Article by Richard Roberts, courtesy of Mines and Money
Resourcing Tomorrow 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award winner Gina Rinehart was a “fantastic gift from Australia and quite possibly the greatest Aussie woman we have”, SLR Consulting global mining director David Walker said when presenting the Hancock Prospecting executive chair with the award in London.
“Aside from the giant she is in mining her charitable contributions go by quietly and largely unannounced,” Walker said.
“She is a true entrepreneur who started with dragging her father’s company from a real low and building the empire we see today.
“She is a true champion for the cause of mining and not afraid of the challenges facing our industry, including tackling the status quo and red tape brought about by well-intentioned regulators.”
Seventy-year-old Rinehart oversees Australia’s largest private company, a diversified mining and agriculture enterprise that owns 70% of the circa-60 million tonnes per annum Roy Hill iron ore operation in Western Australia’s Pilbara region.
Roy Hill, part-owned by Marubeni Corp (15%), POSCO (12.5%) and China Steel Corp (2.5%), returned a A$3.2 billion net profit after tax in fiscal year 2023-24. The US$10 billion Roy Hill operation started production in 2015.
Hancock Prospecting CEO operations Gerhard Veldsman said Rinehart led and helped build a mining company recognised several times by industry publications as “best mining company in Australia”.
“Our excellent safety record and our very low by industry standards turnover confirm this special title,” Veldsman said.
“Mining contributes more than all other industries combined to the national tax revenue and we are proud of the contribution that our fantastic company makes to our nation.”
Walker said: “Mrs Rinehart has certainly achieved much in her time in this industry.”
“Born in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, she rode the massive wave of success that was the iron ore boom of the region entering the early 2000s, becoming Australia’s richest woman, topping the list of world’s richest woman for a while and remained in the upper echelons of the world’s most powerful and influential women till today.”
The Lifetime Achievement Award is sponsored by SLR.
Other Resourcing Tomorrow Outstanding Achievement Awards recipients this year were Ivanhoe Mines president Marna Cloete, the Mining Leader of the Year; 2024 Rising Star of the Year, Fabiana Di Lorenzo, senior director with the Responsible Business Alliance; Gold Fields for Mining Deal of the Year; and IMPACT Silver Corp for Best ESG Initiative by a Mining Company.
InvestBank and Nisga’a Lisims Government shared the Best ESG Industry Initiative Award.
Exploration Discovery Award winner Cornish Tin was a local favourite and it capped a groundbreaking year that saw it take out Discovery of the Year at the 2024 UK Mining Conference for its new tin lode finds beneath the historically significant Great Wheel Vor workings near Breage, Cornwall.
Most Improved Mining Jurisdiction of the Year was clear favourite, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which is “building an entire ecosystem to transform the Kingdom into a global regional mineral processing hub”, the country’s vice-minister for mining affairs, HE Khalid Al-Mudaifer, said at Resourcing Tomorrow2024.
