Billions of dollars in iron ore riches is being fought over in a Perth courtroom where the descendants of pioneering miners will air their competing claims.

July 24, 2023

A court battle over billions in iron ore riches is under way, as Australia’s richest person Gina Rinehart defends her fortune amid a bitter legal dispute over her mining pioneer father’s legacy.

Mrs Rinehart’s two eldest children and former business partners of her late father, Lang Hancock, are fighting for multibillion-dollar stakes in a lucrative iron ore project that’s half owned by Rio Tinto.

The complex case that started on Monday centres on a claim by Wright Prospecting, the family company of Mr Hancock’s former business partner Peter Wright.

It has demanded a half share in a Hope Downs mine and royalties based on a series of partnership agreements between the men’s companies and their trailblazing work over three decades.

Deceased prospector Don Rhodes’ family company DFD Rhodes is also involved, claiming a 1.25 per cent royalty share of Hope Downs’ production over a deal with the men that saw it hand over tenements in the 1960s.

Mrs Rinehart is executive chair of Hancock Prospecting and her son John Hancock and daughter Bianca Rinehart claim they are entitled to a hefty share in the massive Hope Downs operation as assets their grandfather left them.

About two dozen lawyers representing the parties packed the Supreme Court in Perth, with lawyers for Wright Prospecting opening proceedings about 13 years after the case started.

They gave Justice Jennifer Smith a detailed history of the allegedly unfulfilled business partnership agreement and the iron ore-rich tenements where the Hope Downs mine is located.

“This case turns in large measure on the proper construction of the partnership agreement,” John Rowland KC said during a brief opening.

Letters were read to the court from Mr Hancock and Mr Wright and to then West Australian premier David Tonkin and others detailing the men’s immense lobbying efforts as they fought for access to the area in the 1970s in a bid to open it up for mining.

Lawyer Julie Taylor said the men knew the massive potential of the land, with Mr Hancock saying in a letter to Mr Wright: “This is only the beginning of the struggle, which will take a lifetime to win.”

He was writing about the pair’s battle to secure the tenements from the government over numerous competing companies, including Rio Tinto-owned Hamersley Iron.

The documents, which included dozens of memos, are also a chronicle of the state of WA through the era and record the men’s early exploration work that uncovered the massive ore bodies that continue to be mined and return riches.

The trial is expected to run until November, with any judgment potentially superseded by the looming outcome of Federal Court arbitration between Hancock Prospecting and Mrs Rinehart’s children concerning the same issues.

Mrs Rinehart was dealt a blow last week when the Supreme Court rejected her bid to have thousands of pages of evidence likely to be presented at the trial classified as confidential.

The documents, which contain claims about Mrs Rinehart’s alleged conduct, could have resulted in the court being closed for much of the trial had the application succeeded.

Mrs Rinehart inherited her father’s iron ore discovery in WA’s Pilbara region and forged a mining empire after he died in 1992.

She developed mines from the tenements Mr Hancock and Mr Wright discovered at Hope Downs in the 1950s with Rio Tinto, which has a 50 per cent stake in the project.

This was followed by Hancock Prospecting’s flagship project, the Roy Hill iron ore mine.

Her wealth, estimated to be about $36 billion, has been bitterly contested.

The Hope Downs iron ore mining complex is made up of four open-pit mines near Newman.

It produces more than 45 million tonnes each year and is one of Australia’s largest and most successful iron ore projects.