With a fortune of $11-billion, mining heiress Gina Rinehart is already the richest Australian ever.

Now thanks to a commodities boom that has sent the value of her iron mines skyrocketing, Rinehart is on track to become the richest person on the planet, according to a new report from Citigrou.

The report projects significant revenue growth for Hancock Prospecting, the company Rinehart inherited from her father. Since Rinehart owns all the shares in her company, she could soon earn up to $10 billion yearly.

From Australia's Smart Company:

If Rinehart’s three new projects mentioned by Citigroup match the performance of [Rinehart's first mine] Hope Downs, and if mineral prices stay high — two big assumptions — it is possible to see Rinehart’s portfolio of coal and iron ore production spinning off annual profits approaching $10 billion.

If those best guesses prove to be correct, Rinehart is heading for a personal net worth valuation of more than $100 billion, using the Rio Tinto 11-times PE multiple.

The only child of mining magnate Lang Hancock, Gina first made waves at Hancock Prospecting with a plan to revolutionize iron-cut mining using nuclear explosions. The plan was soon scrapped.

Source: ABC Hungry Beast/YouTube

After Lang Hancock's death in 1992, Gina famously started a feud with Rose Lacson, her father's former maid whom he eventually married.

Source: ABC Hungry Beast/YouTube

The feud took 14 years to settle. While Lang was cremated, Gina had several of his organs preserved to use as evidence in a murder case she hoped to build against Rose.

Source: ABC Hungry Beast/YouTube

Please follow The Life on Twitter and Facebook.

The richest Australian, Gina Rinehart, is being sued by her daughter in a Sydney court, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

The details of the lawsuit filed by Hope Rinehart Welker against her mother are still unknown, and only mentioned briefly in NSW Supreme Court today.

Rinehart Walker's barrister, Alan Sullivan, said the reasons for the application involved "the impact on commercial negotiations."

Gian Rinehart earned her $11 billion fortune through mining, and is on track to become the richest person in the world, according to a report from Citigroup. Unless her daughter takes it all first, that is.

DON'T MISS: How Gina Rinehart Positioned Herself To Become The Richest Woman In The World >

Please follow The Life on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Australian mining heiress Gina Rinehart is on her way to becoming the world's richest woman after she doubled her fortune to $20.63 billion this week.

Rinehart, who runs the private resources giant Hancock Prospecting, made headlines last year when Citigroup valued her at $11 billion, noting she could take the title of world's richest person if commodity prices stay strong in the coming years.

Now a new investment from South Korean steel giant Posco has taken her one giant step closer, according to Smart Company.

Posco confirmed it will spend about $1.5 billion for a 15% stake in Rinehart's upcoming Roy Hill iron ore mine in Western Australia, which gives the project a total notional value of about $10 billion.

On top of the enormous annual royalty checks she earns from her other resources assets, plus her smaller non-mining investments, Roy Hill is set to lift Rinehart's personal wealth to $20 billion on this year's rich lists, by Smart Company's calculations.

That's not far from Walmart heiress and world's current richest woman Christy Walton, who Forbes has valued at $24.5 billion.

If Rinehart's wealth continues to grow at anywhere near the same pace — she has more large projects in the pipeline, which are eventually expected to generate up to $10 billion a year — the world's absolute wealthiest person Carlos Slim, with a fortune of $63 billion, might need to watch his back. 

Here's how Gina Rinehart positioned herself to become the world's richest person >

Please follow The Life on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Gina Rinehart, Australia's richest person, is back in the news for doubling her personal fortune to more than $20 billion last week — a move that brings her closer to becoming the world's wealthiest woman.

But Rinehart, who hates the attention her fast-growing wealth has garnered, isn't your usual, polished billionaire (a title she has only held for six years).

She's a mining heiress from deep in Australia's outback, and many of her economic views are as far removed from the rest of the country as she is.

Rinehart recently penned a piece for the Australian Resources and Investment Magazine, where she touches on her curious plan to split the nation right through its red center — apparently to shield the economy from downturns in Europe and the U.S.

Under the proposal, which Rinehart is pushing through her lobby group, Australians for Northern Development and Economic Vision, a miner-friendly economic zone would be established in Australia's northern resources states, where taxes would be slashed alongside legal barriers to bringing in cheap foreign workers.

