Jeremiah in Iceland

Jeremiah Josey

Category: Investment

  • Hot or Not? Why Investing into Nuclear is the best for the 21st century

    Hot or Not? Why Investing into Nuclear is the best for the 21st century

    Want to know about why investing into Nuclear is the best thing this side of Tuesday. Check out this pitch to 1,000 Chinese investors.

    Hot or Not Investing in Nuclear – CLSA Presentation – 2023
    Download

  • Demographics and market predictions – where Austrian reality trumps Keynesian mythology

    The Bolshevik – Boris Kustodiev (1920)
    The Bolshevik – Boris Kustodiev (1920)

    Here is Robert Kiyosaki interviewing the great Harry S. Dent Jr. in a timely reminder of the importance of demographics. This is relevant in our covid-19 panic stricken world amid collapsing interest rates and voluminous fiat stimulus.

    Troisordres “Three Orders – You should hope that this game will be over soon.” (1789)

    The irony of our times: Keynesian based economics, or fluid fiscal spending. So named from the convivial, self satisfying, well-to-do playboy John Maynard Keynes [full title: The Right Honourable The Lord Keynes, CB FBA. b. 1883, d. 1946]. His theories dropped formally by the government of the United Kingdom in 1979, but eagerly re-adopted world wide following the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. The treatise is merely proving to be a means by which one group of people extract wealth from another group. These two groups we can loosely call government and the people. History has had other names for them. For instance, there’s proletariat, from Roman times, from the Latin proletarius “producing offspring”; Bolsheviks, Russian from большинство, bol’shinstvo, “majority”). Then there is the rigid Indian caste system: Brahmins (priestly people), the Kshatriyas or Rajanyas, (rulers, administrators and warriors), the Vaishyas (artisans, merchants, tradesmen and farmers), and Shudras (labouring classes). And the Chinese landlord, peasant, craftsmen, and merchant.

    I’ll simplify it by saying that the upper class, with part of the middle class as management, combining and conspiring against the majority of the middle class and all of the lower class. Only two groups. 

    It is common theme of our civilizations over the millennia. I dare say it will remain so for millennia to come. One likes to exert power, covert or otherwise, over others wherever and however one can.

    We are at a stage in many societies around the world today where many are hiding behind the Chinese walls called “government” and continuing the game of subjugation via obfuscation for their own personal gain. Taking savings, wealth and it appears now even sovereignty from others.

    Elizaveta with Black Servant by Grooth (1743)

    However, what is the necessary supporting premise of these man-made control and dominate structures. Of course it is people to subjugate. A population. And that is determined by demographics. It is the elephant in the room that really drives our society. Using a business concept: try selling lemonade in the Sahara. At first a “good idea” but with very few people to service, doomed to fail.

    Keynesian economics only works when the underlying demographics aligns to provide an ever increasing population. One that drives growth and covers mal-investments as they come into their prime spending years in ever increasing numbers. This is needed to pay for the incessant insouciance and wealth transfer of the Keynesian model.

    When demographics deviates it leaves Keynesian theory – and it’s supporters – uncovered and very naked and exposed for the fraud that it is. Try buying real gold right now. That’s where we are headed with a Global Financial Depression (GFD) in the not too distant future.

    Listening to Harry Dent reminded me of the importance of demographics. So I decided to do my analysis of countries in my area of interest and operation. These are countries outside the mainstream media coverage, and ostensibly outside fraudulent fiat printing, stimulus, and using covid-19 as cover. I’ll read Harry’s book afterwards to adjust my thinking.

    John Maynard Keynes, Time 1999

    BTW, Time magazine included Keynes among its Most Important People of the Century in 1999. It stated that: “his radical idea that governments should spend money they don’t have may have saved capitalism.” Presently the Federal Reserve of the USA states it has “…an infinite amount of cash…”. Let’s see how that works out. Negative rates are going to be around for while.

    My market predictions below come from demographics with peak spending arriving at 50-54 years of age.

    I’ve ranked them loosely from the strongest market down to weakest.

    It makes for very interesting thoughts on the future in different parts of the world.

