Gina Rinehart

Georgina Hope Rinehart (née Hancock, born 9 February 1954) is an Australian billionaire mining magnate and businesswoman. She is the executive chairman of Hancock Prospecting, a privately owned mineral exploration and extraction company founded by her father, Lang Hancock.

Rinehart was born in Perth, Western Australia, and spent her early years in the Pilbara region. She boarded at St Hilda's Anglican School for Girls and then briefly studied at the University of Sydney, dropping out to work with her father at Hancock Prospecting. She was Lang Hancock's only child, and when he died in 1992 she succeeded him as executive chairwoman.

Rinehart oversaw an expansion of the company over the following decade, and due to the iron ore boom of the early 2000s became a nominal billionaire in 2006. In the 2010s, Rinehart began to expand her holdings into areas outside the mining industry. She made sizeable investments in Ten Network Holdings and Fairfax Media (although she sold her interest in the latter in 2015), and also expanded into agriculture, buying several cattle stations, divesting them within a decade.

Rinehart is Australia's richest person. Her wealth reached around A$29 billion in 2012, at which point she overtook Christy Walton as the world's richest woman and was included on the Forbes list of The World's 100 Most Powerful Women. Rinehart's net worth dropped significantly over the following few years due to a slowdown in the Australian mining sector. Forbes estimated her net worth in 2019 at US$14.8 billion as published in the list of Australia's 50 richest people. However, her wealth was rebuilt again during 2020 due to increased demand for Australian iron ore, so that by May 2023, her net worth as published in the 2023 Financial Review Rich List was estimated in excess of A$37 billion; while in March 2021, The Australian Business Review stated her wealth equalled A$36.28 billion. As of September 2020 Forbes considered Rinehart one of the world's ten richest women. Rinehart was Australia's wealthiest person from 2011 to 2015, according to both Forbes and The Australian Financial Review; and again every year since 2020, according to The Australian Business Review and The Australian Financial Review.

Early life and family

Rinehart was born on 9 February 1954 at St John of God Subiaco Hospital in Perth, Western Australia. She is the only child of Hope Margaret Nicholas and Lang Hancock. Until age four, Rinehart lived with her parents at Nunyerry, 60 km (37 mi) north of Wittenoom. Her family then moved to Mulga Downs station in the Pilbara. Later Rinehart boarded at St Hilda's Anglican School for Girls in Perth. She briefly studied economics at the University of Sydney, before dropping out and working for her father, gaining an extensive knowledge of the Pilbara iron-ore industry. Rinehart rebuilt the HPPL company to become one of the most successful private companies in Australia's history.

In 1973, at age 19, Rinehart met Englishman Greg Milton while both were working in Wittenoom. At this time Milton changed his surname to an earlier family name Hayward. Their children John Langley and Bianca Hope were born in 1976 and 1977 respectively. The couple separated in 1979 and divorced in 1981. In 1983, she married corporate lawyer and Arco executive Frank Rinehart, in Las Vegas. They had two children, Hope and Ginia, born in 1986 and 1987 respectively. Frank Rinehart received a scholarship to Harvard for his services in the then US Army Air Corps. He was top of Harvard College, and then top of Harvard Law School, while also studying engineering, and holding a full-time and two part time jobs. Frank Rinehart died in 1990.

Rinehart and her step-mother, Rose Porteous, were involved in a legal fight from 1992 over Hancock's death and estate. The dispute took 14 years to settle, with HPPL retaining the mining tenements that Porteous had alleged did not belong to the company.

In 1999, the Western Australian state government approved a proposal to name a mountain range in honour of her family. Hancock Range is situated about 65 km (40 mi) north-west of the town of Newman at 23°00′23″S 119°12′31″E and commemorates the family's contribution to the establishment of the pastoral and mining industry in the Pilbara region.

