She's one feisty lady and sharp as a tack. She got our attention in 2010 when she clambered to the back of utility truck in a Subiaco oval (that's Perth's ritziest suburb) pearls jangling around her neck, and thrust her arms in the air while gold bangles cascaded down her wrists chanting :" we will not stand for this unfair tax...billionaires united- will never be defeated!" (or words to that effect).
Within two months the prime minster Kevin Rudd's career crashed and his replacement Julia Gillard cut back the proposed 40% 'super profits' mining tax to around 30%.
On Sunday West Australia mining magnate Gina Rinehart barely struggled by on $10 billion. Today that fortune doubled to a staggering $20 billion when Gina's mining corporation Hancock Prospecting sold 15% of the Pilbara-based Roy Hill project to South Korean steel giant Posco.
The Posco investment pushes Rinehart's combined wealth up to nearly $20 billion, based on the increased value of her holding in the mines.
But wait-there's more......
Last year the giant Citicorp released a report on Gina's mine holdings and reckoned she is on track to become the world's richest person worth possibly $100 billion. That leaves Bill Gates ($59B) and Carlos Slim Helu ($74B) eating her dust.
Only two women are wealthier than our Gina- French L'Oreal heiress Lillian Bettencourt (left) with $23B and American Christy Walton (Waltons stores) with $24B. She'll see them off by the end of the decade !.