    Nigeria – 200m people

    Forever rising market. Simply “wow”.

    Iraq – 42m people

    Rising and rising and rising, from 2020 to 2050, and beyond. A booming market as far as the eye can see.

    India – 1,300m people

    Boom times from 2020 to 2060 with rising plateau thereafter.

    Russia – 141m people

    Rising, booming market from 2020 to 2045 then massive decline 2045 to 2055, with slight recovery 2055 on wards, but not that much.

    Turkey – 83m people

    Rapid strong rising market 2020 to 2040 then strong plateau until 2070, then a slight decline thereafter.

    Iran – 86m people

    Strong rising market from 2020 to 2040. Booming 2040 to 2050. Then falling off the cliff, with a small mini peak 25 years later in 2075, but still far from the 2040’s highs.

    Armenia – 3m people

    Rising market from 2020 to 2045 then falling of a cliff with 40% reductions thereafter.

    Brazil – 202m people

    Rising 2020 to 2040, with a slowly declining plateau for 20 years to 2060 then a crash there after.

    Hungary – 9.7m people

    Coming out of a 15 year recessive environment, a strong rising market from 2020 to 2035 then falling of a cliff 2035 to 2040 with decline thereafter, settling to lows not seen since the 1990’s from 2050 onwards.

    United States of America – 330m people

    Falling off peaks of 2015 to 2020 and little recessive plateau until 2035. Then solid rise for 15 years until 2050 exceeding peaks of 2015s. 2055 a crash and steady plateau there after.

    Australia – 23m people

    A little mini boom 2020 to 2025, then depression from 2025 to 2030, then massive rising market 2030 until 2040, then 2040 to 2055 slow decline and there after.

    New Zealand – 4.6m people

    Rising mildly from 2020 to 2025 then a crash from 2025 to 2030 and rising again until 2050. Then a slow decline.

    China – 1,400m people

    Rising from 2020 to 2030 then 10 years recession from 2030 to 2040 until a massive boom in 2040 to 2045, then a crash to 2000 levels from 2050 onwards.

    Georgia – 5m people

    Slowly rising market 2020 until 2040 with a boom 2040 to 2045 then rapid decline 2045 to 2060, with some recovery 2060 to 2075, but not much

    Switzerland – 8.2m people

    2020 to 2025 faltering rising market crashing in 2025 to 2030. Then recession from 2030 to 2050. 2050 onwards falling into depression until beginning slight recovery in 2065.

    Saudi Arabia – 30m people

    Rising market 2020 until 2045, then sharp decline until 2060 with recovery afterwards.

    Poland – 38m people

    Rising market 2020 to 2040 then 20 year massive decline until reaching plateau from 2060 onwards.

    Canada – 36m people

    Coming out of a crash from 2015 to 2020, modest and steady increasing market from 2020 to 2050. Then a crash and plateau from 2050 onwards.

    Germany – 80m people

    2020 to 2025 falling off the best conditions of the 2015s, into 10 year recession until 2035. A slight improvement 2035 to 2045 until sliding down into depression 2045 to 2065

    United Kingdom – 65m people

    Recession type, reducing market 2020 until 2035 with improvement 2035 to 2050, then sliding into depression for 15 years until 2065 onwards.

    Japan – 126m people

    2020 just finishing it’s last peak and now entering massive decline for next 45 years until 2065. No reprieve in sight.

    Kuwait – 4m people

    Not valid to assess as the itinerant work force is replaced as it ages or adjusted as demand dictates. Low to very low nationals involved in the work force.

    [If you’d like a country reviewed that is not listed here, ask me].

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    This week as I write this, we face massive amounts of fiat printing worldwide. Thus leading to inevitable hyper-inflation and massive wealth transfers from the lower and middle classes to the upper classes. Excessive government spending is incredibly inefficient in the long term, but is it excellent at boosting short term results, i.e. votes, and personal gains. Due to covid-19 panic there are an estimated 3 billion people in isolation today. Many are learning how to work remotely. Hungary has just appointed the first western European styled dictator since the 1930’s. Think also of the reduction in fatalities over this period from traffic accidents, other transmittable diseases that will also occur. But the final play in this farcical financial play is yet to be seen. 

