Twenty years ago, Barney Jones, started with Wesfarmers. Now as the General Manager of Sodium Cyanide and AV/Modwood, Barney shares how it all started, some highlights and challenges he’s experienced and some advice for team members, innovators and those aspiring leaders.

Barney started with WesCEF in 2010, after spending five years with the Wesfarmers’ Business Development team.

“I’d worked with various people within CSBP and Wesfarmers Energy during my time in BD and really liked how Wesfarmers’ cultural DNA seemed to flow through them so when a role came up at CSBP as the AN Commercial Manager I applied and was lucky enough to be successful.” Barney said.

In this role, Barney focused on working with the AN team to secure contracts to underwrite WesCEF’s investment in the Ammonium Nitrate 3 (AN3) plant. Two years later and having been promoted to AN Business Manager, there were three events in his time with AN that Barney recalls with both pride (and a pinch of recoil).

Firstly, implementing the AN3 contracts when the plant came online in the middle of 2014.

“I was working on AN3 when I was up in Wesfarmers so seeing that all the way through was really satisfying. It was the first time I’d been involved in negotiating real commercial contracts, something I found really rewarding.” Barney said.

Secondly, the development of the emulsion plant which stared as just an idea between Rio Tinto and Barney. This was the first time Barney had seen a project through from just an idea, to seeing an operating plant on site. And, thirdly, the one that gives him some recoil – on Friday 13 December 2013 when Dave Zacher (now GM Major Projects) let him know there was something wrong with AN2.

“I think Dave and I are still both scarred by that event with the plant ending up being down for about three months. The way ops and the commercial team rallied around to ensure that no mine in WA was stocked out was amazing – I couldn’t have asked for better people to work with.” Barney said.

After that adventure (as Barney refers to it), he was then tasked with managing the Fertilisers Despatch team including those at the country works.

“That was my first operational role and I absolutely loved it. A really great team doing a difficult job. Ferts is a great business but it takes a year or two to understand it given its seasonal nature and, unfortunately, I only had nine months in that role, before the next opportunity presented itself.” Barney said.

The best piece of career advice Barney thinks he has received is to take the opportunity to play out of position and try new things. And so, whilst he was enjoying his time in Fertilisers, less than a year later he took up an Executive Leadership position, in his current role as GM Sodium Cyanide and AV/Modwood. Barney credits WesCEF with enabling him to act on this advice in his career so far.

Barney now looks forward to another ‘in the works’ highlight in his career with WesCEF with the current cyanide plant expansion.

In terms of advice and what helps businesses succeed, Barney says a lesson he learned early on was the importance of building and maintaining relationships, as it can be instrumental in achieving business outcomes.

Barney asserts these relationships are a reason we now have an emulsion plant, following a conversation with Rio Tinto that raised the idea of WesCEF supporting the local mining industry through ANE production. Less than a year later a contract had been signed.

It’s not only external relationships and conversations that are valuable of course. There won’t be many people in the business that haven’t helped us to have the success we’ve had and to get to where we are now.

It’s a common thread in long-tenure milestone stories at WesCEF, so it’s not a surprise to hear that ‘people’ are one of the main reasons Barney has enjoyed a lengthy career with WesCEF so far.

Of course, while Barney ranks WesCEF and its people highly in his life, he has a few home front priorities and hobbies too.

“I love being outdoors. Whether it’s hiking, skiing, camping, or fishing. I’d always rather be outdoors than in and I’ve got back into bushwalking/ hiking recently. We did part of the Larapinta trail in central Australia six years ago which was amazing and we’re really keen to go to Tassie to do some hiking there next year.

Skiing with the family is probably my favourite holiday – but our youngest is now in year 12, so my wife and I have started to plan holidays without the kids!

My other love is nature and nature photography. I’ve been fortunate enough to go on safari and to the Galapagos where it’s hard not to take a good photo and I’d love to do more of that in the future.

Finally, and some of my team will have seen him on videos during COVID, there’s spending time with our dog. He’s a fine old gent of 10 and a half now, but when work gets the better of you, spending time with Indy (Indiana Jones… get it?) always puts things in perspective.” he said.