The Australian mining magnate Gina Rinehart has once again returned to the top of the Forbes Australia’s Rich List 2017.
Rinehart’s fortune boosted $21.5 B, after a recovery in iron ore prices.
Gina benefited from the success of the Roy Hill project in the Pilbara region of Australia and Hancock Prospecting has doubled profits in 2016 to more than $1 billion.
Rise from the ashes
The family’s late patriarch Lang Hancock famously discovered the world’s largest iron deposit.
After her father’s death, Gina took over his estate and rebuilt it into something much larger. Despite difficult periods, she grew Hancock Prospecting’s undeveloped deposits, raising capital through joint venture partnerships and turning the leases into revenue producing mines.
Rinehart’s ventures are not only limit to the mining business. In 2010, she took a 10 per cent stake in Ten Network Holdings and became a shareholder in Fairfax Media.
She’s also known as Australia’s third-largest cattle producer, acquiring Fossil Downs Station in 2015.
Rinehart’s daughter Bianca also made it on the list for the first time at the No. 5 spot with a combined fortune of $5 billion. Bianca is trustee of the Hope Margaret Hancock Trust, which holds 23.4% of the family business, Hancock Prospecting.