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[Music]
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Lawrence it's our genuine privilege to
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have you here all coming up all the way
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from Santiago and we're going to talk
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about the events of last year
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you have a background as an engineer you
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ran Chile's largest retail
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company and on March 11th you became the
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minister of mins under the new president
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Sebastian Pinera on August 5th you're
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traveling in Ecuador you're in the
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capital Kito and around 11:00 p.m. your
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smartphone lit up and it said mining
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cave in 33
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miners let's just pick up on that moment
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when you saw that on your smartphone
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what thoughts ran through your mind M
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and then take us from that through to
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August 7th when you did arrive at the
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San Jose mine around 3:30 in the
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morning being completely honest at the
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moment that I received that message I
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didn't realize how important this issue
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was I mean there is accidents all the
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time in the mining sector and we were
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following all of them so initially I
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thought that that it was another one I
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was sad for that and I asked my under
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secretary to go there and to check what
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was going
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on during that night I received
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different information in the morning
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after I received the information that
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there were some a large number of people
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trapped 30 something I mean we didn't
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know really how many at that time I
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talked to the president and I said well
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we have this issue we thought initially
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that they were dead normally when you
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have this kind of collapses this occur
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where people is working so people sta on
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this and normally is at least injured um
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and president told me well better if you
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go back that is that is the reality when
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I arrived there after traveling the
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whole Friday from Kito to Lima then Lima
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to Santiago and then from Santiago to
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kopo I arrived the night from Friday the
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6th to Saturday the 7th around 2: 3:00
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a.m. at the mine and then I
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saw the
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human drama that we had at that moment
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all the families were there and they
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were U with Ang and anxity and there was
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no trust they there was no information
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nobody really knew what was going on the
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company that was management managing
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this situation and and they were
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responsible for this was trying to
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organize the issues and a lot of
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volunteers other mining companies sent
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rescue teams to help in this process
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trying to organize decision but the main
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problem was with the families they were
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um really upset sad but mainly they
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didn't have uh trust that anybody could
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help them and they were fearing that the
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company the government were lying to
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them so I have to start for that trying
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to establish with them
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a relationship based on trust and
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initially um trying to avoid the
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responsibility of the whole operation
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because according to our legislation we
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have no right to interfere in that
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process the
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responsibility is in in the shoulders of
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the company there but after 24 hours and
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every time more we saw that it was
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impossible and then the presidential
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decision was very important because
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after we had a lot of problem that
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Saturday uh president Pinera decid to go
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back to Chile and he went to the
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mine and he met some of the relatives of
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the family we chose and a small group of
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them because to face 3 and 400 people
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that was in the middle of such suffering
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was too complicated and president P
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commit himself that we will put all our
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effort to find them at that moment I
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felt empowered to take control
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really that was a big decision a
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life-defining
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decision what were some of the downsides
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that went into your own thinking at the
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time as you thought about the risk
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entailed in the Republic of Chile taking
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full responsibility for rescuing the 33
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miners still not found not even clear if
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they were not injured or Alive yeah this
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is what I normally highlight most um the
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political decision that President P made
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it it was key on this I have never seen
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in any other disaster in the world a
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government that get involved in such
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level uh as we did it in this case I
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cannot explain why but president Pinera
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took this decision and that was key for
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the success of this operation
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politically speaking it wasn't
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something um advisable to do I mean my
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personal opinion I remember when he was
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traveling to Chile I said don't come
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here I mean go directly to Santiago I go
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there or I keep I keep inform you
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informed about what is going on here but
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don't come here because you are going to
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get personally involved in this but well
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he put people's life on top of it and
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and he decided to do it and that was as
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I said key for the success of this
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history let's take the chronology
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forward you're there early on August 7th
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your first concern of course is to find
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the
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miners the mining shaft is impossible to
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enter way too dangerous for a rescue
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crew and much of it is blocked anyway so
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you set about trying to find them by
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sinking a 5in shaft down the 2,000 ft or
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so to where you thought they were very
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famous moment now August 22 a drill head
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coming back to the surface has a note on
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it uh we are the 33 we're in a refuge
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and we're fine what was your reaction
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your thought when you saw that
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note well it's a I will say one of the
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best moments in my life I mean I cannot
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express what we felt you can see some
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movies we were filming that moment and
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we really had an State of Grace a sort
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of epiphany um the moment that we
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I mean the process was different because
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we broke that morning early around 6:00