    How will the Bolshevik (the majority) take the burden of taxes for generations to come? Facing impossible hurdles for asset acquisition and generational debt servitude.

    The takeaway from this strengthens my resolve to operate in the CIS, EMEA regions from our base in Switzerland. My second adopted country, New Zealand and other countries like it must re-engineer their social economic structures to provide adequate living standards in the years and decades to come. Working from home i.e. working remotely is part of the solution.

    I am looking forward to reading Harry’s book to consider the effects of massive overspending by a previous generation in their peak spending years. I expect that inflated asset prices, currency devaluation (through fiat printing), and lost or stolen pension and annuity funds will severely dampen any future peaks, turning them instead from normal Austrian theorised booms into Keynesian doldrums, or worse. Will we see an “Arab Spring” roll across the OECD as most western countries enter their twilight years and the proletariat are faced with the reality of no assets and no future, whilst their elite build ever bigger and bigger mansions? Time will tell.

    “The best way to destroy the capitalist system is to debauch the currency.”

    Vladimir Lenin
    No alt text provided for this image

    Jeremiah Josey

  • Generational Wealth Comes from… Generations

    Generational Wealth Comes from… Generations

    My family tree goes back a ways, and there many branches, through great wealth and great wars. English. German, Scottish, Irish. I’ve traced my paternal Josey line back to Portugal around the late 1500’s and then Berkshire, England from the early 1600’s onwards. One of them was associated with Oliver Cromwell for a bit. Touches of fame. But it was direct ancestor, James Josey and his wife Harriet Catherine Harris Josey that made the biggest mark on the planet – literally, in Redbank Planes, Brisbane, Australia. If their accumulated property alone was still in family hands today it would be worth about USD 25 billion. That doesn’t include compounding or the business activities if they had continued. Ah, the trappings of wealth.

    James had accumulated 30 square kilometres of prime grazing, timber and agricultural land by the time of his passing in 1903. Today it’s part of the modern city of Brisbane, Australia and well and truly carved up. My grandfather sold the last significant potion of 5 aces, or 20,000 square meters back in 1986.

    Modern Day Eden Station – Well and truly carved up

    James was convicted as a highway man when he was 19 and shipped with a few hundred other people to the gaol with no walls – Australia, arriving at Port Jackson, NSW on 18 November 1840 on the “Eden“

    James Josey, 82 yrs, 1821-1903

    James bought his first 1000 acres in 1859, 12 years after his pardon. By the time he passed, he had the largest estate in the area with 7,350 acres and his homestead, Eden Station, housing more than 400 cattle.

    The “Eden“, a merchant ship built in 1826, was typical of the long haul mid-sized merchant class vessels of the time. At 513 tons she was broad and squat and could carry 300 tonnes of cargo, plus the crew and provisions for a 6 month journey. She did the UK-Australian haul 4 times.

    Jame’s Obituary
    On Sunday occurred the death of Mr. James Josey, of ‘Possum Creek, Redbank Plains, at the age of 83. Coming to Australia at the age of 19, the deceased gentleman almost at once took up pastoral pursuits, and after being engaged for some time on what was then known as the Booval station, started on his own account in the Redbank district, where ever since he has resided and been engaged in developing that district.  For many years he was favourably known as a successful dairy farmer and horse breeder, and he also started the first timber-getting industry in the same locality, the timber used in the flooring and ceiling of the existing premises of Messrs. Cribb and Foote coming from his estate.  The deceased was bluff in his manner, but thoroughly respected as one of the pioneers of the district, and for many years was a member of the Purga Divisional Board, in the affairs of which he took a keen and intelligent interest.  At the time of his death, Mr. Josey was the owner of 350 acres of the best farming land at Redbank Plains, and of 7000 acres at ‘Possum Creek.  He had been married twice, and his second wife predeceased him by four months only.  He leaves eight daughters – namely, Mrs. Whitmore Logan, of Forest Hill ; Mrs. G. Logan, of Collinton ; Mrs. D. Jones, whose husband is employed in the Agricultural Department ; Mrs. J. Jones, Goodna ; Mrs. Hudson, Redbank Plains ; Mrs. A. Hillier, Goodna ; Mrs. J. Griffiths, of Rosevale ; and Mrs. Scarr, Brisbane.  He also leaves five sons – Mr. James Josey, of Colinton ; Mr. B. G. Josey, of Stewart’s Creek, Townsville ; Mr. A. W. Josey, Redbank Plains ; Mr. John Josey, of Kilkivan ; and Mr. Andrew Josey, of Goodna.  It is understood that the deceased’s descendants number some eighty souls.
    Transcribed from the newspaper The Queenslander, 28 February 1903, p.500