The rest of the economy would operate in a more tightly regulated southern zone.

It echoes the secessionist policies of Rinehart's late father, Lang Hancock, who mounted an unsuccessful campaign to separate the resource-rich state of Western Australia from the rest the country in 1970s, in order to protect the booming local economy. (The widely unpopular movement died a couple of years later, but there are still WA secessionists in ANDEV's ranks.)

Rinehart's column also argues that new national taxes on greenhouse gas emissions and bumper mining profits should be rolled back to make Australia more attractive to foreign investors.

"Now, as a recession approaches, is not the time to burden Australia with a carbon tax and Mineral Resource Rent Tax," she writes, in keeping with ANDEV's climate-skeptic stance.

You can bet Rinehart will be supporting the mission with her enormous fortune, and her sizable stakes in two of Australia's biggest media companies: Fairfax, a major newspaper publisher, and Ten Network, a national broadcaster.

And as Rinehart's wealth grows, Australia's politicians are bound to take more notice.

Here's how Gina Rinehart doubled her fortune overnight >

Please follow Business Insider on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Gina Rinehart, Australia's richest person, just penned a political poem — and it's hilarious.

Her prose, engraved on a plaque attached to a 30-ton iron ore boulder, slams Australia's government for "unleashing rampant tax" on the resources industry and pushes Rinehart's weird idea about splitting the country into two economic zones.

But her message has been drowned out by the laughter of creative writers, who point to the miner's sloppy punctuation and grammar and suggest she should have her poetic license revoked.

"[She] attempts a noble challenge: the rendering of economic theory and politico-economic ideology into stirring verse," Australian poet Geoff Lemon Lemon writes on political website Crikey. 

"Some call it impossible to include phrases such as 'special economic zones' in a fluid and aesthetically pleasing poem. Those people are right. But Rinehart doesn’t let that stop her."

One critic goes so far as to label Rinehart's words "the universe's worst poem," according to the Daily Mail's Jonathan Pearlman.

But hey, at least it rhymes.

Here it is in full (via the ABC):

Our Future

The globe is sadly groaning with debt, poverty and strife
And billions now are pleading to enjoy a better life
Their hope lies with resources buried deep within the earth
And the enterprise and capital which give each project worth
Is our future threatened with massive debts run up by political hacks
Who dig themselves out by unleashing rampant tax
The end result is sending Australian investment, growth and jobs offshore
This type of direction is harmful to our core
Some envious unthinking people have been conned
To think prosperity is created by waving a magic wand
Through such unfortunate ignorance, too much abuse is hurled
Against miners, workers and related industries who strive to build the world
Develop North Australia, embrace multiculturalism and welcome short term foreign workers to our shores
To benefit from the export of our minerals and ores
The world's poor need our resources: do not leave them to their fate
Our nation needs special economic zones and wiser government, before it is too late

Please follow Business Insider on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Remember Gina Rinehart? She's the Australian mining heiress who is the country's richest woman, and who could become the richest person in the world in a few years.

Rinehart inherited her company, Hancock Mining, and her fortune from her father, Lang Hancock.

Her kids were also named in his estate, but now Rinehart wants to shut them out, saying they aren't fit to manage any of the inheritance, according to the Wall Street Journal's Robert Frank.

Frank writes:

Court documents cited in the Australian media show that Ms. Rinehart believed the kids weren’t fit to manage their fortune. She said none had ever held a real job, unless it was given to them by the family. “None of the plaintiffs (her children) has the requisite capacity or skill, nor the knowledge, experience, judgment or responsible work ethic to administer a trust in the nature of the trust in particular as part of the growing HPPL Group,” she claimed in court papers.

She added that the kids are “manifestly unsuitable” to manage the fund and that it would be in the “best interests of the beneficiaries to force them to go to work.”

We don't know much about the kids' upbringing, but it seems like Rinehart herself could be to blame, at least in part, for their supposed incompetence around money.

Rinehart, who is said to be worth around $11 billion, was sued by her daughter in September. She's also sparred with her father's second wife over his fortune.

