Latest news with #HancockProspecting
The Age
7 days ago
- Business
- The Age
Twiggy drops off as three West Australians make AFR's Rich List top 10
West Australian mining billionaire Andrew Forrest has fallen out of the Australian Financial Review Rich List top 10 for the first time in more than 15 years. The iron ore tycoon was ranked the richest man in Australia from 2020 to 2023, before beginning to slide down the rankings following his split from wife, Nicola, and the dividing of their shared fortune in 2023. Nicola Forrest remains in the top 10, ranked ninth with an estimated fortune worth $12.8 billion, due to holding slightly more of the family's Fortescue shares than her estranged husband. Fellow WA mining magnate Gina Rinehart has held her position as the richest Australian for the sixth year in a row despite her fortune shrinking slightly from $40.6 billion in 2024 to $38.1 billion this year due to falling iron ore prices. Rinehart's Hancock Prospecting is the country's largest private mining company, with its Roy Hill mine in the Pilbara its most valuable asset. Rounding out the West Australian contingent in the top 10 was media mogul and Seven Group Holdings boss Kerry Stokes with an estimated value of $12.7 billion – a figure which has nearly doubled since 2020, when his worth was forecast to be around $6.3 billion. This year marks Stokes' return to the top 10 after last appearing on the list five years ago. Meanwhile, one West Australian was also among the 10 debutants to feature on the list for the first time this year.
Sydney Morning Herald
7 days ago
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Twiggy drops off as three West Australians make AFR's Rich List top 10
West Australian mining billionaire Andrew Forrest has fallen out of the Australian Financial Review Rich List top 10 for the first time in more than 15 years. The iron ore tycoon was ranked the richest man in Australia from 2020 to 2023, before beginning to slide down the rankings following his split from wife, Nicola, and the dividing of their shared fortune in 2023. Nicola Forrest remains in the top 10, ranked ninth with an estimated fortune worth $12.8 billion, due to holding slightly more of the family's Fortescue shares than her estranged husband. Fellow WA mining magnate Gina Rinehart has held her position as the richest Australian for the sixth year in a row despite her fortune shrinking slightly from $40.6 billion in 2024 to $38.1 billion this year due to falling iron ore prices. Rinehart's Hancock Prospecting is the country's largest private mining company, with its Roy Hill mine in the Pilbara its most valuable asset. Rounding out the West Australian contingent in the top 10 was media mogul and Seven Group Holdings boss Kerry Stokes with an estimated value of $12.7 billion – a figure which has nearly doubled since 2020, when his worth was forecast to be around $6.3 billion. This year marks Stokes' return to the top 10 after last appearing on the list five years ago. Meanwhile, one West Australian was also among the 10 debutants to feature on the list for the first time this year.
West Australian
7 days ago
- Business
- West Australian
REVEALED: Australia's 10 richest people and how much they're worth
Iron ore magnate Gina Rinehart may still be Australia's richest person but that massive pile of dosh is now just a little shorter than it was last year. The name behind the Hancock Prospecting and Hancock Agriculture empires — with assets stretching from Roy Hill and Atlas Iron through to Bannister Downs Dairy, Drizabone and Rossi boots — is worth $38.1 billion, according to this year's Australian Financial Review Rich List . Compared to your bank balance that's still pretty decent, no? Mrs Rinehart has now held the title for six-straight years, but this year's figure is 6 per cent down on where it stood last year thanks to a softer market for her No.1 earner, iron ore. Weaker prices for the steel-making ingredient have also dented the fortunes of fellow miners Andrew Forrest and estranged wife Nicola , who's net worth now stands at $12.8b — down from last year's $16.92b and dropping her to ninth on the list of the top 10 wealthiest people in Australia. Fortescue founder Mr Forrest disappeared from the list altogether. Across the top 10, the AFR says their collective fortune now stands at $202b — down 9.2 per cent from a year ago. Property developer Harry Triguboff held on to his spot at No.2 with $29.7b while packaging king Anthony Pratt and Family come in third with $25.9b. Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquahar was fourth with $21.4b. But noticeably absent from the top 10 was his co-founder wingman Mike Cannon-Brookes. Everyone's favourite litigant Clive Palmer has $20.1b, which put him at fifth, and Perth-born founders of online graphic design unicorn Canva, Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht , held at sixth place with a small rise in their fortune to $14.1b. Co-founder of infrastructure and asset management firm Stonepeak, Michael Dorrell , stormed into the charts to seventh, with an estimated net worth of $13.9b. Former Glencore boss Ivan Glasenberg has $13.3b, earning him eighth spot. Kerry Stokes , chairman of Seven West Media and majority shareholder of the diversified SGH empire — which includes Boral, Coates Hire, WesTrac and investments in a host of resource and energy companies — was 10th with $12.7b.
