In the end, Bakrie had to throw two more major assets into GoodCo (company officials will not specify which were added, although creditors say the final group includes shares of the company's most profitable plantation subsidiary, a coal-mining joint venture and petrochemical, electronics and pipe companies).

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Another pipe would extend to the port of Ilo, further south, a centre for mining activity, which could be the export terminal for markets on the Pacific rim.

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Back on land, mining-company engineers say new techniques, such as dissolving minerals and sucking them up through a pipe or extracting ore with high-powered water jets, could increase recoverable reserves.

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