Smoking Gun (Adam Cartwright Trilogy Book 1)

by Dennis Debney

  The plan for my first day on site was to get a better understanding of the site operations. As requested I was to be given a walk-through of the operation sequentially tracking activities from digging up the ore through to production of saleable gold. Upon my arrival I was met by a mining engineer who introduced himself as Tom Wilkinson, a slim, sunburnt man of around thirty, a couple of years older than me. Like many of the professional staff working on mines in remote areas in Australia he was indistinguishable from the rank and file workers. Clad in dusty denims and heavy boots and communicating in earthy language it would have been easy to underestimate his intelligence and level of education. But as I was to soon realise Tom Wilkinson, like others that I was to meet at Mount Godwin, was every bit as educated and smart as any suited professional working in the city.

  After a brief exchange of pleasantries he drove us both to a prominent lookout point above the open pit. Spread out below us was a panorama of activity. The open pit was oval in shape, about a kilometre in length and half a kilometre in width. A broad roadway spiralled down to a large flat area at the bottom. As I watched a large digger was loading broken rock into even larger trucks which then hauled it up the winding road out of the open pit.

  Wilkinson pointed at a large drill working immediately below us. “The first step in the mining process is to decide what is gold-bearing ore and what is waste rock. That machine is drilling holes in a grid pattern prior to blasting. Samples of insitu rock have already been taken and assayed. Based on those assay results areas of ore and waste rock have been defined and delineated with a spray can of white paint. The ore and waste rock will be mined separately and loaded into those super-sized dump trucks. The waste material is trucked directly to the waste rock dumps and the ore hauled to two large primary crushers near the Mill. The expansion project will replace those trucks carrying ore with a conveyor. The two existing primary crushers are to be relocated in the open pit together with an additional crusher during the expansion project. The conveyor will run through the tunnel at a one in four slope. You can see the entrance to the tunnel off to the right of that other drill. It has already been excavated.”

  I was already aware that an additional primary crusher was to be installed in the open pit and the existing crushers relocated. Thinking out loud I said, “So, the first step is to install the new crusher and commission it along with the conveyor. Then, one by one the existing crushers are to be taken out of operation and moved to the open pit. The key will be to not interrupt production during any of those steps.”

  Wilkinson smiled. “Exactly.”

  As I looked at the scene below me I found myself liking the assignment more and more. This was the sort of challenge that I was hoping for. Then, pointing at a light vehicle emerging from the tunnel, I said, “So the tunnel is already being used.”

  “Yes. It is wide enough for anything other than a dump truck or the larger pieces of mining equipment to use it. It has been designed to accommodate the conveyor, power cables and a roadway for vehicles. It is a handy shortcut from the Mill to the open pit.”

  Wilkinson then drove us around the open pit and stopped near the existing primary crushers. He nodded his head towards the stockpile. “I’ll drop you off here. This is where the new conveyor will end. The primary crushed ore will be discharged into this existing stockpile area. From here on the ore is in the hands of the metallurgists. This is where I will hand you over to them.”

  After shaking Tim Wilkinson’s hand and thanking him I exited the vehicle and greeted my new guide, a stocky, bearded man in his thirties who introduced himself as Barry Fredrickson.

  After exchanging greetings my new guide commenced a comprehensive tour of the Mill. At each point he stopped and described the process. When there was new equipment to be installed, or modifications made, during the expansion project he described the requirements in detail. He had an encyclopedic knowledge of the entire process and was willing and able to answer my many questions.

  Processing the ore was a twenty four hour a day operation. A front end loader shifted ore from the stockpile onto a conveyor which delivered it to the secondary crushers in the Mill building where it was reduced to pea-sized gravel. From there it was fed into a battery of large rotating mills where it was further reduced to silt-sized particles.

  Each of the mills was around three metres high and about six metres long. Loaded with either steel rods or steel balls they pulverized the ore into small enough particles for the contained gold particles to be extracted. Seeing me studying the mills and their massive foundations my guide said, “Yes. You have to install two more of those beasts.” Turning and pointing to a couple of massive mill shells and a cluster of crates staked outside the building he added. “Those are the two second-hand mills that we have purchased. They’re ready for you to construct their foundations and install them.”

  The Mill was by far the largest building on the mine site. Three storeys high and clad in unpainted corrugated galvanized iron, it was designed for function not aesthetics. Half a dozen steel tanks as high as the Mill building were clustered alongside. I recognised them as being the leach tanks. Three more of these were to be installed during the expansion project.

  Fredrickson resumed his description of the process as he guided me through the mill and up and down ladders. After crushing and grinding to create a slurry of finely ground ore, water and a weak cyanide solution was fed into the large steel leach tanks where the gold was dissolved. Following this leaching process the slurry was then passed through six adsorption tanks containing carbon granules which adsorb the gold. This process removed up to ninety five percent of the gold present in the solution.

