A forward-looking engineer who was involved in the construction of Melbourne's iconic Bolte Bridge in the 1990s, Jorss displayed his strategic foresight as CEO with Stanmore Coal's acquisition of the Isaac Plains mine in Queensland from Vale in 2015 for $1.

He is seeking to use his engineering and financial skills as executive chairman of Bowen Coking Coal grow the company through value-adding acquisitions in Queensland's Bowen Basin. 

"Being involved in the construction of the Bolte Bridge over three years was a terrific professional challenge and great milestone as a young engineer in the late '90s," Jorss told Australia's Mining Monthly.

"It was the last, and by far the most technically challenging, construction project I undertook in my engineering career before moving into finance and then mining. 

"It certainly was a bold architectural statement and very wisely I wasn't entrusted with any of the architectural decisions, but it was great to be involved in a team undertaking the construction of this iconic bridge.

"It's a landmark for me in part because its architectural simplicity belies the complex engineering and hard work that underlies it."   

Jorss said mining was a very cyclical industry and the best chance to create long-term value lay with understanding the long-term demand and supply for the product the company was targeting and making investment decisions based on this rather than the short-term price trend.

"It can be hard to swim against the tide and buy assets when many players are heading in the opposite direction," he said.

"But there is no doubt opportunities can emerge when prices are down causing some players to lose interest in the market.

"Every major investment decision we make at Bowen is backed by a lot of work to ensure the assets acquired can at least wash their face throughout the pricing cycle. 

"We don't make any big calls lightly, we don't chase growth for growth's sake and, as such, we reject many acquisition opportunities if they don't fit our strategic goal of building more near-term, high quality, low-cost production assets."

Timing

The coal mining downturn in 2015 allowed a number of smaller companies to acquire assets from larger mining companies with higher fixed overheads and less manoeuvrability. 

Hard coking coal prices tracked down from near record highs in 2011 to less than US$90 per tonne in 2015.

"There was a long list of challenges after we acquired the Isaac Plains mine [in 2015] but we were confident we could turn those into opportunities and build a profitable enterprise," Jorss said.

"Firstly, we combined the mine with an adjacent tenement, increasing the mine life from three years to up to 10 years and substantially lowering the strip ratio.

"We maximised the use of the dragline and moved to a contractor model - including to operate the dragline - after a tightly contested competitive process to deliver more efficiencies.

"We also undertook low cost highwall mining at the end of the initial pit mine life to bring down our average mining cost.

"Refurbishing the wash plant took considerable effort and capital and we were fortunate to have negotiated substantial financial support from the vendors to cover take-or-pay rail and port obligations as well as some of the restart capex.

"We traded this essential short-term vendor support off against royalties, which kicked in at higher price thresholds. This allowed the vendor to make money when the prices rebounded, which is exactly what occurred."

Jorss also negotiated fresh rail contracts to deliver win-win outcomes and flexibility.

"We had confidence that in the long term the coal price would recover, as at the low point even the big players in the basin weren't making money, a situation that wasn't sustainable," he said.

"As it turns out the coking coal price recovered much faster than we had assumed.

"In fact, within six months or so of restarting mining at Isaac Plains the hard coking coal price topped US$300 again and we were off to the races. "

Jorss said it is was underlying value that attracted him to any project firstly, whether it be coal, copper, gold or otherwise, as well as its future market.

"I think BCC is a terrific opportunity on this measure alone," he said.

"Multinationals are getting out of coking coal and leaving low-priced assets in their wake at a time when the demand for steel-making and metallurgical coal is on the rise.

"There's currently no credible replacement at scale for met coal, so it's going to be around for a long time.

"The much-discussed energy transition will require substantial quantities of steel including for new wind and solar farms, new electric cars, new power systems and transmission lines.

"Recycled steel through electric arc furnaces will play a role but that is limited by the amount of scrap available, given that global steel consumption has tripled in the past 40 years or so.

"There is currently just no way to make the volumes of steel required without substantial amounts of metallurgical coal and potential competing technologies such as hydrogen face significant hurdles in terms of cost, transport and safety."

BCC's projects are located in the heart of the Bowen Basin, the world's most prolific producer and exporter of high quality met coal.

Bowen Basin coal is most in demand globally because of its lower impurities and high quality.

"Our projects feature large resources that have access to hungry overseas markets via significant existing infrastructure that has been built up over many decades and an experienced local workforce," Jorss said.

Experience

"Working with the experienced team at BCC gives us a very good knowledge of the Bowen Basin and the projects and mines to target that fit our strategic criteria."

