Directors. When they landed, they were met by a chauffeured limousine, and driven to Rockefeller Center. The meeting was to be held in the Conference Center of one of the major investors. Several hours later, he had his financial backing, on the condition that he remain clean and sober. He swore that he’d never touch another drop of alcohol. Now that he was sober, he really didn’t want to. With the letters of finance in hand, and a promise to tender Preferred Stock Certificates and Board positions to the 6 principal contributors, he left for Nevada. Later that afternoon, he arrived at the State Department of Mines. This time he was met at the door by the Director of Mines, who bowed and scraped like a lackey. It’s amazing what 2 weeks, a make-over, limousine, and Letters of Credit worth $200 Million can do.
The Director had all the paperwork transferring title to 250 square miles around the mine site to the corporation, and made copies of the Letters of Credit. When they were finished, Ken signed the paperwork, legally taking title to the land. He now had airtight deed and title to the mine, and 250 square miles of land around it, including all rights. Ken was ready to celebrate, and then remembered his promise. Instead the three of them had a more subdued celebration at a local steak house in a private room that Sam arranged for them.
The next day, they drove out to the mine site, and walked the site, while Steve took GPS readings for a later survey team and exploration team. They would drill 1,000 ft test holes in a grid to determine where the bulk of the silver was buried. Meanwhile, Ken was on the phone to a friend of his, placing orders for used mining equipment, including Haulpacks, Front-end Loaders, sorters/separators, smelters and other equipment. His friend nearly fell off his chair when Ken told him where he wanted them delivered, until Ken told him he had Letters of Credit in his possession worth $200 Million. That got his attention. All of a sudden, the salesman was trying to sell him everything under the sun. Ken agreed to some of it, but said NO to most of it. Ken ordered used equipment were he could, and new when he had to. By the time he had finished, he had spent between the land and the equipment between $30 and $50 Million of the $200 Million, and he still had a bunch of stuff to do.
When he finished, Steve used the Cell Phone to call a friend of his that owned a Mine Survey and Exploration company in Reno. His friend gave him a reasonable quote, and Ken accepted on the spot. That gave Sam an idea, and when Sam and Ken were done talking, Ken took Steve aside, and asked him if he wanted to be the Vice President of the Mine. Ken new squat about mining, except how to locate promising sites in the archives. He didn’t know anything about operations. Steve asked him how much it paid, and Ken asked him how $1 million per year grabbed him. Steve’s eyes almost popped out of their sockets, as his jaw tried to hit the floor. “Ken, are you serious?”
“Steve, this mine is going to earn between $20 and $100 million per year for over 50 years. Obviously, neither one of us is going to be alive for another 50 years, so I wanted to make sure I took care of the guy who gave me my self-respect back!”
“Ken, you got your own self-respect back, I just checked out a mine you found.”
“OK, whatever, but you’re one of the few people who believed in me when no one else did, and I can repay that kind of loyalty.”
“You know of course that my Ex-wife’s attorney will immediately try to grab it all.”
Sam chimed in, “Not if I can help it. By the time I’m through burying your assets in corporate paperwork, no one could touch you.”
“Nice to have a pro working FOR me for once!”
“Steve, as the Corporate Attorney, I also represent all the Corporate Officers, that includes you if you accept the position of Vice President.”
“Of Course I accept, I’d have to be nuts to turn it down!”
With that, they got back into the limousine and drove back to Reno.
Chapter 5
Dateline: Reno, NV two weeks later
Ken and Steve were in the14th floor suite of Mine offices in Reno when the FEDEX driver showed up. He had a package that required Ken’s signature from the Mining Survey Company. Rubbing his hands together gleefully, Ken signed the form, and the driver handed over a 3 inch thick document in a sealed FEDEX envelope. As soon as the driver left, he grabbed a penknife from his pocket and slit the package open. As Ken read the summary page, Steve started reading the body of the report, which was highly technical. When Ken finished reading, he jumped up and down yelling excitedly “We’re Rich!!! I’ve Done it!”
When he finally calmed down, Steve walked over to him and gave Ken a big hug. “If these guys are right, the deposit we’re sitting on is over 100 times the size of the Comstock Mine! Not only that, but most of it is shallow enough to pit mine for at least the first 20 years, then we’ll have to go underground. Also, it says here there are sufficient quantities of other metals to make it worth mining them. I’m glad you bought all that acreage, it looks like this vein goes on forever – it’s about 3 times the size of the Carlin Trend! We could easily mine this for the next 50 years at today’s price. I think you should contact the board, and get authorization based on this report to double the size of the claim, and triple the footprint of the site itself!”
