NOTE: This is a work of fiction entirely imagined by the author. Although the names of the locations referenced in this story exist, the mining site, the Camp, the companies, the people and the events are pure fiction.
Warning!! The main character, Sam, recounts his unfortunate rape. This may offend some people
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ยฉ Copyright whitebeard50, 2023 - All rights reserved
Mid-June
Phil, the manager of Material Control of Hough Lake Lithium Mining Project, waits for a newly hired recruit at Thunder Bay Airport. Finally, HR found someone to help him out. A young man of 22 y/o, apparently fairly intelligent but lacks experience in this matter. No sweat, he thinks, I'll show him the ropes. He's got a photo of the young man, this is not Toronto, so shouldn't be too hard to identify.
The airplane has already arrived, and the people are starting to come out. There he is. The little guy only has a medium size suitcase. Umm... No matter, he can always buy locally at Savant Lake.
"You're Sam, right?" Phil says extending his hand with a smile. His pale blues eyes examine the youngster head to toe.
"Yes, I'm Sam. You must be Mr. Armstrong?" Nice welcome from this good-looking older man. I smile back. First time since I left home.
"Call me Phil, Sam. Want me to get that?" pointing at the luggage.
"No, thanks. I'm fine. It's a small case, but I figure I can buy what I need at the site, or I saw there's a little town not that far from the mine." Sam replies.
"I see. You did your homework, haven't ya? We have a long drive ahead of us, it's about 365 km. We'll stop on the way for supper. But lunch first. I know a brasserie with good food and good beer here in TB. Do you drive, Sam?"
"Yup, I do. I'm a fairly good mechanic too. In case you ever need one."
"That's good. I'll let you drive once we are out of TB. Very simple driving when there's only one road to follow." Phil laughs his typical energetic laugh.
4 hours later.
"Thanks for driving, Sam. Sorry if I slept most of the way." Phil gave the wheel to Sam as they reached the Trans-Canada highway just out of TB.
"No sweat, the drive went smoothly, little traffic. But I'm hungry and I need to go." I answered.
Phil looks at his watch, "Oh, nearly 6. Ok, next town is Ignace, I think. We'll stop there. There's a burger joint at the other end of town. It's good. There's not much else, it's a little town. Ok with you, Sam?
"Yup, that's fine." A little while later, I find the place, not hard since there isn't much else.
We get out of the car, stretch, and walk into the place. Small, nice, and clean. I dash to the restroom. Phil goes after me. We order our burgers and homemade fries. The food is very good like Phil said. I like Phil. Nice man, jovial, and easy to talk to. He likes to talk about anything and everything. He's that kind of fellow who gets along with everybody.
We finally arrived at Hough Lake, where the camp is located, just after 10:30 PM. I get checked in, so to speak. Exceptionally, I will have a single room, but only temporarily. There are bathroom facilities, sinks, toilets, and shower stalls, on each floor in the trailers reserved for the workers. Supervisors and management's trailer have single rooms with private bathrooms. I will have a single room depending on how many new workers arrive and if additional trailers get here on time.
The camp and the mining site are under construction. It's a brand-new project. The lithium mined here will only be concentrated and then shipped out for further processing. Probably outside the country, again. That's really sad. Foreign countries mine our resources with minimal processing and ship the product out of the country, transform it and resell it through finished products with a large profit, while they pay little or no royalties and pollute our country. What a bargain. Most third-world countries do better than us on this.
The large trucks and giant shovels are currently being assembled on-site by the company renting them to the mining company. They are gigantic. The construction and preparation of the site will last for a good 6 to 8 months. Then the construction workers now on-site will leave and be replaced by mining workers who will live in a village about 5 kilometres away. The actual trailer complex housing the workers, except for a few of them, will be dismantled.
***
Two weeks later
"Phil, how's your recruit doing?" His boss, Roger still in Toronto, asks him.
"Well, Roger, the young man surprised the stuffing out of me. He's rolling like a pro. He's got the hang of it, and he also developed some kind of control sheet on Excel. Remarkable young man. By the way, you can see his worksheet on our intranet. Have a look. You're an expert on that, aren't you? Let us know what you think."
"Ok. That's encouraging. We'll increase his salary when he reaches 30 days. I don't mind encouraging performers like him. Just put the request through and I'll approve it. How's everything else, Phil?"
"By the way, Sam says that he can program a simple control program on something called Dbase IV that can be used by almost anyone. Especially here, it's a small inventory and we can use a simple bar code to identify all the stuff that comes in here and follow it all the way through its cycle. So, think about it, Ian, cost little and we have the guy who can make it happen fast."
"Let me have a look at his Excel worksheet. I'll get back to you shortly."
They talk every day briefly covering the day's plan. Roger will move here when the administration building currently under construction is finished and the management trailers are installed. Single-family trailers with 2 or 3 bedrooms will only be available when the mine starts production. Another 6 to 8 months.
I get back into the office as Phil hangs up the phone. He's smiling. He's always smiling, but this particular smile is different. I frown, but I don't ask. He'll tell me if he wants to.
"Everything ok out there, Sam?"
"Yup, John and I made a change or two about the temporary storage of small items to make it easier for the guys to handle. Actually, they're the ones who pointed out the difficulties. So, we all had a discussion and arrived at a solution. Everybody's happy. Perhaps I should have asked you first. I didn't think about that. Sorry!"
"No sweat, Sam. I trust you. That sort of day-to-day problem is more your thing than mine. Keep it up. You're doing well. Hell, you're doing great, Sam." Phil winks at Sam and picks up his phone. "Phil here." He listens, "Ok. When will that get here?" More listening, "Two days. Ok, we'll get ready, and I'll inform the contractor that 4 trucks and a shovel will be here the day after tomorrow around 4 PM. Ok. Bye!"