Perth’s Bennett and Wright families are $8 billion wealthier after agreeing to sell the majority of their stakes in the giant Rhodes Ridge iron ore project in Western Australia to Japanese conglomerate Mitsui & Co.
The families are the heirs to the fortune made by Peter Wright, the business partner of mining magnate Lang Hancock. While Hancock’s daughter, Gina Rinehart, oversees a massive iron ore empire, the Bennett and Wright families struck a long-term partnership with Rio Tinto.