Roy Hill boosts Rinehart war chest by $2.1b amid lithium spree
Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting has pocketed almost $2.14 billion in dividends from its Roy Hill iron ore mine in the Pilbara in recent months, fuelling the billionaire businesswoman’s spending spree on lithium stocks.
The aggressive push into lithium comes as Mrs Rinehart and her executive team, armed with a huge war chest, look long-term to life beyond the rivers of cash being generated by Roy Hill.
It is estimated there is less than 10 years of life left in Roy Hill, the source of most of Mrs Rinehart’s wealth, unless Hancock can tap into satellite deposits or starts to process low-grade iron ore stockpiles.
Hancock Prospecting’s Roy Hill iron ore mine has delivered a $2.7 billion profit in the last financial year.
Roy Hill paid $2.25 billion in dividends to its owners during the last financial year, and an additional $800 million this month.
Australia’s wealthiest person is now casting a big shadow over SQM’s $1.6 billion bid for lithium explorer Azure Minerals and its Andover project in Western Australia. Azure shares continued to change hands in big volumes on Friday, with expectations that the buyer was Mrs Rinehart.
She was understood to control at least 15.4 per cent of Azure when the market opened after about 80 million shares were traded on Thursday and the stock soared 43 per cent higher.
Mrs Rinehart, Hancock’s executive chairman, outlaid more than $1.3 billion in share market raids to build a 19.9 per cent in lithium play Liontown Resources by October 11. The stock plunged after New York-listed Albemarle walked away from a $6.6 billion takeover proposal.
On Friday, Mrs Rinehart said restrictive state and federal government policies and excessive environmental regulation was threatening mining
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