The Pilbara’s forgotten man stakes a claim to Hancock millions

afr.com:

The high-stakes, multi-billion dollar battle over mining royalties that hit court this week invokes some of the names most synonymous with Australia’s resources industry: Lang Hancock, Peter Wright, Gina Rinehart.

And then there’s Don Rhodes.

The late WA businessman who ran trucks and construction when the state’s iron ore was mostly still in the ground is making a cameo in the long-anticipated West Australian Supreme Court showdown between Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting and Wright Prospecting over revenue stemming the partnership of two mining icons.

Don Rhodes and some of his operations in Western Australia. 

DFD Rhodes Pty Ltd, a family-owned company named after its founder, is a party to the trial, where billions of dollars of past and future revenue are at stake. The details of its claim have not yet been heard in open court, but the company is seeking 1.25 per cent of the revenue in question, which could amount to tens of millions of dollars.

Don Rhodes was a key figure in the development of WA’s iron ore-rich Pilbara but has been largely forgotten by history, says Matt Keady, the company’s chief executive and a close associate of the family.

“Ordinarily, if no one ever heard of us I wouldn’t care, but what’s going on with this trial is that people don’t understand that at the time of these deals with Hancock and Wright, we were the larger company, they were the smaller company,” Mr Keady told The Australian Financial Review. “It’s an untold story.”

In the main, the case involves descendants of Hancock and Wright fighting for an equal share over past and future royalties from Hancock Prospecting’s Hope Downs mines in the Hamersley Ranges.

DFD Rhodes chief executive Matt Keady at his office in Perth.  Ross