Click here to see how Gina Rinehart positioned herself to become the world's richest woman >

Please follow The Life on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Australian mining tycoon Gina Rinehart has surpassed Walmart heiress Christy Walton to become the world's wealthiest woman, Australian finance magazine BRW has declared.

Rinehart's net worth has ballooned in the past year, jumping by some $18 billion to $26.8 billion thanks to a major resources boom.

Walton, meanwhile, is worth an estimated $26.4 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index.

Rinehart inherited Hancock Prospecting, a massive Australian mining company from her father. She has famously rocky relationships with her kids and her stepmother, and recently proposed a plan to split Australia in half to shield it from the downturns in Europe and the U.S.

A recent report from Citigroup said Rinehart was on track to become the richest person in the world within years. At this rate it looks like she's on track to take over Carlos Slim Helu's title in no time at all.

Now read about the tumultuous life of Gina Rinehart >

Please follow The Life on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Gina Rinehart, the world's richest woman, doesn't have much pity for those who are jealous of her wealth.

In a piece written for Australian Resources and Investment Magazine, Rinehart told readers to stop complaining and spend less time "drinking, or smoking and socializing, and more time working." The Australian government called the quote "insulting," according to AFP.

The optimism of her message may have gotten lost due to the rhetoric of the article's final paragraphs. In the column, she also encouraged investment and emphasized the need for Australia to "celebrate hardworking people" and get back to its roots.

Here's the full quote:

Let's get through the class warfare smokescreen. We need to regain our roots and encourage people to invest and build. There is no monopoly on becoming a millionaire. If you're jealous of those with more money, don't just sit there and complain; do something to make more money yourself — spend less time drinking, or smoking and socializing, and more time working. Become one of those people who work hard, invest and build, and at the same time create employment and opportunities for others. Australia needs such people.

Now See Why Rinehart Says Her Kids Are Unfit To Inherit Her Billions >

Please follow The Life on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Georgina Hope "Gina" Rinehart is well on her way to becoming the world's richest person.

The only child of iron ore magnate Lang Hancock, Rinehart owns three-quarters of Australian mining giant Hancock Prospecting that she inherited from her late father in 1992.

Thanks to Australia's resources boom and the rising cost of minerals, Rinehart is a very wealthy woman. In 2006, she became Australia's first female billionaire and in 2011, Citigroup made the claim that Rinehart was on track to becoming the world's richest person, potentially surpassing Bill Gates and Carlos Slim.

Until recently, the 58-year-old Rinehart sought to keep her private life private. But she's recently emerged as a public figure with radical views who occasionally puts her foot in her mouth.

Rinehart's comments about 'jealous' poor people caught everyone's attention in August.

Rinehart was recently quoted by the Australian Resources and Investment magazine as saying, "if you're jealous of those with more money, don't just sit there and complain; do something to make more money yourself—spend less time drinking, or smoking and socializing, and more time working."

Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan said in a statement that the quote was "an insult to the millions of Australian workers who go to work and slog it out to feed the kids and pay the bills."

She was also lambasted by the media when she called for an Australian miners' wage cut.

Rinehart said in a recent video on the Sydney Mining Club's website that Australian workers should take a wage cut to be more competitive with African workers with a salary of $2 a day.

In Rinehart's opinion, Australia has become too expensive for the mining industry, and she suggests getting rid of recent taxes levied on miners as well as wage cuts for workers.

It is estimated that the mining heiress herself makes over $1 million every 30 minutes.

This video starts to get uncomfortable around the 4:20 minute mark.

The mining heiress fully emerged as a public figure in 2010 when she took a radical stance on tax policy.

Despite her penchant for privacy, Rinehart joined a campaign protesting the Labor Party's mining "super tax" that caught the media's attention.

The impassioned Rinehart reportedly jumped on a flatbed truck once owned by her father and bellowed, "Axe the tax!" into a megaphone until she was hoarse.

The tax, known as the Minerals Resource Rent Tax, went into effect this July and will tax 30% of the "super profits" of mining coal or iron ore in Australia in an attempt to more evenly distribute the wealth from the resources boom. It will affect companies with annual profits of over $75 million.

Rinehart believes the tax will drive away investments worth billions of dollars.

Please follow The Life on Twitter and Facebook.

