Gina Rinehart’s wealth soars as Hancock Prospecting reports $4b profit

Hancock Prospecting’s principal activities across the year included the mining and sale of iron ore through the Roy Hill iron ore project, its half share in the Rio Tinto-owned Hope Downs joint venture and its shareholding in Atlas Iron, which runs the Mt Webber mine, according to Hancock’s directors’ report. The group continued to explore and progress the approvals process for the Grassy Mountain metallurgical coal project in Canada’s Alberta.

According to the Financial Review Rich List, Mrs Rinehart’s wealth has more than doubled in the past year to $29 billion. Australia’s second wealthiest person was fellow iron ore mining magnate Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest with $23 billion.

Hancock Prospecting declared a dividend of $710 million, up from $483 million last year.

Elsewhere in Australia’s $290 billion mining industry, exporters of coal and copper this week are facing uncertainty surrounding their ability to sell cargoes to China following reports of Chinese customs authorities implementing a new round of import curbs targeting Australian cargoes. Australia’s wine, barley, beef and coal exports have previously faced restrictions this year amid escalating diplomatic tensions between Canberra and Beijing.

Iron ore, however, has emerged “largely unscathed” from the fallout, Commonwealth Bank mining and energy commodities analyst Vivek Dhar said on Thursday.

“China’s steel sector is too dependent on Australian iron ore for policymakers to force the sector to find another source of supply,” he said. “Diversifying away from Australia in the near term is even more challenged with Brazil, the world’s second-largest supplier of iron ore, operating below potential. Brazil’s supply has still not fully recovered following a fatal dam collapse in January 2019.”