The climate in Australia in late July is dry and the sun is blazing. Staying outdoors for a long time can even cause sunburn on your skin.
Pilbara region of Western Australia
The land here is vast and sparsely populated, and there are endless barren mountains everywhere. The exposed surface is rusty red. Under this vast land, there are endless high-grade iron ore.
Several off-road vehicles drove into the small town of Hubbard, their wheels bringing up billows of dry smoke, giving them a sense of the western wilderness.
There are about 300 households in this town. It is a larger mining town in Western Australia. There are villas with two to three-story wooden structures scattered everywhere. The environment is peaceful and peaceful.
There are very few outsiders here. The residents of the town watched the off-road convoy parked in front of the FMG company, and more than a dozen Asians and several white people got out of the car. They couldn't help but whisper in private.
"Hey... George, someone is finally willing to come to this damn place. Which country do you think it is an investor?"
"Hell, how do I know?"
"I'm willing to pay 20 Australian dollars to bet that these guys are from Japan. Except for those smart Japanese businessmen, no one wants to come to this inhospitable place."
"According to what you say, those guys at Fortescue may have gotten rich."
"It's hard to say. There are iron mines everywhere in the Pilbara. After all, FMG is a newly established company last year. It is poor in all aspects. It is far inferior to those old mines with complete facilities. I don't know.
Can Japanese businessmen like it?"
"If I were those guys from Fortescue, I would sell it as soon as possible while I can make more money, go back to Canberra or Sydney and enjoy life, and never come back to this hellish place again."
"Well, I think so too."
FMG Company is a three-story reinforced concrete building with a square and gray style that looks particularly solid. The roof is gray-blue with high ridges. This structure can withstand the harsh midday sun in Western Australia.
The company's chairman, Cairns Forrester, led a group of senior executives to come out and warmly welcomed the Royal Family Fund inspection team led by Hao Wei to Australia with a very enthusiastic attitude.
"We have been looking forward to your arrival for a long time. We welcome you so much! Please come and sit inside. The weather is too hot. We have prepared iced coffee and delicious fruits. We hope you will be satisfied."
"Thank you Mr. Forrester, let's go inside and talk."
"Haha...please come in."
Cairns Forrester's eyes were shining with excitement. He looked at Hao Wei and his group as if they were walking fat sheep, and he wanted to go up and bite them hard.
By querying financial information, we can know that Royal Fund is a very powerful Hong Kong consortium. It has never been involved in the mining field and has almost no experience in this area.
The most important thing is that they are super rich.
Entering the fully air-conditioned living room, a white female employee of the company enthusiastically served iced coffee and fruits. After all the guests were seated, Cairns Forrester walked to the front confidently and opened the slide projector to introduce the project.
He said enthusiastically;
"First of all, please let us use the sincere Australian way to warmly welcome the Hong Kong guests from afar. Welcome you to come here from afar, to this land of endless wealth and opportunities. We, FMG, are willing to work together with our Hong Kong friends.
Share this rare opportunity.
Now, I will give you a brief introduction to this ambitious iron ore project."
After finishing speaking, there was warm applause from below, especially the executives of FMG Company who were the most enthusiastic. They clapped their hands desperately and screamed loudly. It was really Australian.
Invisibly, the atmosphere was quite lively.
The inspection team reluctantly agreed, and the accompanying American lawyer Julian Culbert frowned and muttered: "Oh my God! I have simply arrived in the jungle of primitive people. This is so embarrassing."
Cairns Forrester, who was standing at the top, coughed twice when he saw this, and when the applause stopped, he began to introduce;
Founded in July 2003, FMG is an iron ore resource dealer in the Pilbara region of Western Australia with great ambitions, determined to develop the company into a world-class super-large mining company...
At present, FMG owns an exploration territory covering an area of 50,000 square kilometers in the Pilbara region. It has completed resource reserve exploration in 1/3 of the area and has discovered 4.5 billion tons of high-grade iron ore resources.
The reserve scale of this ultra-large iron ore deposit can support ultra-large mining companies with an annual output of 100 million tons of iron ore and stable production for more than 40 years.
Including unproven reserves, it is conservatively estimated that the reserve scale will increase by 50%, which can support large-scale long-term development needs. Among many mining companies in the entire Pilbara region, FMG's resource reserves are at the forefront.
The first phase of the project planned by FMG Company is expected to invest 3.7 billion Australian dollars, and the annual output will reach 55 million tons of iron ore. In the future, production will be expanded at any time according to market demand.
Specific projects include;
It is planned to start the iron ore transfer terminal project in Port Hedland in February 2005. Subsequently, port, railway and mine construction have been fully launched. It is estimated that it will take one and a half years to complete the construction of railway infrastructure open to the outside world.
By then, Port Hedland will also be put into use, and the mining of the first mining area, Duanyun Mine, will be in full swing.