Ken got on the telephone to the Director of his Board, then e-mailed the summary sheet to him. He was so excited that he authorized doubling his share immediately, and buying all the land he needed. He’d clear it with the rest of the board. Ken called Sam into the room, explained the situation to him, and asked his opinion as to how best to expand the claim and the mine. Steve then explained the extent and expanse of the known deposit. It seemed that every bore hole had significant quantities of silver ore, and they had drilled over 1000 bore holes in a 2-mile square grid pattern, some going as deep as 1000 feet. The ore traces started at 50 feet below the surface, and went down several hundred feet in layers. Sam suggested chartering a Bell Jet Ranger helicopter to fly him to Carson City, where he would file the paperwork and fees personally. As the Corporate Attorney, he had full Power of Attorney to take care of it. As soon as they finished, Ken told Sam to do it, and to call him from Carson City as soon as it was done. Sam called the charter company at Reno-Tahoe Airport, and told them to warm up a Jet Ranger for a quick round trip to Carson City. He asked the manager where the nearest heliport to the Capitol was. The manager assured him that if there wasn’t one at the capitol, he’d arrange transport to and from the Capitol. Sam told him that the pilot might have to wait at the airport for several hours. The manager said no problem, he’d reserve it for the rest of the day, but just bill them for actual time. Sam said he’d be there in 15 minutes, and hung up. Sam grabbed all the paperwork he’d need, stuffed it in his briefcase, and ran downstairs to jump in the limousine, told the driver to go to the airport and hurry! An hour later, he was in the office of the Director of Mines.
“Sam this is most irregular, but all your paperwork appears in order, and you do have the right to expand your claim as long as no one else has a competing claim. The nearest claim is over 100 miles away, so you’re OK. I’ll handle the extra land transfers as well. All the land you require is state land, so there is no problem. All I need now is a deposit for the land.”
“Bob, I’ll do one better, I have an additional Letter of Credit here for $200 million dollars, I’m sure that will more than cover the deposit, any fees, and the cost of the land.”
“I’m sure that would be sufficient. Let me give you a receipt for all the fees, and the sales of the land. If you could wait an hour, I can have the title transferred to the Corporation.”
“Bob, I’m not going anywhere until I have the title in hand – do you have a restroom? I drank too much coffee!”
“Sure, you can use the executive washroom, here’s my key – third door on the right.”
“Thanks Bob!”
About an hour later, the Director came out to the lobby with a huge pile of paperwork.
“Sam, let’s go in my office, we’ve got a pile of paperwork for you to sign, then the titles will be transferred to the corporation.”
They moved to Bob’s office, and Bob was passing paperwork to Sam.
“Wait a minute Bob, I specified all rights – it seems this land doesn’t include water rights – does someone own the water rights?”
“I’m sure that’s an oversight, let me go into the files and check the originals.”
15 minutes later Bob was back. “I’m sorry Sam, the clerk checked the wrong box, This is the corrected copy showing ALL rights are transferred.”
Sam carefully read over all the paperwork, and half an hour later, was ready to sign the title.
Bob handed him the form he needed to sign to transfer the title to the Corporation. Sam read it carefully, then signed for the corporation. Bob reached over to shake Sam’s hand “Pleasure doing business with you Sir.”
“Thanks Bob, now I have to go, The helicopter is waiting and the meter is running.”
“You flew a helicopter down here from Reno?”
“Sure did – rented a Bell Jet Ranger – we wanted to make sure we got the land quickly.”
“Well we definitely broke all speed records.”
“Thanks Bob, We appreciate it – now I’ve got to go!”
Sam turned and hurried out of the office, making sure he picked up all the documents. The Chauffeur saw him coming, and had the door opened and the car running before he got there. As soon as the door closed, Sam called the office on his Cell phone.
“Ken, Great News – I got all the land we wanted with All the rights, and we expanded the claim even beyond the boundaries you gave me – it cost less than a thousand dollars extra to triple the size of the claim to match the property the corporation owns. I have the signed title paperwork and the claim in my briefcase.”
“Great Sam! Excellent Work, now hurry up back so we can get the documents in the safe.”
Right as they ended the call, the limousine pulled up to the Jet Ranger, the rotors were already turning, so Sam thought that the Limousine driver had called ahead. Sam quickly stepped out of the Limousine, gave the driver a $50.00 bill for a tip, then boarded the helicopter. As soon as he was aboard, the pilot radioed for clearance to lift off, and then the chopper jumped 50 feet into the air and tore its way back to Reno. The office building had a heliport on the roof, so the chopper pilot landed there. Sam stepped out while the rotors were still turning, making sure to duck until he was inside the doorway. As soon as he was inside the building, the Jet Ranger spooled up and took off. Sam took the elevator down to their office, handed the paperwork to Ken, got a big hug for a job well done, and Ken put the paperwork in the safe.
“Now that we’ve got that accomplished, what next?”
Steve spoke up. “Ken, the equipment should be delivered next week, and the ads will go out this week nationwide. Several papers had a question as to the wording of the ads.”
“Did they accept the ads as written?”
Sam jumped in. “Ken, Steve told me of the papers that objected, I called them back as the Corporate Attorney and talked to their legal department. They told the editor that it was OK to run as written. They thought it was bizarre, but legal.”
“I don’t care what those Whinny-Ass Liberals Think! I’m a private employer, and I can hire who I want, and when I want!”
“Ken, I’m afraid you’re going to have problems with Affirmative Action.”
“Why – I’m hiring Blacks, Mexicans, and everyone else!”
“OK, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there – just means extra work for me.”
“Sam, if you need to, hire staff. I can’t let my dream fail just because some nosy bureaucrat wants to stick his 2 cents in! You’re the Attorney – Deal with it!”
Ken went on, “OK, what do we have left to do?”
Steve decided to field this question.
“As soon as we hire the employees, we need to set up housing for them, power and water for the mine and the community, then we are going to need basic services, shopping, schools, basically everything a community has to have.”
“What about churches?”