  The gold-laden carbon was fed into a vertical column where the gold was washed off and the barren carbon recycled. The wash solution, and gold-rich electrolyte, was passed through electro-winning cells where gold, and some silver, was deposited onto stainless steel cathodes.

  The loaded cathodes were then rinsed to yield a gold and silver bearing sludge which was dried, mixed with fluxes and placed into an electric furnace. After several hours the molten material was poured into a cascade of moulds producing bars of doré bullion, the saleable product. Each bar weighed about twenty kilograms and contained ninety nine percent of gold plus some silver.

  This final stage of the process was carried out in a locked secure area known as the Gold Room and was not available for inspection. The gold doré bars produced would eventually be sent to the Western Australian Mint in Perth, where the doré bars would be refined by separating the gold from the silver. I was curious about the Gold Room operations and the procedures for storing the gold bars prior to sending them to the refinery and asked, “How frequently are the gold bars shifted off site?”

  Barry Fredrickson replied, “No one knows for sure. Armed security guards call in by plane unannounced to collect the gold bars. Their visits could be anytime between three and five week intervals. Nobody on site knows in advance when they will arrive. Not even the site manager. They go straight to the Gold Room, collect the gold and depart in a few minutes.”

  His reply had increased my curiosity. “Three to five week intervals. That would mean that there could be between $6 million and $10 million worth of gold just sitting there waiting to be collected. Or stolen. What security do you have?”

  He grinned. “That’s a common topic of conversation at the bar late at night. But it’s not good form to ask a lot of questions. Even though there are no armed security guards on site, an unarmed guard is on duty at all times. But remember, access to the Gold room is strictly controlled and the gold bars are kept in a strong room.”

  “What about people coming and going from the mine site?”

  “All vehicles entering and leaving the mine site are logged in and out. But we only check the vehicles and their cargoes. We do not keep track of individuals.”

  ***

  That evening was spent collating my many photographs and translating my recorded oral notes
into a Word document. By the time I got into bed I had a report that tracked the flow of the ore from the ground through to its ultimate destinations; waste rock dumps, tailings ponds and gold doré. Each stage was illustrated with photographs and included a description of equipment used, throughput and people engaged. Plus a comprehensive set of notes of the installation of new equipment and operational issues to be addressed.

  Even though it had no direct association with the expansion project I included a note about the Gold Room and what seemed to me to be a rather casual approach to Gold Room security.

  The morning of the second day at the Mount Godwin mine site was spent in the company of two of the mine’s engineers. First I inspected and assessed the capacity of the workshops, water supply and power supply. During the tour I noticed lengths of structural steel within a fenced-off yard. There was a wide assortment of steel angles, beams, joists, and piping that seemed to have been accumulating there for some time. Some pieces had brackets drilled for structural bolts. Others had base plates attached. These had obviously been retrieved from dismantled structures and probably stored for possible re-use. Some were unused and, apart from a little rust and scrapes, were as good as new. This was just the type of resource that I had been keeping an eye open for. This could be an opportunity to save time and money.

  I took photos of the structural steel lengths and asked my guide if he could provide a detailed list and dimensions of all steel in the yard. He was happy to oblige and during lunch I was approached by one of the site draftsmen and handed a detailed list of the steelwork.

  That afternoon I reviewed the plans, specifications and construction schedule for the expansion project with the design team members. These documents had been prepared prior to me joining the project. One of the reasons for us all to be on site together was to ensure that we were all on the same page. It was my responsibility to check the proposal and confirm my agreement. Should there be a problem later during construction I would not be able to avoid responsibility by claiming that I was not involved in drawing up the plan.

  Not unexpectedly the design team was not pleased when I questioned a number of key elements of their design and construction schedule. From my point of view they had approached the expansion of the existing plant as they would have approached a grass-roots project. I disagreed with their intention to source all building materials from off site. I did not agree that structural steel should be fabricated in Townsville and trucked to Mount Godwin. I proposed to modify the design to allow the use of structural steel reclaimed from the stock of second-hand steel in the storage yard. In addition, I did not agree with their placement of some equipment. In several instances they had planned to install plant in locations that would require existing plant to be taken offline for an interval of time.

  It was clear to me that their proposal would take more time, cost more and unnecessarily interrupt production. I held my ground and a number of changes were agreed to, albeit with what I thought was rather bad grace. But their attitude was of little concern to me. I saw a real chance of completing the project significantly under budget and well within the targeted completion date and I was not going to agree with them just because they got the sulks.

  That evening, after our meal in the dining room, I shared a couple of beers with the design team members at the semi-outdoor workers bar. Having had a couple of hours to get used to their plans being rejected they seemed more accepting of the new reality. The clincher came when I explained that the changes were not about personal point scoring. We now had a better chance to succeed with the expansion project and that all of us would share the credit. It was not in our best interests for us to be divided. We had to be a united team.