At the end of 2006, FMG shipped out the first ship of ore produced
…
The slide projector in the conference room constantly played project pictures. Cairns Forrest was like an all-powerful general, holding a thin stick like a baton in his hand and explaining excitedly, painting a grand blueprint for everyone.
However, Hao Wei listened with a calm face, and his eyes briefly met the lawyer Julian Culbert, showing a little ridicule.
FMG has conducted a detailed investigation into the background of Royal Fund. On the other hand, how could Royal Fund not investigate FMG and its founder, Cairns Forrester, almost to the bottom of his underpants?
To put it simply, Cairns Forrester is a bold adventurer, full of passion but also very reckless.
Forrest founded AN in the late 1990s and claimed to invest A$1 billion to develop nickel mines.
Although Frist gave optimistic expectations for the company and carved out a big pie for all investors, what Australia is most lacking in is resource-based companies.
AN's stock price was unsatisfactory, and under the threat of major shareholder Anglo American, Forrest had to resign with resentment, that is, he was kicked out.
With a keen eye for resource companies, this adventurer turned his attention to iron ore.
In early 2003, Forrest acquired 47% of the shares of Allied Mining & Prog, a company listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, for A$8.4 million and renamed it FMG on July 19, 2003.
shortly afterwards
Forrest had just emerged from legal troubles involving the AN project, which cost him a fortune, when he proposed ambitious plans to develop the Pilbara Iron Ore and Infrastructure Project.
The Pilbara Iron Ore and Infrastructure Project, with a total investment of A$3.75 billion and a scheduled annual output of 55 million tons of iron ore, is currently the largest resource development project in Australia.
Frist initially predicted that the project would be put into production in the fourth quarter of 2006, and that its first shipment of iron ore would be shipped to Ming Jewelry and Steel Group.
After a detailed investigation, Royal Fund learned that Forrest's financial situation was very bad and he had even mortgaged his real estate and some FMG shares to the bank.
Coincidentally, Mr. Forrest chose HSBC, which has a global network.
FMG itself is burdened with debts of up to 530 million U.S. dollars. Although it has a resource territory covering an area of 50,000 square kilometers, unfortunately in the barren land of Pilbara, Western Australia, the land is extremely cheap and the ore resources are not valuable.
Therefore, FMG is currently completely insolvent.
Hao Wei understood the other party's details and even planned all the tricks for him;
Forrest must rely on deception to attract money from Hong Kong's wealthy investors to the project, and then publicize it through public opinion to attract investors who don't know the truth to push up the stock price, and in turn show off the project's prospects to attract more capital investment.
Repeatedly, it gets bigger and bigger like a snowball.
Archimedes once said;
Give me a fulcrum and I can move the whole earth.
For Forrest, the Pilbara iron ore project is the fulcrum. With this fulcrum, this adventurer can leverage tens of billions of dollars in investment and achieve a life of wealth with nothing to gain.
For professionals in resource companies, this is unfamiliar territory, but for veterans of HSBC's investment banking business, this is just a routine operation.
Lift your buttocks and you can predict what shape of poop Forest will produce.
Listening to the other party's introduction, Hao Wei had already drifted away. He remembered the overseas phone call from the chairman yesterday, repeatedly explaining the important responsibilities of the inspection team.
The Royal Family Fund is preparing to heavily intervene in iron ore projects, and Australia is the best choice.
As the leader of the inspection team, the chairman intends to let Hao Wei serve as the general manager of the iron ore project and shoulder the important task of establishing a world-class mining giant.
Listening to Chairman Yin Yin's instructions, Hao Wei couldn't help but feel excited.
This day has finally arrived!
It is the long-cherished wish of the secretariat executives to be able to serve as a high-ranking official. Hao Wei has won the favor of the chairman with his solid work and is fully confident to do this job well.
According to the professional report submitted by the inspection team, after detailed demonstration and project prospect derivation, the headquarters has determined that the Pilbara region of Western Australia will be the focus of development and will comprehensively integrate the mining enterprises in the region.
Being rich means being willful. The headquarters' focus is not just on FMG, but on integrating seven nearby large and medium-sized mining companies to monopolize the mineral resources in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The goal is to build a partnership with Australia's BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto.
A world-class mining company working side by side with major companies.
According to Chairman Wang Yaocheng’s words;
Royal Family Fund not only wants to be a world-class consortium, but also a consortium with social responsibility. Western Australia has endless mineral resources, and China's economic development requires massive resources.
Not just economics, the Royal Family Fund is willing to serve as such a link, supplying a steady stream of nutrients to the mother body and feeding back the great nation that nurtures us.
I guess now
The consortium has used its numerous trading seats to begin collecting equity interests in mining companies in the Pilbara region, including Fortescue, to lay a solid foundation for the next step of negotiations.