Tuesday, June 21, 2011

The skilled need to be wooed back

The skilled need to be wooed back
Tuesday June 21, 2011

IT was with interest I read that a man from relatively humble beginnings in Cameron Highlands, Sam Chong, is among Australia’s richest persons with wealth estimated at around A$950mil (RM3.06bil), made from coal mining (“I did it mine-way! M’sian-born Chong among Aussie’s richest” – The Star, June 20).

Like Datuk Jimmy Choo, here is another Malaysian who has brought pride and glory to the country. Only when he was listed in Business Review Weekly (BRW) as among the “Rich 200” did he come into the limelight.

Chong today is regarded as one of Australia’s biggest coal miners. It was the Malaysia Boleh spirit and sheer hard work that enabled him to reach where he is today.

Chong, 68, owns a substantial shareholding in Jellinbah Resources, which operates two coal mines and is in the process of developing a third.

Even at an age when most people would be thinking of taking it easy, Chong is still persevering to reach even greater heights.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Man from Cameron Highlands is among Australia's richest

June, 19. 2011

MELBOURNE: A man from humble beginnings in Cameron Highlands is today Australia's wealthiest Malaysian-born with a fortune of A$950mil (RM3.06bil) made from coal mining.

Sam Chong, 68, has kept a low profile and managed to avoid the limelight until last week when the Business Review Weekly (BRW) named him in its "Rich 200" list.

Sam Chong

Publicity-shy Chong, a mining engineer, is rarely mentioned in the Australian media and when Bernama phoned him in Brisbane, where he lives, he was reluctant to talk of his success as one of Australia's biggest coal miners.

He also declined to talk of his dedication and hard work and the many years it had taken him to achieve his ambition.

According to the BRW, Chong's ascent to the ranks of Australia's richest illustrates the rapid rise in the price of coking coal used to produce iron from its ore.

Chong owns a substantial share of Jellinbah Resources, which operates two coal mines and is in the process of developing another.

Production has reached eight million tonnes a year but expansions are expected to boost production to 12 million tonnes a year by 2013.

BRW said Chong also benefited greatly from the quality of the ore in his deposits.

Saturday, June 04, 2011

A long walk down to Boh Tea Plantation

A long walk down
Saturday June 4, 2011

I have one more year to retirement.

My working life has been very interesting as I have met so many people with unique characters.

During our company’s recent team building trip to Cameron Highlands, the boss hired a small 25-seater coach for the 21 people on the trip. Among us was a young girl, fresh from school, who was normally quite talkative at work. She didn’t seem timid until one afternoon during the trip when she went into an all-hell-break-loose frenzy.