Deal maker says he has a venture that will help resurrect the coastal shipping industry

IT’S clear why Brisbane’s James Canning-Ure is known by the acronym LDM, or the “local deal maker.” He has his fingers in a lot of different pies.

Illustration of James Canning-Ure by Brett Lethbridge.

YOUR diarist ran into corporate adviser and mining enthusiast James Canning-Ure at the Australian Energy and Battery Minerals Investor Conference this week, and within minutes knew why he is known by the acronym LDM, or the “local deal maker.”

Settling down for a steak dinner at local chow house Moo Moo, Canning-Ure rattled off a series of ventures he was involved in including blockchain, freight aggregation and mining.

When your diarist asked his advice on what steak to choose, LDM went into a very long and detailed recommendation based on marbling, fat content and breeding. “I also export wagyu to China,” explained the former finance director of Macarthur Minerals.

Canning-Ure, who began his long business career as an auditor with PwC, serves on a number of boards including ICS Global, Auto Innovative Group and Australian Farmland Fresh.

LDM also let it slip that he is working on perhaps his biggest deal to date, a venture that will help to resurrect the country’s coastal shipping industry and reduce freight load on our overcrowded roads and railways. Stay tuned.

RENEWED INTEREST

IF you want evidence of growing interest in renewables look no further than the Australian Energy and Battery Minerals Investor Conference which finished up yesterday.

Organiser Phil Dickinson, who is also the man behind the Noosa Mining and Exploration Conference, tells us more than 600 people registered for the two-day event at the Royal on the Park to hear investors, experts and mining executives talk about lithium, cobalt, graphite and the other assorted goodies that are needed to fuel electric cars and the like. Speakers included Adani Renewables boss Jennifer Purdie, Central Petroleum’s Richard Cottee and Ian Dover, general manager of the Mining Equipment, Technology and Services (METS) Growth Centre in Brisbane.

Dover tells us that Australia needs to make more of an effort to commercialise mining technology and avoid good ideas escaping overseas. He says more technology and know-how is needed to extract and refine a commodity like lithium than a base metal like iron ore.

RUSSIAN ABOUT

CITY Beat’s item on the Brisbane security firm called KGB that has “you are being tailed by the KGB” on its vans prompted a heated response from reader Merv.

“That was a cheap shot at the Russian people Mr Norris,” thundered Merv in reference to your diarist’s mention in passing of Russia’s involvement in the nerve agent attack in the UK. “You can do better than try to continue this disgustingly contrived hatred for a nation which effectively saved Britain and its allies in the Second World War....but then you’re young.... Australian journalism gets more and more compliant in the US-led propaganda stakes by the day.”

Thanks for calling me young Merv!

I will pass on your comments to my controllers in the US Embassy in Canberra.

WHAT’S IN A NAME

A BIT of a debate about which is the oldest law firm in Brisbane. Thynne & Macartney, which celebrated its 125th anniversary last night, claims to be the longest firm in existence in the city. But Allens have contacted us to point out they celebrated 170 years of legal practice in Queensland in 2016 although they concede they were originally known as Feez Ruthning. Lawyers are a fickle lot in that they change names like changing their shirts. So it seems Thynne & Macartney still holds the record for the oldest firm with the same name.