Australian mining tycoon Gina Rinehart is the richest person in Australia and 36th richest person in the world, with a net worth of $17 billion, according to Forbes.

She's also notoriously press shy (although she's recently become more outspoken about her radical views on tax policy, climate change, and the minimum wage), and obsessed with controlling her perception in the public eye.

The New Yorker's William Finnegan has just come out with a huge profile on Rinehart, delving into her dirty family feuds, her latest mining venture, and her relationship with the media. In short, he makes her sound like a ruthless businesswoman who will go to bizarre lengths to ensure things go her way.

The entire profile is definitely worth a read, and you can find it here.

There's one anecdote in particular that reveals just how far Rinehart will go to preserve her reputation.

As the story goes, in 2011 Rinehart attended a garden party to welcome Queen Elizabeth to Perth, and wore a large, wide-brimmed hat.

Prince Philip asked her why she was on the guest list, and instead of revealing who she was, she humbly responded only that she was a loyal subject, Finnegan writes.

The prince, perhaps at a loss for words, apparently made a comment about her the size or shape of her hat. The two supposedly had a laugh.

Sometime later, a reporter for a magazine owned by the same parent company as the Sydney Morning Herald requested an interview with Rinehart. In addition to a boilerplate rejection, she received the following note, which the reporter believed was written by Rinehart herself, according to Finnegan:

Regarding the recent discussion with HRH at Government House in West Australia, other media who were present reported it was a very happy and relaxed discussion between HRH and Mrs Rinehart. . . . Your publication however chose to make the extraordinary and unbelievable claim that HRH told Mrs Rinehart that her non-pointy hat was pointy and may poke someone’s eye out! Obviously HRH would have seen many hats over the years and would not choose to stop to speak to someone for the purpose of criticising their hat, including a hat worn in honour of his wife, the Queen. This is an insult by the SMH [the Herald] to not only Mrs Rinehart, but importantly HRH.

That's one heck of a rejection letter.

You can read the full profile over at the New Yorker >

SEE ALSO: 12 Reasons Why So Many People Hate Australian Billionaire Gina Rinehart

Join the conversation about this story »

With a fortune of $11-billion, mining heiress Gina Rinehart is already the richest Australian ever.

Now thanks to a commodities boom that has sent the value of her iron mines skyrocketing, Rinehart is on track to become the richest person on the planet, according to a new report from Citigrou.

The report projects significant revenue growth for Hancock Prospecting, the company Rinehart inherited from her father. Since Rinehart owns all the shares in her company, she could soon earn up to $10 billion yearly.

From Australia's Smart Company:

If Rinehart’s three new projects mentioned by Citigroup match the performance of [Rinehart's first mine] Hope Downs, and if mineral prices stay high — two big assumptions — it is possible to see Rinehart’s portfolio of coal and iron ore production spinning off annual profits approaching $10 billion.

If those best guesses prove to be correct, Rinehart is heading for a personal net worth valuation of more than $100 billion, using the Rio Tinto 11-times PE multiple.

The only child of mining magnate Lang Hancock, Gina first made waves at Hancock Prospecting with a plan to revolutionize iron-cut mining using nuclear explosions. The plan was soon scrapped.

Source: ABC Hungry Beast/YouTube

After Lang Hancock's death in 1992, Gina famously started a feud with Rose Lacson, her father's former maid whom he eventually married.

Source: ABC Hungry Beast/YouTube

The feud took 14 years to settle. While Lang was cremated, Gina had several of his organs preserved to use as evidence in a murder case she hoped to build against Rose.

Source: ABC Hungry Beast/YouTube

The richest Australian, Gina Rinehart, is being sued by her daughter in a Sydney court, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

The details of the lawsuit filed by Hope Rinehart Welker against her mother are still unknown, and only mentioned briefly in NSW Supreme Court today.

Rinehart Walker's barrister, Alan Sullivan, said the reasons for the application involved "the impact on commercial negotiations."

Gian Rinehart earned her $11 billion fortune through mining, and is on track to become the richest person in the world, according to a report from Citigroup. Unless her daughter takes it all first, that is.