“Ken, I sent letters to local churches, offering to supply the buildings if they would provide the pastors. We can pay them too.”
“Any takers?”
“So far, several non-denominational ministers have expressed interest, and several main-line churches.”
“Great, what else?”
“We’ve had the usual crackpots and flim-flam artists trying to get into the community – probably to fleece the flock.”
“OK, Steve, use your best judgment. What if we allow the members to select their own ministers, and have the people who are interested come to preach?”
“Excellent – it would work for an audition. We’ll pay the ministers per diem so they can’t take a collection, and will be unable to fleece the flock.”
“OK, next item. We’re going to need a lot of electricity to run this place.”
“Way ahead of you Ken – I have several friends who were into Alternative Energy, and a couple are Electrical Engineers, and one built and designed Steam generators. The first thing we need to do is set up a monitoring site at the mine to determine wind velocity and direction, as well as the amount of sunlight – actually, we don’t need the sunlight figures – I know what it’s like out there after being a desert rat for 6 years. What they proposed is every house have a Thin-film PV roofing system, a Solar hot water booster, and fluorescent fixtures. They save a ton of electricity. In order to keep things simple, we want to make the mobile homes all electric, even if it’s less efficient – that way we don’t have to import propane. My friend has an idea for a huge Heliostat that can generate thousands of MWh per day. We can back that up with diesel generators, and also we can probably build a huge wind farm with those huge wind turbines that I’m sure you’ve seen in the Cajon Pass up I-15. Also, I had the survey company do some extra tests, and we might have geothermal capability right on the property. I’m sure Sam would love to file all the paperwork with the PUC for the corporation to become a Power Company so we can receive all the State kickbacks we can get by using geothermal and other Alternative Energy Systems.”
“Great Steve, but what’s all this going to cost?”
“Far less than the cost of running a 100Kv transmission line onto the property, and all the monthly expenses to the power company. I just thought of something – the power company can bill the Mining Company for all the power it uses – and we own both of them!”
“Steve, sometimes you’re so smart you scare me!”
“OK, how about water?”
“Ken, once we begin de-watering the mine, we’ll have more water than we know what to do with. We could put a huge treatment plant on the property, treat the de-watering output to better than EPA standards, and pump it to all the homes. Everyone would have their own septic system. I suggest putting the houses on 2 acre lots minimum so they have enough room to have animals or raise a garden. That reminds me, we need to grade roads and stuff. I guess we can use mine equipment for road building and snow removal if necessary. Also, I highly recommend we bury the electrical and phone lines.”
“Why is that? I’ve always seen above ground telephone poles.”
“For one thing it’s cheaper, and safer. Also, we only have to dig one trench along the road, run the phone, water and electric in one trench. If you put the water on the bottom, the phone and electric systems are OK.”
“Dang, that reminds me – PHONES! I know MA Bell is going to charge a ton of money to wire the entire complex for phones.”
“Ken, I’ve got an idea. It will cost a bundle to install, but it would be worth it in the long run. How about running your own local phone company, installing fiber optic cable phone lines between the houses, and if they need to get out of the town, use a microwave system to tie into the phone system. That way you can transmit TV and telephone as well as DSL quality internet access all through the same line. It would cost about the same as having Ma Bell come in and install conventional phone service, but this way you’d own the system, and the only cost would be the microwave access service. As long as no one dug up the fiber optic cables, they’d outlast the houses.”
“Steve, I’m glad I’m paying you a million dollars a year – you’re worth every penny! OK, let’s make the arrangements and get this done. I want to get the best prices for everything, so think “economy of scale” If we’re going to need 100 of something eventually and only need 10 now – get a contract for the 100 price, and have them shipped as needed.”
“Ken, we need to interview the key people, then they can interview the supervisors, who can interview the employees.”
“OK, but I want to make sure everyone we hire meets my guidelines that I laid down: No drinkers, druggies, problem children, Affirmative Action Crybabies, or other dead weight types, that goes for the families as well. Make it clear to them that we will not tolerate people who cause problems, or can’t get along with their neighbors. Also, NO Lawyers!”
Sam kind of gulped at that comment, then he realized that with him and his staff running things – they didn’t need any more lawyers.
“One other thing, if anyone has a propensity to sue instead of working out their problems civilly, I want them told to look somewhere else! Living here is conditional on working here, and working here is conditional on getting along, pulling your weight, and going above the call of duty if necessary! Am I clear on this?”
“Crystal – Ken. What are we supposed to tell them about wages?”
