People: Lambert spots a winner 

Christopher Lambert, the former commodity trader steering the destinies of ambitious coal hopeful Altona Energy, brings a wealth of experience to the task of taking its multibillion-dollar coal-to-liquids project in South Australia’s Arckaringa Basin to fruition.

A one-time luminary of commodity financier Johnson Matthey Bankers before it was brought low by unscrupulous whisky-bibbing Indian dealers and others and a former executive director of now out-of-favour Aussie-based US resources play Empyrean Energy, he waxes lyrical about Arckaringa.

The project contains a measured 1.5 billion tonnes and an estimated potential of 7.8 billion tonnes of coal and has a possible net present value ranging from £451 million to almost £2 billion, according to investment group Invesco, which holds 18.14 per cent of Altona. Chinese oil giant CNOC is arranging development and funding in return for a 51 per cent project stake and Hong Kong group Tongjiang International Energy holds 21.4 per cent of Altona.

Lambert is used to dealing with volatile personalities. He once played a role at Elders Finance, part of the corporate empire ranging from Fosters Lager to wool buying created by the abrasive John Elliott, past president of the Australian Liberal Party and Melbourne’s Carlton United Aussie rules football club, who tried to take over British drinks giant Allied Lyons but later was found to have traded while insolvent and was declared bankrupt in 2005.