ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on two case studies located in different countries in South America. First case study: gold mine operations in the middle of nowhere – Guyana. Second case study: paying the bills of someone else's mistakes on a gold mine in southwest Bolivia. Both have rather unique topography and comparable physical limitations demonstrating the way both underestimation of operational variables and omission of cultural profile assessments can negatively impact the planning stages of a project. Although for different reasons, both case studies were in a delicate situation bordering on the impossibility of successfully completing the planning stage, given some critical operational and social omissions. Infrastructure restrictions, coupled with a harsh climate and complicated history of unsolved conflicts, led these projects to delays and cost escalations that could have been neutralized at the planning stage or totally avoided if detected in a timely manner.