DON'T MISS: How Gina Rinehart Positioned Herself To Become The Richest Woman In The World >

Join the conversation about this story »

Australian mining heiress Gina Rinehart is on her way to becoming the world's richest woman after she doubled her fortune to $20.63 billion this week.

Rinehart, who runs the private resources giant Hancock Prospecting, made headlines last year when Citigroup valued her at $11 billion, noting she could take the title of world's richest person if commodity prices stay strong in the coming years.

Now a new investment from South Korean steel giant Posco has taken her one giant step closer, according to Smart Company.

Posco confirmed it will spend about $1.5 billion for a 15% stake in Rinehart's upcoming Roy Hill iron ore mine in Western Australia, which gives the project a total notional value of about $10 billion.

On top of the enormous annual royalty checks she earns from her other resources assets, plus her smaller non-mining investments, Roy Hill is set to lift Rinehart's personal wealth to $20 billion on this year's rich lists, by Smart Company's calculations.

That's not far from Walmart heiress and world's current richest woman Christy Walton, who Forbes has valued at $24.5 billion.

If Rinehart's wealth continues to grow at anywhere near the same pace — she has more large projects in the pipeline, which are eventually expected to generate up to $10 billion a year— the world's absolute wealthiest person Carlos Slim, with a fortune of $63 billion, might need to watch his back. 

Here's how Gina Rinehart positioned herself to become the world's richest person >

Join the conversation about this story »

Gina Rinehart, Australia's richest person, is back in the news for doubling her personal fortune to more than $20 billion last week — a move that brings her closer to becoming the world's wealthiest woman.

But Rinehart, who hates the attention her fast-growing wealth has garnered, isn't your usual, polished billionaire (a title she has only held for six years).

She's a mining heiress from deep in Australia's outback, and many of her economic views are as far removed from the rest of the country as she is.

Rinehart recently penned a piece for the Australian Resources and Investment Magazine, where she touches on her curious plan to split the nation right through its red center — apparently to shield the economy from downturns in Europe and the U.S.

Under the proposal, which Rinehart is pushing through her lobby group, Australians for Northern Development and Economic Vision, a miner-friendly economic zone would be established in Australia's northern resources states, where taxes would be slashed alongside legal barriers to bringing in cheap foreign workers.

The rest of the economy would operate in a more tightly regulated southern zone.

It echoes the secessionist policies of Rinehart's late father, Lang Hancock, who mounted an unsuccessful campaign to separate the resource-rich state of Western Australia from the rest the country in 1970s, in order to protect the booming local economy. (The widely unpopular movement died a couple of years later, but there are still WA secessionists in ANDEV's ranks.)

Rinehart's column also argues that new national taxes on greenhouse gas emissions and bumper mining profits should be rolled back to make Australia more attractive to foreign investors.

"Now, as a recession approaches, is not the time to burden Australia with a carbon tax and Mineral Resource Rent Tax," she writes, in keeping with ANDEV's climate-skeptic stance.

You can bet Rinehart will be supporting the mission with her enormous fortune, and her sizable stakes in two of Australia's biggest media companies: Fairfax, a major newspaper publisher, and Ten Network, a national broadcaster.

And as Rinehart's wealth grows, Australia's politicians are bound to take more notice.

Here's how Gina Rinehart doubled her fortune overnight >

Join the conversation about this story »

Gina Rinehart, Australia's richest person, just penned a political poem — and it's hilarious.

Her prose, engraved on a plaque attached to a 30-ton iron ore boulder, slams Australia's government for "unleashing rampant tax" on the resources industry and pushes Rinehart's weird idea about splitting the country into two economic zones.

But her message has been drowned out by the laughter of creative writers, who point to the miner's sloppy punctuation and grammar and suggest she should have her poetic license revoked.

"[She] attempts a noble challenge: the rendering of economic theory and politico-economic ideology into stirring verse," Australian poet Geoff Lemon Lemon writes on political website Crikey. 

"Some call it impossible to include phrases such as 'special economic zones' in a fluid and aesthetically pleasing poem. Those people are right. But Rinehart doesn’t let that stop her."

One critic goes so far as to label Rinehart's words "the universe's worst poem," according to the Daily Mail's Jonathan Pearlman.

But hey, at least it rhymes.