    An Economical Aside: Sailing the Eden – Why Do It?

    On 10th July 1840 the merchant ship “Eden”, with a build weight of 513 tons, set sail from Sheerness, United Kingdom and embarked on a 12,000 nautical mile, six-month journey to Port Jackson, Australia. The Eden carried 270 convicts, a military guard of 28, a crew of some 30 souls, a few brave passengers, cargo and supplies for all. Crossing the equator on the 31st August 1840, the Eden landed in Port Jackson on 18th November 1840 with the loss of one life. The British government was paying sea merchants up to £20 per convict for their Australian long haul passage. [Note average incomes in London in 1840 ranged from £25 per year for unskilled labour and up to £500 per year for doctors and lawyers]. The owners of the Eden, Colvile Wedderburn & Co, could expect income from convict transportation of £5,400 and additional revenue of some £5,000 from paying passengers, cargo and official mail. Operating costs could be up to £10,000 per trip and included crew wages, provisions, maintenance & repairs, and the all-important insurance. These where marginal business enterprises on the way out. But the return journey, rich with wool, wheat, meat, metals like copper and tin, leather, timber and other hard to find produces in Europe made the round trip worthwhile. A good trade could product clear profit of up to £20,000 once off loaded and sold back in the UK or Europe.

    Construction costs in 1826 for large vessels like the Eden ranged from £12 to £20 per ton. The expected building costs of the 513 ton Eden would have been around £10,000. She was built by Fletcher, Son & Fearnall. Notably, this era coincided with Sir Isaac Newton’s fixed gold price of £3 17s 10d per ounce – set earlier in 1717 when he was Master of the Mint. Translated into gold, the construction cost ranges from circa 1,500 to 2,500 ounces. In contemporary terms, this equates to a value ranging from USD 3 million to USD 5 million. Not that much in terms of capacity. A modern version of the Eden, a mid-sized merchant ship would have a DWT of 25,000 tonnes and would cost about USD 100 million to build. Or comparing apples with apples USD 10,000 per ton for the Eden and USD 4,000 per ton for a modern day equivalent.

    A good sea merchant, as Eden’s owner, Colvile Wedderburn & Co having operating the vessel for so long, surely should have been able to recover the cost of building their ship every year she sailed. That’s an ROI of 100%.

    Here’s a extract from the medical journal of Eden’s Surgeon Superintendent George Ellery Forman that he kept from 17 June to 30 November 1840:

    “The system of management of the convicts differed little in that I had adopted on former occasions…. ventilation and cleanliness forming the chief features while the formation of cheerfulness and the affording of all possible occupation to the convicts was practised as much as circumstances would allow; the results were on the whole satisfactory, though I think that more cases requiring medical treatment occurred than I had previously met with; this remark more particularly applied to the month of October during which period the change of climate was sudden and the weather particularly unfavourable to cleanliness, exercise and comfort in general. It was under the last mentioned circumstances that symptoms of scurvy manifested themselves in a light grade and but with a single exception the disease gradually wore away as the weather improved.”

    Reference: Royal Navy Medical Journals, 1817-1857. Medical Journal of George Ellery Forman on the voyage of the Eden in 1840. The National Archives. Kew, Richmond, Surrey.
    Brisbane Street, Ipswich. Many buildings build by James Josey & Co.