The Guardian
18-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Travels in the Pilbara, the land of ‘Aunty Gina'
Standing looking at the ramshackle old buildings and stockyards on the vast and isolated Mulga Downs station where Gina Rinehart grew up felt a little surreal as the same day she was on the other side of the world in the US celebrating Donald Trump's inauguration Living on the east coast, mining isn't something you notice in your neighbourhood. In the Pilbara evidence of mining is in your face everywhere. From the side of the highway to Marble Bar you can see dust rising from the massive dump trucks working at the Roy Hill iron ore mine, and the incongruous pink-painted infrastructure that's a feature of the mine The sun rises over the hills behind Tom Price, the town that supports Rio Tinto's Mount Tom Price mine. This is the mine Lang Hancock's estate has been getting royalties from since 1962. In an incredible deal Rio still gives 2.5% from every dollar it earns exporting iron ore from the mine to Hancock Prospecting We were told that when she was a child, Rinehart was once saved from drowning in this rain-swollen and muddy creek on Mulga Downs station by an Aboriginal boy named Greg Tucker The road is now closed to the former asbestos mining town of Wittenoom. Being a massive Midnight Oil fan I can sing all the lyrics to Blue Sky Mine but my first real exposure to what happened there was as a young press photographer, meeting a terminally ill former mine worker who needed to wear an oxygen mask to help him breathe. He was taking out a compensation claim for his illnesses against CSR, which bought the mine from Hancock and his business partner in the 1940s Sunrise on another warm Pilbara morning at the Auski Roadhouse. The business is a hub for truckies and traffic management crews, open early until late and offering surprisingly good, fresh food for somewhere that feels like it's in the middle of nowhere. We chatted to the friendly crew of a traffic management convoy, one of whom laughed when we said why we were in WA and made, for me, the most memorable quote of the trip: 'Auntie Gina, she looks after me' The varied yellow and green colours of the spinifex contrasting with the red rocks is surprisingly beautiful A truck sends up a dust cloud as the sun sets behind Mount Whaleback mine in Newman. Opened in 1968, it's the world's largest single-cut iron ore mine. It used to be a mountain 350 metres above the surrounding plain – now it's 400 metres below the level of that same plain Banjima traditional owner Juliet Tucker at Wirrilimarra, known as 'the block' – part of Mulga Downs station that has been given to traditional owners. She liked that the Wittenoom Ranges were behind her as she posed for the portrait because that's where her family is from The sun was setting and, with the temperature close to 40C, the drone wasn't happy but it still managed to get high enough to peek into the edge of the open-cut Roy Hill mine. The size is overwhelming but this is actually just one small part of the vast project The Pilbara landscape always offers a beautiful colour palette but, after rain, the spinifex and hills along the Great Northern Highway were greener than usual. Our flight plans had to be changed due to a cyclone off Port Hedland and the locals told us it was wetter than they'd seen it in years January is the off-season in Karijini national park so when we were there only one gorge was open. Even the visitor centre was closed and we felt as though we were the only people in the park as we walked under the ghost gums and the red rocks of Nhamarrunha (Kalamina Gorge) Slim Williams, another Martu man, sits for a portrait at the Aboriginal Males Healing Centre in Parnpajinya. We sat with a group of men in the shade of the healing centre and talked. Their emotions were raw as each spoke from the heart. Looking back at the portraits I can see their sadness The ancient Wanna Munna petroglyphs are down an unmarked rough track about 75km from Newman. The screeching of wild budgies was the only sound as we explored down the gorge. Everywhere you look more carvings are visible – people, animals and symbols. It's magical As the sun started to go down at the end of a long hot day, the shadows cast from the Roy Hill mine bridge over Marble Bar Road looked like a dinosaur's shadow and was strangely spectacular Driving through the Pilbara and having read Tim Winton's latest novel, I grappled with the idea of how much wealth comes from unrecognised colonial exploitation. The former chief executive of Oxfam Australia Lyn Morgain said at the end of episode three: 'Whatever your views might be as to who owns those resources, what is unquestionable is that they belong with Australians, our community and in many cases with the traditional owners' The sweaty podcast team – Joe Koning, me and Sarah Martin – as the sun starts to set on our last day in the Pilbara
Business Times
16-05-2025
- Business
- Business Times
Australia's richest woman doubles US stocks bet to US$2.5 billion
[SYDNEY] Billionaire mining magnate Gina Rinehart poured hundreds of millions of US dollars into broad market-tracking funds during the first three months of the year, boosting holdings of US equities as Donald Trump returned to the White House. Rinehart's closely held Hancock Prospecting held a portfolio of US-traded stocks and exchange-traded funds worth about US$2.5 billion as of Mar 31, according to a May 15 regulatory filing. The iron ore tycoon, a Trump supporter, nearly doubled her holdings since the end of last year. The ramp up came just before the US announced higher tariffs on many countries sending global stocks into a tailspin, though they have since clawed back losses. Most of Rinehart's new investment went into simple index trackers for the Nasdaq 100, S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average. She also bought stakes in Etsy and PayPal Holdings She closed out stakes in four petroleum companies, including Chevron and ExxonMobil, which were worth a combined US$109 million at the end of last year. Rinehart is worth US$26.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The 71-year-old has became an outspoken supporter of Trump and Australia's centre-right party, which suffered a loss when the nation went to the polls two weeks ago. One holding that remained unchanged – her 150,000 shares of Trump Media & Technology Group, which operates social media platform Truth Social. BLOOMBERG
