The decades-long legal battle that saw the descendants of iron ore pioneer Peter Wright claim victory against Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting will soon land in the hands of its fourth judge, as a row over the calculation of royalties brews.
The WA Supreme Court judge who handed down the ruling in the case may not be available to oversee the ultimate decision of the royalties involved.
Last week Justice Jennifer Smith ruled that Wright Prospecting was entitled to half of the historical royalties from the Hope Downs mines, estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
However, last year Smith was re-appointed as an Auxiliary Judge of the Supreme Court of Western Australia with her 12-month term beginning on June 5, 2025.
At the follow-up hearing to decide how the costs involved in the landmark case would be divided on Thursday, Smith said there will need to be some changes to the orders that the parties involved have proposed.
“Having heard the parties this morning, there is a sufficient issue that has been raised that there are particulars of law that may not be able to be managed by a judge and should be handled by a referee,” she said.
“Ultimately, both of these matters are appropriate to be defined by a referee and not an officer of a court
“As I won’t be here much longer as a member of this court, I feel it is most appropriate that another judge make that decision.”
Rinehart is likely to be forced to hand over years of financial records to two rival mining dynasties pursuing hundreds of millions of dollars in unpaid iron ore royalties.
Lawyers for Rinehart’s company, Hancock Prospecting, and the heirs of mining pioneer Peter Wright and engineer Don Rhodes wrangled over the implementation of a judgment that found Wright Prospecting and DFD Rhodes were owed some of the spoils from the massive Rio Tinto-operated Hope Downs mining complex, in WA’s ore-rich Pilbara region.
These included who should calculate the royalty amounts, the interest rates that could be applied to the vast sum, potential damages for Hancock Prospecting’s breach of contract, future revenue payments and what documents Hancock Prospecting would be required to supply.
In setting out her judgment last week, Smith called the decision only a “half-win” as she rejected Wright Prospecting’s claim for part ownership of another portion of the mining project, allowing Rinehart to keep her status as the country’s wealthiest person with an estimated fortune of $38 billion.
Wright’s heirs, which include billionaire Angela Bennett and her nieces, Leonie Baldock and Alexandra Burt, argued that their family company was entitled to a 1.25 per cent royalty from the Hope Downs iron ore mines in WA’s Pilbara region.
Hancock Prospecting runs the lucrative mines with mining giant Rio Tinto.
The tenements were first pegged by Hancock and Wright in the 1940s, and in 1982, the iron ore pioneers nutted out an agreement to divide the assets that was intended to prevent their descendants from arguing over ownership in the future.
The parties will return to court on May 1 to continue the hearing.
With AAP