In 2003, at age 27, Rinehart's son John changed his surname by deed poll from his birth name Hayward to Hancock, his maternal grandfather's name. Since 2014, Rinehart has had a difficult relationship with her son, John; and was not present at his wedding to Gemma Ludgate. John's sister, Bianca Hope Rinehart, who was once positioned to take over the family business, served as a director of Hancock Prospecting and HMHT Investments until 31 October 2011, when she was replaced by her half-sister, Ginia Rinehart. In 2013, Bianca married her partner Sasha Serebryako in Hawaii, but Rinehart did not attend the wedding. Rinehart's other daughter, Hope, married Ryan Welker, and they divorced while living in New York. Rinehart attended both her younger daughters' weddings.

Business career

After the death of her father in March 1992, Rinehart became Executive Chairman of Hancock Prospecting Pty Limited (HPPL) and the HPPL Group of companies. All companies within the group are privately owned. With the notable exception of receiving a royalty stream from Hamersley Iron since the late 1960s, Lang Hancock's mining activities were mainly related to exploration and the accumulation of vast mining leases. The BBC journalist, Nick Bryant, argues that while Rinehart was a beneficiary of her father's royalty deals, she "transformed the family business by spotting, earlier than most, the vast potential of the China market."

Rinehart achieved the Roy Hill tenements in 1993, the year after her father's death, having applied for them five months after her father's death, and focused on developing Roy Hill and Hancock Prospective undeveloped deposits, raising capital through joint venture partnerships and turning the leases into revenue producing mines.

Hancock Prospecting owns 50 per cent of Hope Downs and shares of 50 per cent of the profits generated by the 4 Hope Downs mine, which is operated by Rio Tinto under a joint management committee and produces 47 million tonnes of iron ore annually. Another joint venture with Mineral Resources at Nicholas Downs, northwest of Newman, is producing 500 million tonnes of ferruginous manganese. Majority stakes in the Alpha Coal and Kevin's Corner coal projects in Central Queensland were sold to GVK in 2011. After receiving approval from the Commonwealth Minister for the Environment in 2012, these coal projects were subsequently not developed. The Roy Hill Iron ore project, south of Port headline, in the Pilbara produces 60 million tonnes a year, with approvals pending to reach 70 million tonnes per annum.

In 2010, Rinehart took a 10 per cent stake in Ten Network Holdings; James Packer had acquired an 18 per cent stake in the same company shortly before. Since then she also acquired a substantial stake in Fairfax Media. Rinehart was a major player in the media and no longer limits her interests to the mining business. In February 2012 she increased her stake in Fairfax to over 12 per cent, and became the largest shareholder of the company. Fairfax journalists were reportedly fearful that she wanted to turn them into a "mouthpiece for the mining industry". In June 2012, she increased her stake further to 18.67 per cent, and was believed to be seeking three board seats and involvement in editorial decisions in Fairfax's newspaper division. Negotiations between Fairfax and Hancock Prospecting broke down in late June because of disagreements over Fairfax's editorial independence policy and other issues relating to board governance; chairman Roger Corbett subsequently announced that Rinehart would not be offered any seats on the board. After failing to get board representation she sold her shareholding in 2015.

In 2015, Rinehart was listed as the 37th-most-powerful woman in the world by Forbes; a decline from her 2014 and 2013 rankings as the 27th- and the 16th-most-powerful woman, respectively. In 2023, she ranked 48th in Forbes list of "World's 100 most powerful women".

Later the same year, Rinehart acquired Fossil Downs Station after it was placed on the market for the first time in 133 years. The 4,000 km² (1,544 sq mi) property was stocked with 15,000 head of cattle and the sale price was not disclosed, but it was estimated to be between A$25 to 30 million. Rinehart had acquired a 50% stake in Liveringa and Nerrima Stations in 2014 for A$40 million.

In October 2015, Rinehart planned to open the huge Roy Hill mine just eight months after she secured A$7.9 billion in funding. Initial shipments of iron ore were sent to China. In October 2016, it was announced that Hancock Prospecting had struck a deal to invest in AIM-listed UK-based mining company Sirius Minerals to help bring to fruition their North Yorkshire Polyhalite Project.