Steve, Sam – I’m going to explain my dream to you – so sit down, grab something to drink, and take a load off. Some would accuse me of Socialism, or something else, but I feel we do a worker a disservice if we pay the bulk of his wages in cash, then expect him to go buy everything he needs from someone who is out to make a buck. I propose that we take care of our workers, not as a Socialist Nanny, but as a caring employer. We can provide goods and services for a much lower cost than they can buy them on the open market due to the fact we can buy in huge quantities and pass the savings along to them. Also, we don’t need to make a profit at our grocery store, only cover our costs, so the cost of food will be cheaper. Eventually people from surrounding areas might shop at our stores since the prices are much cheaper. I don’t have a problem with that as long as we can handle the volume, since outsiders buying goods and services from us drives up the volume, which lowers the cost per unit. Remember when Hillary tried cramming Universal health care down our throats? Well it wouldn’t have worked due to the huge amount of middlemen. Imagine this, A doctor is hired by the mine to work X number of hours per week at a fixed salary, and doesn’t need to bill, cover medical malpractice, or hire people to do billing or anything else not directly related to patient care. Hospital Care would be the same way. The costs would be so low it would be cheaper for us to hire the doctors and nurses directly instead of paying premiums to an insurance company. Employees and their families would have free medical care, and it would still be cheaper than paying an insurance company. We could do the same thing with dentists and optometrists. We could buy gasoline and diesel at huge discounts, and charge prices that would cover our costs including the kid to take the payments and run the pumps if necessary. We’d hire our own teachers, principals and administrators. We would have a lot more Indians than Chiefs, because we wouldn’t have to justify our budget or teaching methods to hundreds of bureaucrats. We wouldn’t need theaters, bars, or liquor stores since no one drinks, and the movies are piped right into your house free. Instead we would have community centers with dances and social activities, as well as gyms, pools, and other recreational activities. Personally, I’d love to have indoor and outdoor shooting ranges if we can work out the liability issues. Basically the only things people would have to pay for is their food, personal clothing, and personal gasoline. The mine would provide busses to run workers back and forth to the mines, and the kids to schools. If we have any senior citizens, we could provide van transportation for a nominal cost. Even with all these benefits, we’d still make money hand over fist, and we could pay our employees less in cash, reducing their income tax burden.”
After a few minutes, Steve spoke first.
“Ken, it’s a beautiful idea, and if Sam can work out the legal issues, it will not only be profitable, we’ll have the happiest, most productive workforce in the USA.”
Sam chimed in “It’s brilliant! I can handle the legal stuff. I’d make one suggestion – I’d ban Unions.”
“Sam, that’s excellent – any employee who we hire should have to sign a voluntary waiver of union representation. Also, we should post the property as Private property, and tell Security that Union Officials are not welcome on the property. That includes the housing areas.”
Ken, you let me hire the staff I need, and I’ll make it happen.”
“Sam – get on it today – I’m giving you carte blanc to hire whomever you need to.”
“OK guys – let’s make this happen!” With that the meeting ended.
Chapter 6
The next morning, they met back in the office. Steve talked to Ken, “Guess What? I was talking to a friend of mine the other day, and gave me a better idea for the communication system. He said that Fiber Optic was too expensive and fragile. What he recommended was Coax cable. He said we could run TV and Internet access through the cable. All we’d need would be to add conventional phone wire just in case someone doesn’t want to use their computer as their phone. He e-mailed me the plans, and even suggested a company that could build the entire system for us, including the microwave relays, the switches, and a huge internet server. We could also co-locate the mine’s computers so that administrative people could work from home several days a week, reducing day care costs. What we’d have was a secured Wide Area Network protected by the best firewall software, and DSL speed Internet access from anywhere on the property. We would literally be our own Internet Service Provider, so we wouldn’t have to pay anyone else, and we could hire the people to run the internet, and maintain the computer system for the mine. He said it would cost about $10 million to do it right, but the annual costs would be next to nothing. Also, since we own the ISP, we could legally block access to Internet Pornography, which would solve a lot of problems. Seems a lot of good men have been getting sucked into it without realizing it, and next thing they know they are spending $50.00 per month to a company that is no better than a drug pusher. They even sell lists to other scumbags, and send them e-mail to sign up for their “free” service. Of course they don’t find out there’s a fee until they get the bill the second month on their credit card.
“Damn it Steve, I want to make sure that NEVER happens to anyone who works for me! I know all about addictions, and I’m NOT about to help someone else get addicted! Make sure that the contract calls for an absolute internet block for pornography – All we need is for some kid to surf over to one of their sites!”
“All ready took care of it Ken. I signed the contracts for the service and installation last night. Also, I got some updated figures from the AE guys, seems we can be totally energy independent, including the mines, all the buildings in town, and all the houses for about what the Power Company would have wanted to run a 100KV line into the property. I called a company in Idaho who will give us a huge discount if we order all our houses from them. They have 10 models available within a few thousand dollars of each other, so we can offer the employee a choice. They’ll set up a factory next to us to build the houses, and deliver them and set them up for 1 low cost. They almost fainted when I told them I wanted between 10 and 30 thousand houses built in the next 2 years, and we could advance them the money to build the factory, and take it off the back end of the contract. Naturally they readily agreed. I got some quotes for a water treatment facility that could handle that kind of volume. I sent an e-mail to the director of the Nevada division of the AMA, asking for doctors that would be willing to work under the conditions stipulated, as well as nurses, and other technicians and everyone else we need to set up a major hospital and clinic. While they won’t be working in the Taj Mahal, they won’t have any overhead, and could end up significantly better off financially at the end of the contract due to the stock bonuses. The director asked if HE could come and work for us. I told him we’d have to interview him for membership in the town and the company – we weren’t just letting anyone in. He was surprised at that, then he remembered we were forming a “company town” and wanted to be careful who we hired.
That reminds me – we need to hire a security force. Before we can do that, we need to meet with the local Sheriff and get his blessing. I’d like to hire POST graduates, and get the Sheriff to deputize them so they can make arrests on mine property.”
“Steve, that’s a lot of stuff you got done in one night – burning the midnight oil again?”
“No, it’s just your enthusiasm is contagious. The Mine is all I think of, and I keep coming up with ideas.”
