Australia's wealthiest person, Gina Rinehart, must share part of her mining fortunes after a Supreme Court ruling on Wednesday. The court decided that Rinehart's Hancock Prospecting must pay past and future royalties to the heirs of Peter Wright and Don Rhodes but retains ownership of the mining rights.
Key Takeaways
Australia's wealthiest person, Gina Rinehart, has been ordered by the Supreme Court to pay past and future royalties from her mining empire. The case involved a dispute over the Hope Downs iron ore project with heirs of Peter Wright and Don Rhodes.
- Rinehart must share royalties but retains mining rights.
- Justice Jennifer Smith ruled on a 13-year legal battle involving multiple parties.
- Hancock Prospecting paid $832 million in profits last year from the Hope Downs project.
- The judgment is expected to be appealed, further prolonging the dispute.
According to BBC, the legal battle, which began more than 13 years ago, centers around Hope Downs, one of Australia's largest iron ore projects. The court heard that Rinehart's father Lang Hancock and his business partner Peter Wright had an agreement to manage their joint interests under a business called Hanwright. Justice Jennifer Smith ruled that Wright Prospecting is entitled to half of the royalties paid by Rio Tinto to Hancock Prospecting.
The Guardian reports that the judgment, which is anticipated to be over 1600 pages long, comes more than two years after the complex legal case went to trial in Perth. The Hope Downs mining complex near Newman in north-west Western Australia is a joint venture between Hancock Prospecting and Rio Tinto, delivering an $832 million profit to Hancock Prospecting last year.
The dispute also involved Rinehart's children, Bianca Rinehart and John Hancock, who claimed that their mother had moved lucrative mining rights out of a family trust. The court denied their claims over the rights but partially granted another bid for royalties from Hope Downs by the family of late engineer Don Rhodes.
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