    An ANZAC legacy

    At the time of Jame’s passing he had many direct descendants. Of those, 12 of his grandchildren went on to fight during World War 1 as ANZACs. For me, that’s 12 direct paternal ancestors, all great great uncles. Of them, three where killed in action: Major Thomas James Logan at Gallipoli in 1915, Private Harold Gordon Josey in France in 1916 and Corporal Henry Morgan Jones in Belgium in 1917. They are still resting near where they fell in Gallipoli, France and Belgium respectively. Five more where wounded or invalided and four returned physically unharmed. My great grandfather, Andrew Josey, thankfully did not attend the war theatre. However my paternal grandfather, Alfred Leo Josey, and my maternal grandfather, Edward “Digger” Scott (NX046, 2nd 31st Inf. Bat.), both attended the theatres of World War 2, again as ANZACs. Respectively, their theatres where in Libya, Northern Africa, as a rat of Tobruk, and Papua New Guinea on the Kokoda Trail.

    Major Thomas James Logan, 2nd Australian Light Horse Regiment KIA Gallipoli 7 August 1915
    Photos of James Josey’s twelve grandsons and one son-in-law (Captain Whitmore. C. Logan), as they appeared in The Brisbane Courier, pg. 12, 18 November, 1916

    Keeping Trees – and Timber – in the Family

    Some Personal Property Conquests – All Timber

    Blocks of flats are great for cash flow

    One of My Fathers’ Activities Before Retirement

    The Josey’s love of wood continued.

    Moon Wood – Austrian and Australian. Close Enough

    Recently I formed a partnership with Thoma of Austria who produce a 100% Timber earthquake proof building system technology called Holz100. ‘Holz’ means wood in German.

    Here’s what makes Holz100 stand out:

    🏡 Highest earthquake rating from Japan (9.1 Richter)
    🌡️ Thermal rating is the lowest out of any in the industry
    🔇 Sound proofing is the lowest (63 dBa)
    🌿 Sustainable building – cut from 100% renewable forest – Moon Wood
    🚫 Pesticide free, chemical free
    📱 Phone radiation free – our building system effectively eliminates transmission of mobile cell phone frequencies and other EMF into your home, keeping your conversations private and your family safe.
    🏗️ Rapid construction – site work for a 400 m2 home can be completed in less than 3 days.
    🏨 A 7-story high 50 m room hotel was fully operational within 3 months of starting site works,
    💰 Cost-effective

    A 50-year guarantee ensures your home will remain mould-free, a major cause of asthma in children under 6.

    Moon Wood
    Holz100: A Sustainable Housing Revolution

    To find out more about Holz100 see here.

    Jeremiah Josey

    References and Links

    Tags

    #Australia #Convicts #JamesJosey #Eden #EdenStation #Ipswich #Gallipoli #WWI #WWII #MoonWood

  • Read The Manual

    Read The Manual

    A handful of years ago I was asked to join Western Mining and build a major part of their new AUD 1 billion fertiliser facility in far north western Queensland. Western Mining was then led by two icons of the Australian mining industry, Hugh Morgan and Andrew Michelmore. The facility was going to built at a remote site called Phosphate Hill. I grew up in areas like Phosphate Hill so I was excited to be outback again.

    Hugh Morgan
    Andrew Michelmore

    Riverside Centre, Brisbane, Australia

    I arrived on the project when design and build tenders were being evaluated in WMC offices at Riverside Centre, 123 Eagle Street, Brisbane, Australia. Coming from the “grubby” oil and gas game, you gotta love the Australian mining business: red carpet and art work in the in the foyer and lobby areas and almost-gold faucets in the toilets. I was the client engineer in charge of the Phosphoric Acid facility and my project engineer was going to be from Bechtel. Together we would be taking phosphate rich rock and dissolving it in sulphuric acid to make feed stock for fertiliser. Fun stuff. I was 26 years old