“Steve, you keep this up, and I’ll have to raise your salary! Is there anything I can do?”
“Yeah, I need you to contact the major fuel distributors – not the local ones, the really big fish and get a contract for enough diesel to last us 5 years. The prices are going up again, and I want us to get our price locked in now! If you have to, call some of your Wall Street buddies, and get the names and numbers of the CEOs of some big suppliers. Don’t talk to anyone less than a VP – no one else has the juice to sign a deal like we want, for the prices we want to pay.”
“Steve, I’ve got an idea – since we’re buying all our fuel from them, how about leasing them some space to open a gas station?”
Sam chimed in, “Bad idea Ken, if you want to control the price they charge for fuel, you need to own the whole operation. All we need from the fuel company is the fuel and the equipment. We’ll buy the tanks and equipment outright, pay them to install and maintain the equipment, and hire a couple of teenagers to act as attendants.”
“Ok, Sam, you’re right – I need to remember the only way to really control costs is to own the whole operation. Steve, what’s the status on interviewing the core people?”
“Ken, the ads just went out last week, and we’re starting to get flooded by applications. We need to get some people in here ASAP to handle the applications.”
“OK, Steve, but I still feel WE should review the applications of the core people, interview and hire them. Then we can let them hire their own people with the understanding that THEY are personally responsible for anyone they hire. Sam, can you contact a local Temp agency to hire a couple of people with Personnel experience to review the applications. I want to see them before we hire them to explain EXACTLY what we are looking for.”
“Great idea Ken – If they’ve got the experience reviewing applications, and we indoctrinate then with who we’re looking for, they could be valuable, instead of Personnel Drones.”
Sam left the room for a minute to make some calls.
“Ken, what’s the status of the mining equipment you bought?”
“It’s being delivered in the next two weeks.”
“I was afraid of that, it means we will have to sign a short-term contract with a local supplier and pay more until we get our own depot installed.”
“Not so fast, Steve, let me make some calls – If I can get hold of the guy I’m thinking of, he will give us a great price, and ship us the equipment right now, and send people to install it. While he’s installing the equipment, I have him supply a portable tank and keep it full of diesel. He probably knows a local supplier, and can buy for less than we can.”
“Great idea Ken – I love it when a plan comes together.”
Sam walked back in. “I called a Temporary agency the firm used, and they told me they would have 3-6 people here tomorrow.”
“Great, that is one problem solved, anything else that you need right now? OK, I need to make some phone calls, I’ll buzz you when I’m done so we can get back to work.”
Steve and Sam got up and walked from the Conference Room to their luxuriously appointed offices. They didn’t have any support staff yet, so Steve poured his own coffee from the coffee maker in the hall, then walked back into his office.
Meanwhile, Ken opened his Rolodex, and called a friend of one of his Directors who owned a huge Texas Oil Company. “George, Ken Heinz – thanks for talking to me. Anyway what I need is a huge fuel and equipment contract for a silver mine. I want a 10-year contract for enough diesel to run a pit silver mine the size of the Carlin trend and sufficient tankage and equipment to deliver it to Haulpacks and shovels. Also, I need enough gasoline, diesel and equipment to open a large gas station with 10-20 pumps.”
“Ken, what do you need all that for?”
“George, I’m the CEO of the Nevada Silver Mine, Inc. You know one of my Directors Patricia Russo at Lucent Technologies.”
“Ken, Patricia and I go way back – If she’s backing you, you’ve GOT to be legit! What can I do for you?”
“George, like I said, I’m the CEO of Nevada Silver Mines, Inc. We are opening a huge site in Northern NV, and we plan on mining silver for at least the next 50 years. We need a long-term contract with very favorable pricing, and all the equipment to store and distribute all the fuel we’ll need for a major silver mine. PLUS, we’ll need a gasoline station capable of handling the recreational needs of all of our workers. We’re setting up a Company Town, like they did for Hoover Dam, and we’re looking at having 30,000 workers at peak production. We insist on owning the gas station outright, but we will give you a lucrative maintenance contract and fuels contract for the station. I’m trying to keep the middlemen out of this project, so naturally I thought you’d be interested in the project.”
George did some quick mental arithmetic, they were talking enough diesel to run a major mine for 30-50 years, plus all the gasoline the employees would need. “Ken, we’d love to bid on the project, let me get George Jr. in on this, I can guarantee we will give you the best price and service possible.”
“Great, have George Jr. call Steve Gibbons, our VP of Mine Operations – he’ll know all the details. Thanks for your time.”
When the phone call ended, Ken buzzed Steve, who picked up his intercom. “Go ahead Ken.”
“Steve, you might be expecting a call from George Kranz Jr. I just got off the phone with George Sr. at Texaco. They are real interested in bidding on the project.”
“OK Ken, I’ll keep my ears open.”
“I told George we want a sole-source contract for all our fuels and equipment – I want to get as long a term and as best of a price as I can. If they want to, I want them to be in charge of building the gas station, as well as the fuel depot for the mine.”
“OK Ken, I’ll let you know what they come up with.”
Ken hung up the phone and realized he hadn’t eaten anything all day. He buzzed Steve and Sam and asked them what they wanted to eat. Sam said there was an excellent Chinese Restaurant right down the street that delivered. Ken and Steve said that sounded good, and told Sam to go ahead and order for them. About an hour later, the delivery driver showed up, and Sam paid him, then they met in the conference room for a working lunch.
