NICK JORSS: Keep up the fight

Can you take us back?

Yeah, sure.

Uh, happy to.

Um, I was a civil engineer, probably not a very successful one, to be honest, but, um, and, um, then I got sick of that, so I did, uh, I studied... went back to uni and studied an MBA, and then got into investment banking, uh, in Sydney for my sins.

Uh, and then coming out of that, after about eight years of that, I wanted to start a business and, um, a mate of mine, Jeremy Barlow, who's behind Barlow Yonker and quite a few other coal things, he said, "Why don't you start a coal business?" So it was kind of as simple as that.

Um, and I didn't really know too much about coal, but, um, this was 2000 and 2008, we started Stanmore Coal, uh, listed it in 2009 on the ASX.

Um, but we went and pegged some ground and, you know, I like to joke about the fact that if you stood on a rock from our ground, you could almost see the Bowen Basin from where we were.

[chuckles] So it wasn't quite prime territory, but we sort of swum upstream and kept, um, kept buying more assets and that culminated in, um, uh, in buying Isaac Plains from Vale and Sumitomo in, uh, 2015, closed in 2016.

Um, at that point, the coal industry had sort of been going backwards since 2011.

Um, pretty tough times, as you'll recall.

Um, and so, you know, we got that for, uh, uh, what was a relative bargain.

We paid a dollar for it.

Um, and the vendors gave us, you know, $56 million to get started, so it was sort of a dream, a dream start.

And within about, from memory, within about six months, I think the coal price had gone back up to, you know, 300 bucks from about 87 for, for met coal.

Um, so that went really well.

Uh, I got out of that about a year later and, and, um, kinda tried to, uh, to, uh, take a back s- back seat and retire a little bit, um, but, um, got itchy feet and yeah, got back into things.

So, um, yeah, been doing a few things, uh, few things since then.

Yeah.

I mean, clearly, you know, being in and out of various coal mining businesses, you saw the, the future in the industry and the value of being involved and the money that can be made and the assets and all of that stuff.

Yeah, that's right.

Um, but I just love the industry.

I mean, I love the people.

Um, I love the authenticity.

I love the, um, you know, what it does for Australia, right? What it does for Queensland and New South Wales in particular.

Um, but what it does for Australia as our second biggest export industry and supports so much in the way of jobs but also, you know, royalties and taxes.

Can you take us back?

Yeah, sure.

Uh, happy to.

Um, I was a civil engineer, probably not a very successful one, to be honest, but, um, and, um, then I got sick of that, so I did, uh, I studied... went back to uni and studied an MBA, and then got into investment banking, uh, in Sydney for my sins.

Uh, and then coming out of that, after about eight years of that, I wanted to start a business and, um, a mate of mine, Jeremy Barlow, who's behind Barlow Yonker and quite a few other coal things, he said, "Why don't you start a coal business?" So it was kind of as simple as that.

Um, and I didn't really know too much about coal, but, um, this was 2000 and 2008, we started Stanmore Coal, uh, listed it in 2009 on the ASX.

Um, but we went and pegged some ground and, you know, I like to joke about the fact that if you stood on a rock from our ground, you could almost see the Bowen Basin from where we were.

[chuckles] So it wasn't quite prime territory, but we sort of swum upstream and kept, um, kept buying more assets and that culminated in, um, uh, in buying Isaac Plains from Vale and Sumitomo in, uh, 2015, closed in 2016.

Um, at that point, the coal industry had sort of been going backwards since 2011.

Um, pretty tough times, as you'll recall.

Um, and so, you know, we got that for, uh, uh, what was a relative bargain.

We paid a dollar for it.

Um, and the vendors gave us, you know, $56 million to get started, so it was sort of a dream, a dream start.

And within about, from memory, within about six months, I think the coal price had gone back up to, you know, 300 bucks from about 87 for, for met coal.

Um, so that went really well.

Uh, I got out of that about a year later and, and, um, kinda tried to, uh, to, uh, take a back s- back seat and retire a little bit, um, but, um, got itchy feet and yeah, got back into things.

So, um, yeah, been doing a few things, uh, few things since then.

Yeah.

I mean, clearly, you know, being in and out of various coal mining businesses, you saw the, the future in the industry and the value of being involved and the money that can be made and the assets and all of that stuff.

Yeah, that's right.

Um, but I just love the industry.

I mean, I love the people.

Um, I love the authenticity.

I love the, um, you know, what it does for Australia, right? What it does for Queensland and New South Wales in particular.

Um, but what it does for Australia as our second biggest export industry and supports so much in the way of jobs but also, you know, royalties and taxes.