Rich lister Chris Wallin makes bet on gold company Venus Metals

IT may be chicken feed to a man whose fortune is estimated to be $2.18 billion, but a Brisbane richlister has put a substantial chunk of change into a junior gold miner.

RICH LISTING

QUEENSLAND mining billionaire Chris Wallin has invested $1.2 million in Perth-based gold and battery metals company Venus Metals. Wallin, whose fortune is estimated at $2.18 billion, has purchased 6 million shares in Venus in a private placement at 20 cents per share. Wallin becomes a substantial shareholder in the company with a voting power of approximately 5 per cent. Venus managing director Matthew Hogan say the funds raised from the placement will be used for exploration at the Younami gold project and for general working capital.

Chris Wallin is one of Queensland’s richest men.

Wallin, who used to be the Queensland Government’s chief coal geologist before starting QCoal, is known for making good bets in the mining sector.

With record low interest rates and an increasingly troubled global climate, gold is in the sights of yield-hungry investors. Gold has reached record highs in recent months passing the $A2000 mark for the first time in June.

BUILDING THE FUTURE

THERE is a lot of negative news in the building trade these days, but one bloke who has a more upbeat view is Woollam Constructions boss Craig Percival. Brisbane-based Woollam, which has been around since 1884 and built the iconic Breakfast Creek Hotel, recently won a $31.5 million contract for a new art gallery in Rockhampton.

Percival (illustrated), who joined the company as a young building cadet in the late 1980s, says it’s not about winning a job with the lowest price but focusing on core business values such as reliability, service and quality.

The Breakfast Creek Hotel in the 1930s

“We have to realise that winning is making a profit margin that ensures a business can run sustainably,” says Percival. “Project competition in the current environment suggests that it’s usually a race to provide the lowest price. But there is a better way: it comes down to trust, relationships and working together.”

Percival came up through the ranks of the building trade, from labourer to foreman and finally the top management job.

“One of the reasons I wanted to be a builder is because I believe the majority of people in the construction industry are typically just decent people who like working together,” he says.

DARLING DOWN

IF you hail from Toowoomba there’s little doubt you would consider yourself a regional Queenslander. But according to State Treasury boffins, the city is part of the greater Brisbane metropolitan area for the purposes of pay roll tax.

Heritage Bank boss Peter Lock, whose mutual lender is based in the Garden City, says Toowoomba’s businesses are being short-changed by the State Government because it is not considered a “regional” location when it comes to payroll tax discounts. From July 1, the State Government introduced a 1 per cent discount on payroll tax for regional employers.

Toowoomba-based Heritage is missing out on pay roll tax discount.

The list of regions that it applies to includes places like Townsville, Cairns, Rockhampton, Gladstone, Mackay and just about all other inland towns. However, Toowoomba is excluded from the list, so local businesses do not qualify for the payroll discount.

“It’s very hard to argue that Toowoomba is not a regional city,” Lock tells City Beat. “It’s also the hub that supports a wider regional area, including the Lockyer Valley, Granite Belt, Darling Downs and South Burnett.

Lock estimates the payroll discount would be worth about $800,000 to Heritage. “That is money we could have put back into the business and back into the regions and is the cost of running two branches every year,” he says.