30 Interesting Facts You Never Knew About Gina Rinehart

Gina Rinehart, the chairman of Hancock Prospecting, is one of the Australia's richest people and one of the world's richest women. Here are a few things everyone should know about the Australian mining magnate:

1. She became the Chairman of Hancock Prospecting Pty Limited (HPPL) and the HPPL Group of companies, following her father's death in March 1992.
2. She was named as Australia's first female billionaire in May 2006, with a total net worth estimated at A$1.8 billion, by the Business Review Weekly Magazine.
3. Since the year 2011, she has been constantly listed in the Forbes list of The World's 100 Most Powerful Women and also in the list of Australia's Wealthiest Person.
4. She went on to overtake Christy Walton as the world's richest woman in the year 2012 and was leading the richest women lists by magazines BRW and Forbes.
5. She has been an active supporter of the Westralian Secession Movement in the 1970s, which was founded by her father for the secession of Western Australia from the rest of the country.
6. She, being the only child of Lang Hancock, inherited a 76.6 percent share in the company upon his death, and the remaining shares were transferred to a trust for her four children.
7. During her tenure as a executive chairman, she oversaw a rapid expansion of the company, which led to a surge in her total wealth of around $A75 million, to a billionaire in the year 2006.
8. She started to expand her holding outside the mining industry and even made sizeable investments in Ten Network Holdings, Fairfax Media and even in agriculture.
9. She was involved with the Workers Party, which was later renamed as the Progress Party, founded by businessman John Singleton.
10. She first appeared on Forbes Asia 2007's list of Australia's 40 Richest, with an estimated wealth of US$1 billion, which more than doubled the next year to US$2.4 billion, despite the global financial crisis.
11. Georgina Hope Hancock was born on February 9, 1954 in Perth, Western Australia to Lang Hancock and Hope Margaret Nicholas.
12. She studied at St Hilda's Anglican School for Girls in Perth and went on to study economics at the University of Sydney.
13. She dropped out of the college and started working for her father, through which she gained an extensive knowledge of the Pilbara iron-ore industry.
14. She started working for her father at the age of 21, but was actually ousted from the family firm for over five years, due to the marriage of her father and Rose Lacson, a former maid, which she did not approve.
15. She was involved in a legal battle with her stepmother Rose Porteous, following the death of Hancock, over the issue of distribution of his estate. The ordeal went on for over 14 years from 1992 before settlement.
16. She is known to be extremely cautious about her safety and security, and has former SAS men as her bodyguards. Her residence as well as office has bullet proof windows, and even travels only in bullet proof cars.
17. In the year 2010, she acquired a small stake in Fairfax Media, which after two years in February 2012, was increased to over 12 percent, making her the largest shareholder of the company.
18. It was further increased to 18.67 percent by June 2012. It was also reported that Rinehart sought three board seats and involvement in editorial decisions in Fairfax's newspaper division, which was not offered, following which she sold her shares in 2015.
19. She reportedly acquired 50 percent stake in Liveringa and Nerrima Stations for a total sum of A$40 million in the year 2014, marking her entry into the agricultural sector.
20. She, through the Hancock Prospecting, shares 50 percent of the profits generated by the Hope Downs mine, along with substantial percent of the profits from the Mineral Resources Limited, the Alpha Coal, Kevin's Corner projects, and the Roy Hill Iron Ore Project.
21. She is the founder of Australians for Northern Development & Economic Vision [ANDEV], a lobby group and is known to have sponsored the trips of Christopher Monckton to Australia.
22. Rinehart as one among the group of mining magnates opposed the government's Mineral Resource Rent Tax and Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. Andrew Forrest, the former CEO of Fortescue Metals Group was also one among them.
23. In the year 2015, she acquired Fossil Downs Station, a pastoral lease and cattle station of 4,000 square kilometers (1,544 sq mi) with 15,000 head of cattle, which was placed on the market for the first time in 133 years.
24. Rinehart is on the expert advisory board of SISHA, a Cambodian non-profit organization campaigning against human trafficking in particular by rescuing and assisting sexually exploited women and children.
25. She married an Englishman Greg Milton, who changed his surname to Hayward, at the age of 19, in the year 1973. The couple actually met while working together in Wittenoom.
26. They have two children - son John Langley and daughter Bianca Hope, who were born in the years 1976 and 1979 respectively. The duo separated in 1979 and was divorced two years later.
27. She married Frank Rinehart, a corporate lawyer in the year 1983 in Las Vegas. The couple have two daughters - Hope Rinehart-Welker and Ginia Rinehart
28. She was appointed as the trustee of the Hope Margaret Hancock Trust, established by her father in the year 1988, until the youngest of her four children, Ginia Rinehart, turned 25 in 2011.
29. A legal battle between Rinehart and her children, that sought to remove her as sole trustee, which went on for four years from 2011 to 2015, saw her daughter Bianca appointed as the new trustee.
30. Her relationships with her children have been difficult and it was reported that she was not present in the weddings of her son John with Gemma Ludgate as well as her daughter Bianca with her partner Sasha Serebryakov.
31. Gina Rinehart Net Worth: US$14.7 billion