G ina Rinehart is an Australian mining magnate and the executive chairwoman of Hancock Prospecting, a privately owned mineral exploration and extraction company. She is Australia's richest person. She is the daughter of the legendary and controversial iron ore prospector, Lang Hancock, who discovered some of the largest iron ore deposits in the world in Western Australia.

Upon her father's death, she inherited a company that was in financial difficulty, but which held immensely valuable mining tenements. She has since transformed the company, overseeing the development of massive iron ore mines, most notably the multi-billion dollar Roy Hill project. This has turned Hancock Prospecting into a major global player in the iron ore industry and has massively increased her wealth. Her career has also been marked by a series of long and bitter legal disputes with her own children over the family's trust. She is also Australia's largest cattle producer.