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a.m. we tried to listen something
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hitting the hammer hitting the the pipes
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with hammers um I remember I called
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president pinetta around 8:00 a.m. and
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say well president I am listening
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something I cannot not assure you that
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there is somebody alive maybe it's my
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imagination maybe it's a water that is
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falling or rocks that are falling inside
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the the the PIP or
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whatever but I am listening something so
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we spent six hour trying to calm down
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the people while the machine was taking
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out the bars because this is this is a
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really machine that has 600 MERS of bars
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and you have to take them out and first
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we saw this hammer or the this the last
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bar painted in red and that was the
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first moment of emotion that we had
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because at the moment that we saw it one
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of the operators says minister is
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painted in red say are you sure that it
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wasn't painted
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before I I use a
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Chism to to talk to this guy at this at
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that moment no boss I am sure that it
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wasn't so we knew that somebody was
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alive and then we found this bag a
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yellow one um tied to the head of the
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Hammer with a letter inside a letter
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from Mario Gomez to his wife Lanette and
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we started reading it and why will we
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doing that somebody look inside the H
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the Hammerhead and look this piece of
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paper that says that we are okay the 33
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and then all the protocols that we had
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established for that moment because we
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were preventing that we could have found
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anything inside that mine we didn't know
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what we could faced maybe some people
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injured some people dead so we had a
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protocol for communicating anything to
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families Etc but at the moment that we
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got that paper everything was forgotten
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some people ran down run down to the to
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the the where the families were telling
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that they were all alive and we were
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just jilling and and really really happy
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a fantastic moment although it's the end
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of the beginning the miners are over
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2,000 ft
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below the hardness of the rock is
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described as being twice that of
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granet we can't get to him through the
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shaft you have to devise a plan now it's
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in your hands you've taken charge when
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you were not initially in charge and as
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you move from August 22 to now creating
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a big enough shaft to bring people up
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for you it's a
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challenge uh you're an engineer by
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background but you had been in retail as
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a manager a very large retail company uh
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you served as chief executive but in
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putting together a team that could take
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care of all the problems and address all
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the engineering issues talk if you would
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about how you thought about your team
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who you wanted on the team and maybe
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ultimately how you got the team to be a
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wonderfully high-performing time-driven
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team that did bring up the miners not
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too many days later well I I will start
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for the last part of the question
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normally when you are managing any group
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of people what you need to do is to try
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to sell them a dream to try to commit
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them behind an objective that they have
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to be very tight on in this case that
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wasn't necessary everybody was so
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committed with this task that anybody
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from the days from the first day put all
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their effort effort for the success of
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this task so people was very motivated
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during those 17 days and after we had
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failure behind another failure obviously
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people get disappointed and this uh
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enthusiasm diminished and that is a role
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that you have to do to try to keep
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people committed with that I was very
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concerned what would have done I have
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done after 30 or 45 days because
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probably that situation would have been
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more complicated from a commitment point
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of view but we had people very committed
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and we did is is to try to organize this
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as I I wouldn't say as any task that you
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face to separate different teams and
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different task we create a group of
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people that was involved in all of the
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family uh matters families I I mean
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relatives people that the relatives of
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the minors to try to help them with the
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their problems very common problems what
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to what to do with children what to do
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with the school of the children people
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that wasn't going to their jobs and you
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have to try that they not to get fired
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because they were there and problems
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with families insult I mean dual
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families problem with two different
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exposes very daily normal things the
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supply of a lot of things we were in the
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middle of the Des
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where not um comfort was to support a
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real City that we were creating with
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2,000 3,000 people living there at at
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the peak we had more than 2,000 people
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living or going there so we have to deal
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with all those kind of things and with
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the health problems with the minors and
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the families and also the technical
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issues and we create two groups in the
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technical issues one in on the site
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that's was working with the works inside
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the mine trying to do the rescue inside
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the mine the other group doing the
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drillings and and to dealing with those
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kind of things but we also create a
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second team in Santiago in the capital
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city dealing with different Technologies
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to design how we could rescue and H what
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were the best technologist to keep these
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people alive if we found them and how to
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to get them out in that case too so when
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we find finally found them we had all
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these plans already designed so we just
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started with them and but finally as
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normally in in the normal life the plan
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that finally succeed wasn't one that
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wasn't designed initially was designed
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by the people that was working on site
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in an idea that was wored by a group of