    The Phosphate Hill Fertiliser Facility, North West Queensland

    The facility manufactures 1,000,000 tonnes per year of ammonium phosphate fertilisers and is located approximately 1,000 km west of Townsville on a large phosphate rock deposit. The entire operation combines world-class, low-cost manufacturing facilities spread across multiple sites. At Phosphate Hill, ammonia is produced from methane gas sourced Santos’s Ballera gas facility located 800 km to the South. Sulphuric acid is supplied via specialised GATX rail cars delivered by train from a purpose built sulphuric acid plant located 150 km to the north at Mount Isa. There, waste gases containing sulphur are collected from Xstrata’s copper smelting facilities and converted into acid. To the east in Townsville there are the warehousing and export port facilities. During construction approximately 1,000 personnel where located on site, housed at a camp at the nearby Monument. Now a crew of about 250 personnel cover the operations of:
    – Mining and Gypsum stacking
    – Beneficiation
    – Ammonia production
    – Phosphoric acid production
    – Granulation

    Built by WMC Resources, owned briefly by BHP, now owned by Incitec Pivot
    Phosphate Hill Fertiliser Facilities

    Bechtel where wrapping up their assessment of tenders so there wasn’t much to do except watch what was happening. And then visit all the locations. The chosen contractor was a consortium of Norsk Hydro‘s using hemihydrate technology (based in Rotterdam, Netherlands), Mitsui process design (Tokyo, Japan) and Clough detailed design and construction (Perth, Australia). Norsk had operating plants in Thailand and Jordan, so within a few weeks of arriving in WMC’s offices on Eagle Street, three of us from WMC and the Bechtel project engineer went on a world tour taking in Japan, Thailand, Jordan and The Netherlands. It was 1997. The trip is a story in itself, but most memorable was the introduction to Japan which I savoured and repeated several times since including an extended period I call my “Japan time”. There’s a reason why Toyota is the best car in the world.

    For fun, I formed the social club during the construction period and the club became responsible for beer purchases. We did ‘beer and barbies’ – this was Australia after all. We averaged 2 cases, or 48 375 ml cans of full strength beer per person per week. That was a “six pack” every night for every person in our 1,000 construction crew for 3 years. That was a lot of beer for a construction site with zero alcohol policy. I’m surprised that only 1 person was killed during the work.

    As an aside, Bechtel have an amazing story. Still a family owned business, it was founded around 1898 and their key to success is taking a 5% commission on all procurement they manage. And they want to manage all of it. [Pro tip: always be between those that can, and those than can’t. Be he middle man!].

    I owe a lot of my lessons to the head of my construction consortium, Michael ‘Mike’ Anderson. A veteran in project management, he knew how to build a plant and he knew how to make it profitable. I just had to watch and learn. He used the most wicked, and most effected application of critical chain theory I had ever seen. His got his team to make estimates for their respective work scopes: BOQs, GAs, structural, concrete, tendering etc. Then he got his project planner to make two plans: one with the information as given. And a second plan with all of the times simply cut in half. He then put the first plan into a locked drawer and got his planner to swear he would never tell anyone about the first plan. The project then proceeded to run on the second “compressed” schedule. It was what I call planning to win as opposed to planning to fail as traditional Gantt chart planning does. It worked perfectly, with Mike coming in 6 months early on his contract. My task as the client then evolved into making the path as smooth as possible for Mike and his team to do what they had to do: build a world class phosphoric acid plant.

    Mike the man

    DELKOR Filter Belt similar to the four at Phosphate Hill

    One of the things that struct me was the laissez-faire, relaxed nature of the WMC/Bechtel management office. I had come from the oil industry. Among my previous gigs after the refinery, were as project engineer for Chevron’s USD 4.5 billion gas pipeline from their Kutubu gas fields in Papua New Guinea to Gladstone; and saving the Moonie to Brisbane oil pipeline which was in danger of being washed out across it’s multiple creek crossings and Santos was stalled on the fix for more than 2 years on what to do. (More stories there also). Why so relaxed for such a huge facility? It wasn’t until I walked into my first phosphoric acid facility in Thailand to understand why. There where no consequence of failure. If anything went wrong, it would just be a plop on the ground, not an explosion in the air. It was very hard to get killed in a phosphoric acid plant. Once I realised this, all stress about the project fell away from me. Nothing could go wrong. Well almost. We “forgot” the fluorine. More on that next.

