- 3 - 1987, petitioner worked as a field engineer for three different mining companies and frequently worked in underground tunnels and shafts. In 1988, petitioner started his own business, K.L. Brown Construction (Brown Construction), which provided general field engineering services to the mining industry, and also installed street utilities. During its 4-year existence, Brown Construction employed as many as 25 people at a time. Most of Brown Construction’s clients were general prime contractors engaged in industrial mining of sand, gravel, and limestone through both above-ground surface mining and underground tunnel mining shafts. In the early 1990s, petitioner became interested in gold mining. His previous mining experience did not involve gold. Through his research about the gold mining industry, petitioner learned that many gold mining operations were discontinued during World War II because of the war effort and remained abandoned after the war. Many of these mines were located in the deserts of southern California. Petitioner researched the production rates of some of the abandoned mines. He concluded that with the modern technology now available and the higher price of gold since removal of the artificial $32 per ounce price ceiling, by minimizing labor costs, a small enterprise might be able to operate some of the abandoned prewar mines profitably.Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Next
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