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people there they people from the Dil
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Mach really machins and they did a great
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job and I think those guys are the real
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heroes of this uh process let me pick up
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Anette as the rescue went forward in
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that fashion I think you had plans with
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letters to designate them a through F
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and as I recall it was Plan B that
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finally did reach the
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miners in all those very technical
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decisions which plan would work best
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which plans should you follow what would
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happen as the plans as they unfold run
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into
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difficulties question on my part is to
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what extent did you take active role in
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those technical decisions and at what
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point did you opt to leave those
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decisions to
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others well we create a a team there and
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we work together all of us and obviously
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there was specialist and they had the
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knowledge to give us the right technical
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support but the decision were made
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essentially on a collective decision we
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discussed it with Andre sugared with
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Philipe Matthews and other people that
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was working there and when a decision
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need to be made well the responsibility
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the political responsibility and the
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responsibility for the whole operation
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was mine so I had to make the decision
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but I remember some at the end we had a
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lot of discussion regarding the the
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casing of the of the hall um and I
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remember I met with eight geologist and
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I start asking the opinion of each of
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them I had my own opinion when I enter
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in that room but I I wanted to have
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their feedback and to try to see that
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the decision that I was making was the
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proper one and finally we decided not to
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case the whole the whole uh hole and
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only 5050 metters at the beginning and
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it it ended up being a right a good
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decision but H we tried to make the
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decision as as a group and when there
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was a different position I had to make
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the final one a final question for you
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on October 12th and October 13th the
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miners begin to come up finally one
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after
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another it's estimated that a billion
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people worldwide watch watched at least
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one of those miners come to the
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surface and it's over it's one of the
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miraculous events of last year looking
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back on that and thinking about what you
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learned about leadership your own
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leadership team
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leadership what are the two or three
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lessons if you will that really stand
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out for what happened August 5th to
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October
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13th well maybe the most important one
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is never give up
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when you think that you have to jump a
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channel a river whatever and you think
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that you are not going to be able to do
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it probably you are going to
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fail so you have to be positive you have
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to be optimistic you have to think that
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it will be
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possible so no matter how hard the task
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would look you need to feel that you are
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able to do it and in that group no
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nobody really at any time gave up and I
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think that is key and a leader of a
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group need to be an example for that
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also you need to try to be on the field
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to be with the guys and and that means
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with the people that was operating the
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machines with their families the
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relatives of the minors and the
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technical people they need to feel that
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you are committed with them and in the
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job that they are doing doing and I try
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to do it I spend my days my days there
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working and planning but also talking
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with people talking with the fames
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knowing how they were what they were the
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fears the problems if everything was
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okay listening people that suggest
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things to show us open to different
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ideas and also I always gave me some
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time to go ma after it machine saying
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hello to the guys that were working
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there for 8 12 or more hours drilling to
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say thank you we're going to do it go
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ahead
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whatever that signal gives them a sense
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of commitment and importance in what
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they were doing so I think that is very
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important to try to motivate people and
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well also you you need to do all of this
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on top of the technical stuff you need
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to have competent people you need to
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have people that know what they were
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doing and to leave them
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work beside and outside of the pressure
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that is something that I try to do too
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to not allow the pressure that we had
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from the media from the
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families to pass through our Shield to
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affect the people that was working
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because they had enough problem trying
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to solve the technical issues that to
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try to deal with other issues that are
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emotional and
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complicated Lawrence uh thank you for
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joining us uh as minister of minds and
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now also minister of energy we're
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extremely appreciative of having time
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with you and maybe above all thank you
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for taking charge when you were not in
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charge last October 5th October 7th uh
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obviously making an enormous difference
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for the 33 families of the minor trapped
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but maybe equally helping the world
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appreciate what it takes to lead in a
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situation that is time driven time
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constrained the stakes are very high The
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Way Forward is not obvious you went into
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that you brought the miners up we thank
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you for that well thank you very much
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for inviting me I think what I face or
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we face at that moment is something that
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everybody on a daily basis face in their
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own life you never know what is going to
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happen
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tomorrow problems could be smaller or
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larger but the issue is the same you
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always have to face them with faith that
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you are going to be able to solve it
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thank you so much thank you very much
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[Music]