Here it is in full (via the ABC):

Our Future

The globe is sadly groaning with debt, poverty and strife
And billions now are pleading to enjoy a better life
Their hope lies with resources buried deep within the earth
And the enterprise and capital which give each project worth
Is our future threatened with massive debts run up by political hacks
Who dig themselves out by unleashing rampant tax
The end result is sending Australian investment, growth and jobs offshore
This type of direction is harmful to our core
Some envious unthinking people have been conned
To think prosperity is created by waving a magic wand
Through such unfortunate ignorance, too much abuse is hurled
Against miners, workers and related industries who strive to build the world
Develop North Australia, embrace multiculturalism and welcome short term foreign workers to our shores
To benefit from the export of our minerals and ores
The world's poor need our resources: do not leave them to their fate
Our nation needs special economic zones and wiser government, before it is too late

Join the conversation about this story »

Remember Gina Rinehart? She's the Australian mining heiress who is the country's richest woman, and who could become the richest person in the world in a few years.

Rinehart inherited her company, Hancock Mining, and her fortune from her father, Lang Hancock.

Her kids were also named in his estate, but now Rinehart wants to shut them out, saying they aren't fit to manage any of the inheritance, according to the Wall Street Journal's Robert Frank.

Frank writes:

Court documents cited in the Australian media show that Ms. Rinehart believed the kids weren’t fit to manage their fortune. She said none had ever held a real job, unless it was given to them by the family. “None of the plaintiffs (her children) has the requisite capacity or skill, nor the knowledge, experience, judgment or responsible work ethic to administer a trust in the nature of the trust in particular as part of the growing HPPL Group,” she claimed in court papers.

She added that the kids are “manifestly unsuitable” to manage the fund and that it would be in the “best interests of the beneficiaries to force them to go to work.”

We don't know much about the kids' upbringing, but it seems like Rinehart herself could be to blame, at least in part, for their supposed incompetence around money.

Rinehart, who is said to be worth around $11 billion, was sued by her daughter in September. She's also sparred with her father's second wife over his fortune.

Click here to see how Gina Rinehart positioned herself to become the world's richest woman >

Join the conversation about this story »

Australian mining tycoon Gina Rinehart has surpassed Walmart heiress Christy Walton to become the world's wealthiest woman, Australian finance magazine BRW has declared.

Rinehart's net worth has ballooned in the past year, jumping by some $18 billion to $26.8 billion thanks to a major resources boom.

Walton, meanwhile, is worth an estimated $26.4 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index.

Rinehart inherited Hancock Prospecting, a massive Australian mining company from her father. She has famously rocky relationships with her kids and her stepmother, and recently proposed a plan to split Australia in half to shield it from the downturns in Europe and the U.S.

A recent report from Citigroup said Rinehart was on track to become the richest person in the world within years. At this rate it looks like she's on track to take over Carlos Slim Helu's title in no time at all.

Now read about the tumultuous life of Gina Rinehart >

Join the conversation about this story »

Gina Rinehart, the world's richest woman, doesn't have much pity for those who are jealous of her wealth.

In a piece written for Australian Resources and Investment Magazine, Rinehart told readers to stop complaining and spend less time "drinking, or smoking and socializing, and more time working." The Australian government called the quote "insulting," according to AFP.

The optimism of her message may have gotten lost due to the rhetoric of the article's final paragraphs. In the column, she also encouraged investment and emphasized the need for Australia to "celebrate hardworking people" and get back to its roots.

Here's the full quote:

Let's get through the class warfare smokescreen. We need to regain our roots and encourage people to invest and build. There is no monopoly on becoming a millionaire. If you're jealous of those with more money, don't just sit there and complain; do something to make more money yourself — spend less time drinking, or smoking and socializing, and more time working. Become one of those people who work hard, invest and build, and at the same time create employment and opportunities for others. Australia needs such people.

Now See Why Rinehart Says Her Kids Are Unfit To Inherit Her Billions >

Join the conversation about this story »

Georgina Hope "Gina" Rinehart is well on her way to becoming the world's richest person.

The only child of iron ore magnate Lang Hancock, Rinehart owns three-quarters of Australian mining giant Hancock Prospecting that she inherited from her late father in 1992.

