The $800 Million Rare Earths Portfolio Of Australia’s Richest Woman
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Gina Rinehart in Western Australia. Courtesy Hancock Prospecting Outside of China, the most influential investor in the world of rare earth elements has to be Gina Rinehart, Australia’s richest woman. Rare earths may be just a small part of her $30 billion mining fortune, but Rinehart, through family holding company Hancock Prospecting, has acquired big stakes in leading non-Chinese rare earths companies. Her $800 million rare earths pile includes an 8.5% stake worth $317 million in MP Materials (NYSE:MP), which operates the only working rare earths mine in the United States, at Mountain Pass on the California-Nevada border. MP is also near completion on a plant in Fort Worth that will make high-powered rare earth magnets for General Motors. Rinehart also owns 8.2% or $430 million of Lynas Rare Earths (ASX:LYC), which mines the Mount Weld deposit in Australia. Lynas recently opened a processing plant in Malaysia and, with the backing of the U.S. Department of Defense, is building a plant near Corpus Christi, Texas. Smaller holdings include 10% of Arafura (ASX:ARU), which has government backing for its Nolans mining project near Alice Springs; and 6% of Brazilian Rare Earths (ASX:BRE), an Aussie company with impressive discoveries in northeast Brazil. Rinehart, 71, doesn’t just want to watch a portfolio, but wants to support the rationalization of the industry. Last year she backed unsuccessful merger talks between Lynas and MP. Both companies in recent weeks have announced that in the face of uncertain Trump tariffs they would halt the shipment of the rare earth concentrates for processing in China and would instead stockpile them. “Selling these critical materials under 125% tariffs is neither commercially rational nor aligned with the national interest,” wrote MP spokesman Matt Sloustcher last week. A friend of President Donald Trump, Rinehart attended both Trump’s election night party…
Filed under: News - @ April 23, 2025 12:24 pm