Barren Lands by Kevin Krajick

Author:Kevin Krajick [KRAJICK, KEVIN]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-5040-2916-2
Publisher: Open Road Distribution
Published: 2013-02-14T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14

Tree Line

The first thing they needed was money. They each agreed to raise half.

Chuck went to a craggy Kelowna mechanic named Stan Emerson, a plainspoken ex-prospector who had once owned a gold property outside Yellowknife. The ingenious Emerson now had a job at a factory fabricating plastic objects for which no designs existed, including Chuck’s heavy-liquids system and other parts of the lab. The two had worked together for years, and Chuck trusted Emerson completely. Chuck showed him the Blackwater indicators. Emerson knew nothing about diamonds, but he loved anything prospecting-related. Having no money, he went to the owner of the plastics factory, a businessman named Bill Shemley. Shemley knew nothing about diamonds or even geology, but he viewed Chuck as a kind of mad professor, handicapped by his stutter and strange habits—and thus probably too odd to be fake, smarter than normal people. Shemley knew Marlene well; she kept a steady hand on the family business and always paid C. F. Mineral’s bills on time. He put up $15,000 and lent Emerson an equal amount so he could get in, too.

For his half, Stew typed up a prospectus explaining the “rare volcanic rock known as ‘KIMBERLITE’” and their “lucky break” at Blackwater Lake. “I am confident we will find a Kimberlite, pipe …. and at the very least can expect to make a favorable deal with debeers,” he wrote. He need not have troubled. He was boarding one of Marilyn’s Air Canada runs one day when she introduced him to the captain, Eric Cartmell. Cartmell, like many Canadians, was addicted to penny mining stocks. When he learned Stew was a fellow pilot, investor, and geologist all in one, he pumped him for stock tips, then phoned his broker from the gate to make some trades while the passengers waited a good twenty minutes. Stew saw his opening. Within days he had $10,000 from Cartmell, who in turn corralled a stockbroker and another investor in Toronto to put in the rest.

With an initial backing of $60,000, the five outsiders got 49 percent of any discovery, while Chuck and Stew, as “discoverers,” kept 51—fairly standard. Chuck’s contribution was the use of his lab and his expertise in mineral grains; Stew’s was his helicopter and expertise in larger geologic units.

The only thing holding them back now was winter; prospecting work in the north usually stopped now. In the meantime Chuck and Stew traveled off and on together on freelance consulting jobs. Since they both needed to earn a living, they were still at it by summer. In July, while flying from a lead/zinc prospect, they were assigned widely separated seats in a crowded commercial plane cabin. Stew was about to settle into some reading when he detected a spookily familiar sound behind him: Hugo’s soft South African accent, discussing diamond prospecting in impressive scientific detail. Except that it was not Hugo. The man’s companion sounded Canadian. Stew adjusted his seat back slightly, cocked one ear aft, unfolded a newspaper low on his lap, feigned sleep, and started taking notes with one eye half-open.

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