Gina Rinehart’s father, mining pioneer Lang Hancock, wrote to his daughter in a bid to sever their ties amid a bitter dispute in the years before he died.

August 15, 2023

Mining pioneer Lang Hancock attempted to sever ties with his daughter Gina Rinehart in the years before he died, a trial over billions of dollars in iron ore riches has been told.

The billionaire’s account of her father’s last years of alleged dishonesty was concocted amid a defence against a rival mining dynasty’s claim for tenements and royalties, said Christopher Withers SC, representing Mrs Rinehart’s children.

“The argument that Lang was breaching his duties to (Hancock Prospecting) and that he concealed that fact from Gina and acted dishonestly, those arguments are complete fiction as part of the false narrative,” he told the trial on Tuesday, referring to Mr Hancock’s business decisions after marrying his housekeeper Rose Porteous in 1985.

He said “Lang was perfectly transparent with Gina” and there was a large body of evidence that “destroyed” Mrs Rinehart’s argument that her father stripped assets from a company she held a 33 per cent share in.

Hancock Prospecting last week also detailed the spat between Mrs Rinehart and her father as it fought off a claim by the company of Mr Hancock’s former business partner, Wright Prospecting, which has demanded tenements and royalties linked to the lucrative Hope Downs mining complex.

Lawyer Noel Hutley SC said Mr Hancock attempted to leave considerable wealth to Mrs Porteous, who Mrs Rinehart vehemently disapproved of, amid breaches of his fiduciary duty before realising “the error of his way”.

The Supreme Court heard Mr Hancock showed “no regard” for Wright Prospecting’s interests, which was contrary to the company’s claim that he was acting for the Hanwright partnership.

Mr Withers on Tuesday said Mrs Rinehart’s false narrative regarding her father was also the version of events she told her son, John Hancock, in 2003 when he realised his grandfather’s plan to leave him and his sisters a 49 per cent share in the family business empire under a 1988 agreement had been undone by his mother, triggering a bitter legal dispute that is raging in another court.

Mr Withers, who is defending John Hancock and Bianca Rinehart against Wright Prospecting and another company’s claims,

He also took Justice Jennifer Smith through the events before Lang Hancock died when he penned two deeds in which he left his wife “big money” then attempted to undo the pledge as that relationship faltered and he mended the rift with his daughter.

Mr Withers also outlined a bid by Mrs Rinehart in the years before to remove her father and Mrs Porteous from their senior positions within the family’s companies and install herself and her then-husband Frank Rinehart in their place.

He said Mrs Rinehart proposed dividing assets due to her father’s “reckless” dealings and threatened to sue him over his alleged misappropriation of assets and “acts of oppression”.

Mr Withers read a 1989 letter to the court from Lang Hancock to his daughter in which he begs his daughter to stop contacting him amid a feud over his business decisions and marriage to Mrs Porteous that included Mrs Rinehart racially abusing her and attempting to have her deported.

“I would be pleased if you leave me alone to live the rest of my life in peace,” Mr Withers said reading from the letter.

“He had been fighting with Gina for years … On many occasions, he had pleaded with Gina to stop her barrage of criticisms.”

The Hope Downs mining complex near Newman is one of Australia’s largest and most successful iron ore projects, comprising four open-pit mines.

Mrs Rinehart, the executive chair of Hancock Prospecting, secured the development of the mines after signing a deal in 2005 with Rio Tinto – which has a 50 per cent stake in the project.

Hancock Prospecting maintains it undertook all the work, bore the financial risk involved in the development at Hope Downs and is the legitimate owner of the assets.