Gina Rinehart is a little known mining heiress who is all set to become the richest woman in the world. Unlike Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, the Walton family and those Google guys, no one outside Australia has heard much about the publicity shy mining executive.
She inherited the Hancock Prospecting company from her father, Lang Hancock about twenty years ago. Now a massive coalmine in central Queensland is going to make the company Hancock Coal a fortune. And it will help add to the personal wealth of the owner.
At the age of 57, Gina Rinehart is now being touted to become the wealthiest person in the world. Since there are no shareholders and she owns the companies that are developing the coal and iron ore projects outright, this may come true sooner than expected.
An Australian business website SmartCompany, said that if Rinehart was a company listed on the Australia Stock Exchange and valued using the same 11-times price-to-earnings ratio as her partner, Rio Tinto, she would be worth US$30 billion. That would put her in the top ten of the Forbes rich list.
Currently the world’s wealthiest woman is pegged to be Christy Walton. She is the widow of John Walton, the Wal-Mart heir, and is worth $26.5bn. Once the coalmine in Queensland begins production it will make an annual profit of $ 10 billion that could make Ms Rinehart’s personal net worth valuation range in the $ 100 billion range.