Cameron Highlands' man in Australia's richest list

Cameron Highlands' man in Australia's richest list

A man from humble beginnings in Cameron Highlands is today Australia's wealthiest Malaysian with a fortune of A$950 million, made from coal mining.

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

Operations at one of two coal mines owned by Jellinbah Resources"Chong's contacts were said to be invaluable as the company gained control of mineral deposits and began to develop the Jellinbah East mine," the magazine adds.

With Talbot leaving the company and Gorman selling his share to Japanese trader Marubeni Coal, Chong was left with being the only original director of Jellinbah.

These days Chong serves as a non-executive director of Jellinbah, leaving time to spend on other investments.

"Not content with building significant wealth from coal, Chong is branching out into iron ore and property," BRW says.

He has a joint venture with Fox Resources to develop an iron ore project in Western Australia's Pilbara region. The plan is to take the ore deposit from exploration to production.Chong has acquired two office buildings in Brisbane in the past five years and has been granted approval to build a A$70 million RM225.5million), 33-storey hotel in Brisbane.
Source: Bernama

Published June 19 2011