Sam Chong

Brisbane, Mining/Property

Sam and Paul Chong

Brisbane, Mining/Property

$630 million (down $333 million). Last year: No.5

"Times are bad but our heads are still above water," says mining mogul Shay Nee (Sam) Chong, who has seen just over a third of his wealth vanish during the past year.

One of the founders of Jellinbah mine in the Bowen Basin, with the likes of Jim Gorman and the late Ken Talbot, Mr Chong, 70, still holds a 23 per cent stake in that and the associated Lake Vermont.

But cooling demand for coal from Asia's steel mills has pushed down prices by 40 per cent, and he says "we don't have high expectations of improvement over the next year".

He and son Paul, 37, are developing a hotel in Brisbane's Mary Street and are on the alert for bargains to add to their property holdings which include office buildings in Queen and Adelaide Streets.

Mr Chong came to Australia as a student in 1967 and after completing a postgraduate degree at the University of NSW, his first job was at the Rosebery silver-lead-zinc mine on Tasmania's rugged west coast as an underground ventilation engineer - "wet, muddy and cold".

After a stint on Christmas Island, he moved to Brisbane to join the Utah Development Company.

Despite his huge success in the resources industry, Mr Chong says he and his wife Lai Kion lead a simple life "because we were not born in a very rich family so we didn't get used to it".

They like to escape to their sugar and cattle property near Murwillumbah in northern NSW and the family enjoys travelling.

Paul has a love of European culture and architecture while his parents like the mountains and did some trekking in the Himalayas a couple of years ago.

"I'm hoping he'll buy a plane one day," Paul said. "But I get seasick so no yachting for us. And we're not interested in buying sports teams or anything stupid like that. We don't have the interest at all."