Chapter 7
Later that afternoon, Steve got a call from George Jr. at Texaco. “Steve, JR from Texaco here – got a minute?”
“JR – like in Dallas?”
“You would be surprised how many times I hear THAT lame joke! Daddy called me JR long before the show – OK!”
“Sorry, I just thought it was funny with you calling from Dallas, TX and all. Anyway, what can I do for you?”
“I need some information to work up a preliminary estimate of how much fuel you’re going to need.”
“JR, I can make it real easy for you – the mine is eventually going to be twice the size of Newmont Mine in Carlin, NV.”
“Steve – that big?”
“Yup, the preliminary data indicates a major shallow deposit of silver-rich ore that we need to surface mine to extract until we get too deep to surface mine. I think it’s going to take us 20-30 years to mine out the existing deposit before we need to look for more underground.”
JR just gulped in response. 30 years worth of fuel for 30-50 Haulpacks, shovels, loaders, graders and other mine equipment could easily amount to more than 1 million gallons per year. Between the fuel, equipment, tanks, and maintenance costs, the total contract could exceed $100 million over 30 years. His commission alone would be in excess of $1 million. Plus his dad said they wanted a contract to provide gasoline and diesel for a huge gas station, as well as the tanks and equipment. He’d have to be shrewd and get the best contract possible for Texaco. “Steve, that gives me an idea about how much fuel you’ll need, but why do I see that you want to own the gas station, our normal policy is a lease agreement.”
“JR – We’re insisting on owning the gas station and everything attached to it – you see, we’re going to sell fuels just above our costs including maintenance and salaries.”
“You can’t do that – every dealer in town charges 30-50% margin – they’d be driven out of business within a week!”
“JR, this station is on OUR property, and we control everything on it. If you can’t do this the way we want – We’ll find someone else!”
“Whoa, hold on a sec there pardner – I didn’t say we wouldn’t do it, it’s just very unusual. Where did you say this mine was anyway?”
“It’s in the middle of 300 miles of desert, the nearest town, Winnemucca NV is over an hour away. I highly doubt we’ll put a dent in your dealer’s profit margin.”
“OK, if that’s the case, it makes my job convincing the board much easier.”
“If we give you the contract, we need you to supply diesel in a portable tank immediately because we are having mine equipment delivered this week, and they need fuel.”
”OK, let me check around – if necessary, we’ll buy one from a local distributor and lease it to you.”
“What about the fuel for it?”
“With the quantities you’ll be buying, we can give you Distributor rates. You’ll have to pay to have it trucked from the refinery.”
“How about rail? We’ve got a rail line within a mile of the property, and we could easily build a spur line for deliveries.”
“Great Idea Steve, for the quantities you’ll be buying, they could load up a train with tanker cars, and deliver the whole load to you. It would be way cheaper than paying to truck 10,000 gallons at a time. You might also consider having the rest of your supplies shipped by rail for the same reason. I’m going to get busy on this quote. Can I have your Fax number so I can send this to you?”
“JR, I’d prefer e-mail if that’s OK with you – it’s a little more secure.”
“OK, what’s your e-mail address?”
“It’s steve@nevadasilvermineinc.com”
“Got it – you guys have your own internet identity already – you’re moving fast.”
“You don’t know the half of it – I’ve got about 5 hours of sleep a night for the last couple of weeks.”
“Well, get some sleep, and I’ll have this to you in a day or two.”
“JR, Time is of the essence for this quote – we have to have diesel on the property by the end of the week.”
“Steve – here’s what I’ll do, I’ll call a local distributor, have them deliver their biggest portable tank, and keep it full, and bill us for the fuel until we get this rolling – that way you’ll have fuel, and I won’t have to rush this.”
“You’re buying the fuel?”
“Of course, didn’t I just say that?”
“Thanks JR! Nice working with you!”
When they hung up, Steve quickly walked into Ken’s office. “Ken, you must have one heck of a contact at Texaco. They are going to have a local distributor deliver their biggest portable tank, keep it full, and Texaco is paying the bill until the contract is signed.”
“Steve, the cost of the fuel is a drop in the bucket compared to the potential contract – we’re talking about around $100 million worth of fuel and equipment over 30 years, they can afford $50 thousand worth of fuel and tank rental. While it is a nice gesture, don’t get swayed by it, and give them more profit margin than they should.”
“Ken, they were talking distributor rates!”
“Steve, that’s great, but did they make you pay for shipping?”
“He did mention us paying freight. Why?”
“We need to negotiate the freight costs, it could double the cost of the fuel.”
“Ken. JR suggested shipment by rail – that would greatly reduce our costs.”
“Good idea – see if they can negotiate a better shipping rate with the Railroad – they probably provide all their diesel fuel to run their locomotives. Also contact Southern Pacific directly, and get them to install and pay most of the cost of running a spur line onto our property. Don’t give them any more right-of-way than they need to run the track and install the switches – they always try to get more right of way then they need, then they sell it.”
Sam walked in at that point and overheard the last part of the discussion. “Ken – it would not be in our best interest to give them ANY right of way – just grant a temporary easement to install the tracks, without any transfer of title – if there is anything valuable under their right-of-way then they might try to take it from us.”
