To casual tourists, armchair travellers, and naive investors, the undercurrents of many foreign countries are invisible. And so it was in the case of this African mining venture.

Corrupt leaders, crooked law officers, guerrillas, unscrupulous financiers, deception, and farce all lie as far below the surface as the mine's ore. And even there lie surprises.

An unscrupulous overseas financier runs into technical problems with the development of a secluded mine. To solve them he hires a brilliant engineer with a questionable past. One surprise after another lead to the engineer's...