Gina Rinehart and mining billionaires get even richer as tech giants like Atlassian lose money
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Gina Rinehart and other mining billionaires racked up huge gains for their wealth as rising commodity prices boosted profits.
But as the value of iron, copper and rare metals soared, the stock market plunged, sending record market losses from Australian tech giants like Atlassian.
The CEO of Hancock Prospecting retained the top spot in the Australian Financial Review Rich List for another year at $35.9 billion.
Ms. Rinehart has added another $2 billion to her net worth since May and her private company has made nearly $20 billion in profit in the past four years alone.
Gina Rinehart (pictured) has remained Australia’s richest person in the latest Rich List published by the Financial Review. The mining billionaire added $2 billion to her wealth since May of last year.
Mining companies have been reporting record profits over the past year as demand for resources remains strong (file image)
Though her wallet grew, Ms. Rinehart had a controversial 2022, not least because of the fallout from breaking her endorsement deal with the Australian netball team.
The mining magnate withdrew the $15 million sponsorship deal after indigenous player Donnell Wallam raised concerns about using Hancock’s logo due to racist comments made by Ms Rinehart’s father, Lang Hancock.
Hancock suggested that the indigenous people should be sterilized during a 1984 television interview.
Ms Wallam had the support of her teammates, who also took issue with Hancock Prospecting’s environmental record.
The association soon withdrew and Ms Rinehart criticized the athletes as “signs of virtue” and said that political and social issues had no place in sport.
Mining magnate Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest followed Ms. Rinehart on the Rich List and increased her wealth as well.
He received a $1.3 billion dividend check in September from his company, Fortescue Metals Group.
This is despite the fact that his company’s shares were trading lower towards the end of the year.
Other wealthy mining billionaires also increased their wealth significantly, including Managing Director of Mineral Resources Chris Ellison.
Ellision has made nearly $600 million since the last report, representing a 32 percent increase in his fortune.
Ms Rinehart (pictured right with her Hancock Prospecting CEO Garry Korte) retained her place as Australia’s richest person after coming out of the fallout from her sponsorship with the Australian Diamonds netball team.
The price of coal hit record levels in Australia, with profits for companies in the mining sector rising $10.2 billion or 14 percent in the final quarter of June (pictured, an open pit mine in Hunter Valley)
Mining companies flourished during a boom fueled by strong demand for iron ore and coal in foreign markets.
Profits for companies in the mining sector soared by $10.2 billion to $81 billion in the June quarter last year, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed.
That was a 14 percent increase in operating profit in just three months.
Many energy companies also reported big jumps in their share price at the time due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which gradually continued into the new year.
The tech giants faced the biggest losses, with Atlassian co-founders Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar losing more than 30 percent of their wealth.
However, the tech giants experienced the biggest losses over the past year, as Australian and global equity markets suffered.
Atlassian founders Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar each lost about $16 billion due to the decline in the value of their shares.
His wealth dropped from around $26 billion to $17 million, a loss of more than 30 percent of his fortune.
The tech pair had the third and fourth worst declines in their net worth of all billionaires on Financial Review’s Rich List last May.
Last November, the software company blamed slow growth in paying customers and slower conversions from free to paid subscriptions for its software as the reason behind Atlassian’s significant drop.
Atlassian, along with other high-tech companies, also suffered from rising interest rates and inflation.