The growing empire of our wealth queen

This week I am doing something different in Entrepreneur Watch, and looking at five rich list members who entrepreneurs should keep a close eye on over the next few years. I’ve chosen them because their personal empire is at an interesting point and their industry is undergoing structural change – how these entrepreneurs react will set an important example for other business owners.

The astounding thing about Gina Rinehart’s $10.3 billion fortune is that it’s based on a single asset – the incredibly valuable iron ore tenements left to her by her father Lang Hancock.

Since her father’s death in 1992, Rinehart has led Hancock Prospecting out of the wilderness and into incredible riches. While the mining boom has turbo-charged her fortune, the way in which she has formed a joint venture with Rio Tinto while leaving plenty of room to launch her own developments has been extremely canny.

But the concentration of Rinehart’s fortune in iron ore also means Rinehart has lots of room to expand – and that’s exactly what she’s primed to do.

First and foremost, there are two giant coal projects that she is developing in Queensland’s Galilee Basin. Combined, the projects have an end value of $15 billion, which means Rinehart will have to sell a stake in either or both to help fund their development.

This represents a big test for Hancock Prospecting. Since Rinehart took control of the business, the actual mining of its tenements has been done by others (namely Rio Tinto) so Hancock Prospecting is in many ways new to the challenges of building and running a mine and its associated infrastructure.

Funding the project is also a major challenge, but one Rinehart – a notoriously hard negotiator – will no doubt be ready for.

The other area of expansion for Rinehart is the media sector. Last year she emerged with stakes in both Ten Network and Fairfax Media, saying she felt she wanted to play a role in this “important sector”.

Exactly how this role will work isn’t clear.

Last week, a senior executive at Hancock Prospecting, Cheryl Edwardes, claimed Rinehart didn’t buy her stakes for political clout but because she sees the media as a good business opportunity.

But this is a touch hard to swallow – Rinehart must see something different to every media analyst in the world.

She has strident views on issues like the mining tax and climate change and we should expect to see her making these known.

This might not be done directly through Ten or Fairfax, but those investments guarantee that whatever she wants to say will make news.