Steve commented “I’m REALLY glad we have a Pro working on OUR side!” and high-fived Sam. Ken thought about it for a minute, then he figured out what Sam was driving at – why give anyone any access or right to his land? It would just be inviting trouble. That reminded Ken of something.
“Steve, make sure those utility contracts you’re signing don’t transfer any rights to our property. They should be a straight materials and labor contract, with no right of way or easements granted.”
Sam jumped into the mix, “Ken, as Corporate Attorney, I review all contracts before ANYONE signs them – that way we don’t get taken.”
“Great Sam, you’re definitely earning your keep. By the way, did those temps show up?”
“Just came in a minute ago – do you want to meet them?”
“Yes, bring them in.”
A few minutes later several very nervous ladies were ushered into the Executive Conference Room. Ken stood up and spoke. “Ladies, we need your help to quickly and fairly evaluate a huge quantity of resumes we are getting for our silver mine. Now before we start, I need to tell you what and who we are looking for.
First of all, we want qualified applicants – they must be the best at doing their jobs. Secondly, they must be willing to live and work in a Company Town. This means that the company will provide things for them that they would normally have to pay for. This will result in a reduction of pay, but they only have to pay for a few things in our town, like food, clothing, and recreational gas for their cars. We are looking for Conservative, God-fearing people, we don’t care where they go to church, as long as they go. We will not discriminate based on the color of their skin, but at the same time, we’re not interested in the type who is expecting a free ride, or sues everyone at the drop of a hat instead of working out their problems. We’re not interested in people with drug or alcohol problems, unless they have had a year in a 12-step program of clean and sober living. Unfortunately, the Federal government has attempted to dictate who we hire, but Sam here has a legal way around it. Sam ...”
“Thanks Ken. Ok, what we are doing is really a security check on people who are working in a sensitive environment if anyone asks. If they cannot pass our security checks, they cannot be employed. It seems that the people we want to exclude are the same people who can’t pass a standard security check. That’s our legal out. We want to hire the best people available, and also people we would be comfortable living and working with. What we need you to do is weed out the bad apples. Ken, Steve and I will be doing the final interviews for the key positions. The best way to do this is to sort all incoming applications into piles based on the position applied for, then rank them by experience. Once you have them ranked, we need to see the resumes for the key people, I’ll give you a list later today as to who we consider key people. You don’t need to make any decisions about people, just rank the applications fairly and quickly. Once we get the various managers hired, they’ll be responsible for interviewing their own people. Any questions?”
One middle aged lady raised her hand. Sam nodded, and she continued “Where is this mine, I know a bunch of people you might want to hire, that would love to live in a place like this.”
Steve answered the question, “It’s about 100 miles southwest of Winnemucca. Right now, it’s the middle of the desert, but we are in the process of building a company town for up to 30,000 workers. We need to get the ball rolling as soon as possible. If you know people, get their resumes, and forward them to Sam. We can’t guarantee anything, since we will be really picky about whom we hire, and frankly, there won’t be that many admin positions because we aren’t reporting to a holding company, or anyone else we don’t have to. What we are looking for is heavy equipment operators, especially with surface mining experience.”
When he finished, Ken asked Sam to handle the negotiations with the railroad. Ken asked him if he had any pressing business. “Not at the minute.”
Ken said, “Great, here’s the number for the CEO of Southern Pacific, they own the track next to our property, Bill Bliss is the CEO, he’s a friend of George’s at Texaco. Call him, and negotiate the best deal you can for them to lay a spur line from their track onto our property.
“Ken, how long do you want the spur line – our property is over 20 miles on a side now – 20 miles of track can get expensive. Maybe I’ll talk with Steve, and find out where he plans to put the tank farm and warehouses for the project, and run the spur line to it.”
“Thanks Sam – I’m glad I hired you guys – you seem to think ahead, and your ideas are saving the company a ton of money! Go ahead, get with Steve, and you two work out the details.”
Sam and Steve met in Steve’s office where he had a preliminary plan for the mine. They talked for a while, and agreed between themselves the best place to put the fuel farm, warehouses, and where to run the spur line. With their new information, Sam knew he only needed 10 miles of spur rail line. Sam walked into his office with the new information and placed a call to Bill Bliss. When he was finished, he had an agreement to split the cost of the spur line, and to get started installing it as soon as the contracts were signed. Nevada Silver Inc. got lucky since most of the railroad’s track repair crew was idle, and the railroad gave the company a break on the price, because it would keep critical crews busy during their normally slack time when they faced layoffs. Bill e-mailed a copy of the contract to Sam, who reviewed it, and hand carried it to Ken for signature, then signed as a witness. They were getting 10 miles of spur line and all the equipment necessary to load and offload flatcars and boxcars at below the railroad’s cost. But the railroad was getting a renewable 30 year delivery contract. Sam insisted on an escape clause in case the railroad was sold in a hostile takeover, or was sold by the parent company. Bill agreed reluctantly, but didn’t worry too much, because if Sam needed to exercise his escape clause, he wouldn’t be working for the company anymore. By the time they needed the spur line to deliver the huge quantity of materials and fuel they would need, it would be finished.