    Once the process design and preliminary layouts where done we where ready for HAZOPing. Coming from the oil and gas industry I was an expert, having re-designed the entire HAZOP procedure at BP where I was running 1 or 2 HAZOPs each month. Each were small – only a few hours sometimes, but every HAZOP runs the same. For Phosphate Hill we planned to HAZOP Japan for about 2 weeks to go through the 100 or so P&IDs we had. On the very first day we spent the entire day being ‘taught’ how to HAZOP by an ex-Shell consultant. We spent the entire day HAZOPing a 3 meter deep sump that ”could’ occasionally get hot water into it… It was hair pulling stuff. It was so draining that we actually forgot to properly evaluate the floruie coming from the rock. Passed off as “insignficant”, the singficant amounts of flourine in the rock caused massive problems later on during operations with staff having to wear alsmot full hazmat suits to go anywhere near the filter belts. When looking back, one of our process engineers had only ever worked on low floruine rock. If I wasnt’ so bored at the HAZOP I might have raise the issue to consider how much gas would be released compared to other sites worldwide. We would be one of the largest.

    P&ID for HAZOP

    The most immediate task I set for myself after the world tour and I was back in the office in Brisbane was to create a battery limit interface for my plant. There were hundreds of interactions coming from multiple contractors into (and out of) the phosphoric acid and I was the only one who really cared that they all worked. Even my contractor, Mike, ever playing the contractor game, would come up with inputs and outputs that simply didn’t align with other contracts. Granted however he was totally organised and no one else was. He was first so others had to catch up to him. So I became the negotiator in-between them all. After all, I wanted my plant to work. And talking with everyone else in the project I got to learn about how everything worked.

    One of the most revealing events in this process was when I went to the project’s chief scientist with two pieces of paper: one was what the specification of what the Benefication plant was going to produce (ground up wet rock) and what the phosphoric acid was expected to receive (also ground up wet rock). They where different. At first I thought it would be a simple matter of alignment. A casual hallway chat. When nothing happened, I escalated to email. And then further discussions. This continued for some weeks until I was told to “just let it go. Ignore it”. When one of the senior managers on the project arrived to the office in a new Porsche a few weeks later, I was started to get the idea.

    But I was enjoying the complexity of the project. From a office overlooking the Story Bridge and the Brisbane River in one of the world’s most prestigious buildings, after a few months I moved to the site at Phosphate Hill and was baking in a construction donger before the air condition had been installed. For next several years I watched another creation of humanity come together and rising out of the earth.

    Over the duration of the project I kept negotiating my salary higher and higher until I was told that I was the highest paid member of the staff at my level. A few years later when I was consulting at Mt Isa mines and at the deepest point in their 3,5000 deep copper mine, I became friends with another engineer who told me he had been offered a job at WMC to run the phosphate acid project on such-and-such a date. Remembering back, that was my position! And it aligned with one of my negotiation pay raise cycles. I had obviously negotiated too well and my new friend was offered my place, but at even less than what I had started at WMC. He – obviously – didn’t accept. Again it told me about the games going on behind the scenes on the project.

    I had drawn up a Gantt chart on my office white board which remained to the end of the project. It showed how the how the entire project would be delayed by anywhere from 12 to 18 months and how my phosphoric acid plant would be 6 months early. It was always an interesting talking piece with the other team members.

    When drawing up my battery limit management plan, it was also apparent that the Phosphogypsum waste coming from my plant wasn’t being addressed. When I raised the question, again I was told not to worry about it. That is until later. The gypsum stacking facility had been entirely forgotten from the project.

    Eventually I was asked to also take care of the Gypsum stacking facilities – not a small thing as you can see from the google map. When the answer was “no” to my question, “would I be paid more?”, I declined. However I picked it up some time later because I was getting bored waiting for the rest of the project to catch up which was by now clear to everyone else running late. So I had a bunch of time up my sleeve. I also met an awesome chap who fixed dirt like I’ve never seen it fixed before. He was a civil construction guy brought in to build the earthen dams to hold millions of tonnes of future accumulation of phosphogypsum forever. Yes, there’s no apparent commercial use for these huge piles of white stuff.