Jorss said he used his background in engineering and finance to assess projects.

"I don't think it hurts to have a background in both engineering and finance to ensure you can get your head around an understanding of the technical risks while exploring the commercial opportunities and potential deal structures," he said.

"I am fascinated by geology and the technical aspects of mining but I also know I rely heavily on others to bring the real depth of knowledge here.

"Knowing the right questions to ask and ensuring the right technical people are involved is definitely a key to success."  

Jorss as chairman and managing director Gerhard Redelinghuys at BCC lead a small but experienced team.

"The team has complementary skill sets and works very closely together to assess potential acquisitions and execute our project development plans," Jorss said.

"Between us we have a good understanding of the market, including the growing demand and tightening supply for price confidence, and can assess a good resource in the right location based on geology, mining, infrastructure, and logistics to keep costs to a minimum.

"Having the right team that interacts well is crucial to success and I am fortunate to be working such good people at BCC.

"There isn't a lot of ego in the team, just good people wanting to work to create value and have some fun while doing it.

"The ability to work in this collaborative environment to strive for the best result is probably the most important criteria in our team. All of our team are heavily invested in the company."

Jorss said the BCC management team had significant experience in project development and business management.

"Between us we have opened 11 coal mines, and operated 25 across the world," he said.

"As an emerging producer, we feel we are well positioned to deliver high performing mines with extensive knowledge from pit to port to steel production."

Discipline

Jorss believes cost discipline is critical to protecting project margins whether that be building a bridge or a coal mine.

"For mining projects, it's keeping your costs down through the cycle that matters most," he said.

"This low-cost mantra permeates the BCC business."

Jorss said all levels of government had come to recognise the significance of the Bowen Basin in terms of its contribution to Queensland and Australia's exports and the flow-on to the economy through about $4 billion in royalty payments a year plus taxes and the significant economic benefits of jobs and wages in the local communities.

"I contrast this positively with other jurisdictions such as Canada and New Zealand where coking coal exports play a smaller role in the economy and have faced increasing political pressures," he said.

"However, the global trend to increasingly tie up mining projects in red and green tape has also impacted negatively on our approval times.

"I think it's incumbent on governments and the industry to work together to maintain a very high bar for the best environmental practice while ensuring a streamlined approvals process that does not penalise the mining industry with unnecessarily delays and bureaucracy.

"We need to recognise the critical nature of mining to our modern society and all the things we rely on, from iPhones to energy systems - including renewables - housing and transport. My view is both the mining industry and governments can do a better job in promoting this in society." 

Strategy

Jorss said the company's plan was to own coking coal mines and market coal, which was why it favoured the contractor model.

"We don't need to physically mine the coal ourselves unless it makes sense to do so," he said.

"There are many experienced local contractors who can deliver an efficient mining outcome for us and at this point in our journey, that's the more likely option for most of our operations. As we grow, we will continue to assess this."

Jorss said BCC's acquisition of New Hope's Burton mine and its Lenton project showed that getting into production and creating cash flow was its highest priority.

"With coal prices where they are, our projects are likely to create significant cash flow, which will allow BCC to fast track the development of our existing high-quality project pipeline and consider other acquisitions to build our production at a time when the demand for high quality met coal is accelerating," he said.

"We aim to get the balance right between using cash flow to fund growth including the development of our larger projects and also being mindful to return money to shareholders as and where we can."  

Growth

Jorss said the acquisition of the Burton mine and adjacent Lenton coking coal project ticked all the right boxes for BCC.

"It's a great resource in a world class met coal province that comes with some $300 million of infrastructure that provides significant synergies for our existing projects in the region," he said.

"With a substantial resource base of more than 200 million tonnes it provides material scale for the company as we accelerate our push into supplying the growing global steel markets with high quality Queensland product.

"The Burton mine is currently in care and maintenance but the Burton coal brand was sought after among steel makers worldwide and we look forward to getting it back into the market in the near term.

"This deal was two years in the making and reflects our strong desire to build a meaningful company based in the premier export coking coal basin in the world."

BCC is also looking to acquire the Bluff project in the Bowen Basin from the liquidators of Carabella Resources.

"Bluff will produce a high-quality pulverised coal injection coal for steel production which expands our future product mix and will be complementary to our other operations," Jorss said.

"It's an asset that has been operating up until quite recently and provides BCC with an opportunity for a low cost, rapid restart.

"It sits well with our strategic coal to be a major independent producer of metallurgical coal for the global steel industry.

"With over half a billion tonnes of resources across our current asset portfolio, we look forward to supplying the global steel industry for many years to come."