Thanks to Australia's resources boom and the rising cost of minerals, Rinehart is a very wealthy woman. In 2006, she became Australia's first female billionaire and in 2011, Citigroup made the claim that Rinehart was on track to becoming the world's richest person, potentially surpassing Bill Gates and Carlos Slim.

Until recently, the 58-year-old Rinehart sought to keep her private life private. But she's recently emerged as a public figure with radical views who occasionally puts her foot in her mouth.

Rinehart's comments about 'jealous' poor people caught everyone's attention in August.

Rinehart was recently quoted by the Australian Resources and Investment magazine as saying, "if you're jealous of those with more money, don't just sit there and complain; do something to make more money yourself—spend less time drinking, or smoking and socializing, and more time working."

Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan said in a statement that the quote was "an insult to the millions of Australian workers who go to work and slog it out to feed the kids and pay the bills."

She was also lambasted by the media when she called for an Australian miners' wage cut.

Rinehart said in a recent video on the Sydney Mining Club's website that Australian workers should take a wage cut to be more competitive with African workers with a salary of $2 a day.

In Rinehart's opinion, Australia has become too expensive for the mining industry, and she suggests getting rid of recent taxes levied on miners as well as wage cuts for workers.

It is estimated that the mining heiress herself makes over $1 million every 30 minutes.

This video starts to get uncomfortable around the 4:20 minute mark.

The mining heiress fully emerged as a public figure in 2010 when she took a radical stance on tax policy.

Despite her penchant for privacy, Rinehart joined a campaign protesting the Labor Party's mining "super tax" that caught the media's attention.

The impassioned Rinehart reportedly jumped on a flatbed truck once owned by her father and bellowed, "Axe the tax!" into a megaphone until she was hoarse.

The tax, known as the Minerals Resource Rent Tax, went into effect this July and will tax 30% of the "super profits" of mining coal or iron ore in Australia in an attempt to more evenly distribute the wealth from the resources boom. It will affect companies with annual profits of over $75 million.

Rinehart believes the tax will drive away investments worth billions of dollars.

Australian mining tycoon Gina Rinehart is the richest person in Australia and 36th richest person in the world, with a net worth of $17 billion, according to Forbes.

She's also notoriously press shy (although she's recently become more outspoken about her radical views on tax policy, climate change, and the minimum wage), and obsessed with controlling her perception in the public eye.

The New Yorker's William Finnegan has just come out with a huge profile on Rinehart, delving into her dirty family feuds, her latest mining venture, and her relationship with the media. In short, he makes her sound like a ruthless businesswoman who will go to bizarre lengths to ensure things go her way.

The entire profile is definitely worth a read, and you can find it here.

There's one anecdote in particular that reveals just how far Rinehart will go to preserve her reputation.

As the story goes, in 2011 Rinehart attended a garden party to welcome Queen Elizabeth to Perth, and wore a large, wide-brimmed hat.

Prince Philip asked her why she was on the guest list, and instead of revealing who she was, she humbly responded only that she was a loyal subject, Finnegan writes.

The prince, perhaps at a loss for words, apparently made a comment about her the size or shape of her hat. The two supposedly had a laugh.

Sometime later, a reporter for a magazine owned by the same parent company as the Sydney Morning Herald requested an interview with Rinehart. In addition to a boilerplate rejection, she received the following note, which the reporter believed was written by Rinehart herself, according to Finnegan:

Regarding the recent discussion with HRH at Government House in West Australia, other media who were present reported it was a very happy and relaxed discussion between HRH and Mrs Rinehart. . . . Your publication however chose to make the extraordinary and unbelievable claim that HRH told Mrs Rinehart that her non-pointy hat was pointy and may poke someone’s eye out! Obviously HRH would have seen many hats over the years and would not choose to stop to speak to someone for the purpose of criticising their hat, including a hat worn in honour of his wife, the Queen. This is an insult by the SMH [the Herald] to not only Mrs Rinehart, but importantly HRH.

That's one heck of a rejection letter.

You can read the full profile over at the New Yorker >

SEE ALSO: 12 Reasons Why So Many People Hate Australian Billionaire Gina Rinehart

Join the conversation about this story »