    50 Years old stack in Florida
    The design of a phosphogypsum stack

    Through my time building the gypsum handling facilities I met and worked with one of the former advisers to the Queensland Premier, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen. This person, Mr Smith will do, was the architect of the entire North West Region Minerals province and the reason why the Phosphate Hill actually went ahead at all. Mr. Smith had an ambitious plan. He brought together arguing, warring government and semi-government factions of the likes of Santos, Queensland Rail, Mount Isa Mines and a bevy of private companies. Over 2 years he negotiated and cajoled to bring everyone into alignment: to install gas pipelines, have lower rail transport prices, make available port land in Townsville, and share port facilities with the coal industry amongst many other key factors. Twenty contracts where signed in 2 weeks at the end of those 2 years and the Phosphate Hill Fertiliser Facilities became possible. It was incredible to hear his story as he regaled them to me in the best business clubs across Brisbane.

    Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen

    One day Mr Smith casually slid two massive tomes across the table to me. Each was 3 inches thick, cheaply bound in green cardboard and red spiral spine wire. I asked what they were and he replied they where the project manual for Phosphate Hill, in two volumes. Wow! I never knew these even existed. For days after I plunged into them and their 1980’s typewritten paper. I was amazed that the entire project existed in such detail from the mid 1980’s. In fact every single problem that had delayed the rest of the project had been identified, thought about and a solution or solutions already determined and documented. If everyone on the project had read this report before the project started hundreds of millions of dollars would have been saved in mistakes, cost overruns and simple ignorance. But then, I realised that wasn’t the main agenda. In the midst of mistakes money can be made.

    As Phosphate Hill was being commissioned someone else handed me the book Cash Flow Quadrant, by Robert Kiyosaki, and I didn’t look back.

    In a few days I read the book, consuming it with zeal. Suddenly I had all of the vocabulary I didn’t have before. All the knowledge that had been bouncing around in my mind came into alignment. I was financially literate. Well 101 level anyway. Within 6 months I was out of WMC, the project was into operations mode now, and within a further 3 months, after looking at more than 1,000 prospect rental properties across Australia, started on my property acquisition spree. I remembered Kiyoski’s advice “you only make money when you buy”. That leads to another story of how I turned AUD 25,000 into more than AUD 1,000,000 in less than 18 months. I’ve only ever consulted for fun thereafter.

    So, reading is the path to success. That was a clear lesson from my time with WMC.

    Jeremiah Josey

  • How to Become Insanely Rich

    How to Become Insanely Rich

    It has been more than 12 years since I built one of my first major capital projects. I was 24 at the time. I hunkered down to do everything that needed to be done to build a major piece of critical infrastructure in a multi-billion dollar refining operation. And I did it all within 12 months.

    My project was only AUD 2 million, but it was fun. It was 12 months from literally cornering the lead process engineer in his office to size the capacity required (16 meters in diameter) [Pro tip: emails don’t work], specialised steel selection and shell plate manufacture, a QRA with Det Norske Veritas of Norway, Hazops, contractor selection – from the best in the world and a specialised ultra low NPSH vertical multi stage high pressure transfer pump. It was the largest and most sophisticated butane storage facility of it’s type in the Southern Hemisphere.

    You know what my biggest lesson was? The payback. During the summer time, this storage sphere could store 1000 tonnes of “waste” butane coming from the main refinery process over summer. It would be burnt in a huge flare stake previously. The butane could then be injected into the gasoline fuel mix during winter when the Reid Vapour pressure was lower. The payback for this AUD 2,000,000 investment: 3 months. Yes, only three. I did the calculation several times to validate it. Just to check I was seeing it right. Over the past decade this assembly of concrete and steel has paid back something like AUD 100 million. With minimal costs. Now that’s an investment.

    There’s me. The fireproofing is being applied to the legs behind me. You can see where it is here.

    Jeremiah Josey

Jeremiah Josey