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You get the point. And if it’s that hard to reach a project, imagine the challenge of bringing equipment, materials and workers to a job site so remote that the neighbors are mostly shepherds and mountain goats.
Take for example the big Antamina copper mine project that Bechtel completed in 2001. The surrounding glacier-draped peaks of the Cordillera Blanca are the tallest mountains in Peru and the highest in the world’s tropical zone. One can reach the mine only by a circuitous route that takes 10 hours from the capital and nearest city, Lima. The first four hours are on the Pan-American Highway. The last six require a climb of 4,200 meters up a narrow mountain road that forms hairpin turns and crosses rivers that flood during the seven-month rainy season.
When Bechtel staff first arrived at the mine, Antamina was cut off from modern civilization not only by distance but also by the absence of an adequate communications system—the nearest phone was a treacherous, four-hour drive away.
In addition to constructing a huge new copper concentrator and the facilities to go with it, the Bechtel team had to build 120 kilometers of new roads to transport 500,000 tons of equipment and materials, and create housing for close to 6,600 workers at three job sites.