  The next morning I checked out the accommodation facilities available for the construction workers and, by arrangement with the site manager, I spoke to a gathering of the senior management staff. Accompanied by the design team members I outlined the proposed work and fielded a number of questions. I was encouraged that the queries were constructive and not negative.

  During the return flight to Townsville that afternoon I silently reviewed the site visit. I had completed what I had set out to do and was comfortable that we would obtain good co-operation from the mine staff.

  I was relaxed and pleased with myself. The expansion project would be challenging and interesting. I was looking forward to commencing the site work.

  ***

  Two weeks later I was back at the Mount Godwin mine site together with around fifty construction workers and a squad of foremen. A portable concrete batching plant and two concrete mixer trucks had also arrived. Stockpiles of sand and aggregate had been either trucked in or crushed on site. Reinforcing steel for the foundations had been delivered together with stocks of cement. The project went well from day one, the only hiccup being related to welders and the Construction Workers Union.

  Part of my strategy to expedite the project was to strengthen some existing steel columns and beams in the Mill in-situ rather than replace them as had been provided for in the original plans. Not only did this significantly reduce costs and save time but it also avoided any interruption to production. It was a win-win-win situation.

  Unfortunately the first team of welders employed on the job were not sufficiently skilled. John Hall, the subcontractor who employed them had perpetrated a fraud. He had provided assurances that all his tradesmen had current welder test certification but it soon became clear that that was not the case. I had been making a casual inspection of the project when I noticed some truly atrocious welding work being done. I had no option but to instruct the welder to stop work immediately and asked him to go and fetch his employer, the welding subcontractor, John Hall.

  A few minutes later I was confronted by John Hall and his team of welders. They were incensed. Hall declared that he was a representative of the Construction Workers Union and threatened to go on strike if I continued to question the ability of his employees. It was clear that he was attempting to intimidate me by escalating the situation and I saw it for what it was. A bluff. Clearly there were no grounds for such action. So I ignored his threat and told him that none of his men were to return to work until I had seen and approved welding certification test results for each of them. This provoked Hall who shouted an obscenity and lunged at me with his fist. I was not concerned that he might injure me. Even though he was a big, strong man in his fifties, he was overweight and not well co-ordinated. Also I sensed that he was pretending to be out of control and more enraged than he actually was. He was probably still trying to bluff me.

  Even so I was not going to risk him landing a blow. If that happened then police would have to be involved. Then, especially if he really was a Union official, the industrial peace on the site could be disrupted. Even though I suspected that he was still grandstanding, and intended to stop the punch before he hit me, I reached out and grasped his wrist. Then, pulling him off balance towards me, I spun him around, twisting his arm behind his back. Hall was taken by surprise and squawked unbecomingly. Talking quietly into his ear I told him that his contract was cancelled. That he and his men were no longer permitted to remain on site.

  Giving his arm a final tweak I released him and pushed him stumbling towards his men. Nursing the arm that I had twisted with his other hand he turned back to face me. For a moment I thought that he was going to attack me for real when he stopped in his tracks, staring at something behind me. Turning around I saw a line of about twenty construction workers about fifteen metres behind me, facing the welders. One of them, a foreman named Tony Payne, was wagging an index finger at John Hall and shaking his head. The message was clear. Don’t take it any further. Scowling blackly Hall cursed me, threatened to deal with me later and walked away with his men.

  That evening I was just finishing my evening meal when John Hall and four of his team of would-be welders burst into the dining room. They had clearly been drinking and were the worse for wear. Seeing me sitting alone at a table in th
e corner Hall gave a shout and lurched towards me with his companions in tow. But, before I had time to decide on a course of action, a large group of construction workers hustled into the dining room behind the welders and seized them. The welders were greatly outnumbered and, drunk as they were, decided that resistance was futile. Without a word to me the construction workers, most of whom I knew by name, hustled the welders roughly out of the dining room.

  I had been fairly late for my dinner and the dining room was almost empty. Those that were there had taken little notice of sudden arrival and departure of the welders. Since there appeared to be little point in me attempting to get involved I remained seated, eating the remainder of my meal. A few minutes later Tony Payne, who had been with the group of construction workers, returned and walked across to stand by my table. “Excuse me Boss, is it okay if I sit down and talk to you for a minute.”

  I gestured to a chair across the table from me. “Sure. Take a seat. By the way, thanks for defusing that situation.”

  “You’re welcome. Well, I guess that you are wondering what was going on.” Seeing me nodding he continued. “For the past two hours John Hall and his rabble have been drinking in the bar and whining about your treatment of him. Finally they declared that they would come over here and give you some of the same treatment. We heard you tell them that they were all sacked and no longer permitted on the site. So we decided, in the interest of industrial harmony, that we should remove them from the site. They won’t return in a hurry.”