Meanwhile Ken called the company that was selling them the heavy equipment, and suggested if they could wait a week or two, they could deliver some of the equipment that could be transported by rail when they had the spur line finished. The salesman was ecstatic, it would cut his shipping costs by 2/3! Ken then asked for most of the savings back as a credit. The salesman readily agreed, because it wouldn’t affect his commission. Next he called the company that was going to build all the houses for them, and advised them that by the time they needed the houses and materials, they would have a heavy load capable spur line onto the property, running right past their factory. All they had to do was build a loading dock. The owner of the company took a look at his figures, then told Ken he could reduce his price by at least 10% due to the reduced shipping costs. Ken told him to send a revised contract to Sam at their legal office for review. Next, Ken called all the other suppliers who were shipping heavy items to them with the ETA of the spur line, and they agreed to ship everything that could go by rail that way. Ken asked them to review their contracts in view of the reduced shipping costs, and send amended contracts to Sam. When they were finished, Ken decided he wanted to make a road trip, called a dealership, and ordered a fully loaded Hummer. They said it would be detailed, fully fueled, and delivered within the hour. Ken made sure he ordered the fully loaded model in desert tan with the diesel engine, AC, leather upholstery, Automatic Transmission, and the Central Inflation feature. Then he called Steve and Sam and told them that they needed to clear the decks, and be ready to visit the Mine in a little over an hour. When Ken told Steve that he bought a Hummer for the corporation, Steve let out a Rebel Yell that made everyone on that floor jump about a foot. He always wanted to drive a Hummer! He told Ken that all he needed now was a cigar and an Austrian accent. Ken went back into his office, and made a few calls, then the Sales Manager of the dealership showed up almost exactly an hour later with the keys and a contract to sign. Ken signed for the vehicle, putting it in the company name, while Sam called the Corporation’s insurance company, and advised them of the purchase. About 15 minutes later, they met in the lobby. Ken and Steve both had Eagle day packs with them, and when Sam asked “what’s in the bag?” Steve told him you never go out into the desert without an emergency kit. Steve smacked his forehead, turned to Ken, and said that they needed to do some shopping before they went. Ken said “You’re the driver, I just need to make one stop on the way out.” The Hummer was sitting right in front of the door, Steve got into the driver’s seat, Sam sat in the passenger seat, and Ken took the back seat. They threw their gear in the back, then got in. Steve turned the ignition, and the diesel rumbled to life. After adjusting his seat and the mirrors, they were ready to go. The first place they went was a sporting goods store Steve knew about to put together a kit for Sam and a vehicle kit. The Hummer was already equipped with a full emergency kit, but Steve wanted to add a few items. As they walked through the sporting goods store, Steve kept throwing items in the cart. He told Sam and Ken to buy some loose fitting tan colored clothes, a good large desert hat and some high-top boots and hiking socks. While they were finding stuff, Steve bought some clothes for himself, then he grabbed a large survival knife, and Sam looked a little funny until Steve explained to him “I know it looks like something Crocodile Dundee or Arnold would carry, but where we are going, a big knife is an essential survival tool.” He got him another Eagle day pack with a Camelback hydration kit, and all the various items needed for an emergency kit. Turning to Ken, Steve whispered something, and Ken nodded. Next they headed over to the gun rack. Steve selected a Mossberg 590 with the 8-shot mag and the bayonet lug, and filled out the paperwork while Ken picked out 200 rounds of buckshot and 50 rounds of slug. Sam spoke up again “Ken, is this really necessary?”
“Sam, you must have lived in the city all your life. Where we are going, the nearest town is over an hour away. I’d rather get pistols or something more concealable, but all we can buy and take with us today are shotguns, and they’re very effective inside 25 yards, or out to 100 yards with slugs. Steve is an expert with the Mossberg 590 because he spent the last 6 years prospecting for me out in the desert, he’s been in his share of tight spots. You have to remember, even if you can call the cops, they are at least an hour away, so you have to be able to defend yourself. The shotgun stays with the vehicle, so don’t worry about it.”
That mollified Sam, and by the time they were done, Steve had filled out the paperwork, and used his company credit card to pay for all the purchases, including 4 5-gallon water containers. Steve asked the store manager if they had a good clean source of drinking water handy. The manager told them to drive their Hummer around the back, and he’s show them where to fill up. They changed into their desert cammies - Ken and Sam looked like a couple of dorks with their pasty white arms. Steve drove around the back filled up their water containers, and all 3 camelback units. Next they drove to Costco, stocked up on “traveling food” and bought a case of drinking water in 1 liter bottles. When they were finished, Ken said they had one more stop to make. He gave Steve directions, and they stopped in front of a tobacconist shop. When they walked in, Ken walked up to the proprietor, who walked into the back room, and came back with a big box. Ken handed him his corporate credit card, then they carried the box out to the Hummer. Steve couldn’t contain himself anymore, so Ken let him open the box. Inside was a box of Cohiba Corona Especial Naturals, a 100-cigar Burl wood humidor, a 5 cigar travel case, a Quantum Outback Lighter, and a pair of genuine “Arnold Swartzenegger” Ray-ban Sunglasses.
“I figured that since you had the Hummer, you should have the glasses and cigar to go with it.”
Steve had a good laugh, put on the glasses and grabbed a cigar. “I’ll Be Back! [fake Ahnold accent]”
Ken laughed and said “Don’t quit your day job!”
The three of them laughed their heads off, and Steve started the Hummer, and drove out of town to I-80.
Fleataxi
