Rich-listers’ $8.4bn payday with Rhodes Ridge iron ore deal
Japan’s Mitsui has paid $8.4bn for a giant iron ore development in the Pilbara, with two West Australian rich-lister families cashing in on the deal.
Reclusive billionaire Angela Bennett and the Wright family have landed an $8.4bn payday after selling sought-after stakes to Japan’s Mitsui in one of Western Australia’s top undeveloped iron ore deposits.
Ms Bennett has sold a 15 per cent stake in Rio Tinto’s Rhodes Ridge mine, long regarded as the best prospective iron ore deposit in the Pilbara, with Mitsui paying $US2bn ($3.1bn) for its share.
Ms Bennett’s AMB Holdings company will retain a 10 per cent share of the venture, with Rio also keeping its 50 per cent stake.
The second part of the deal involves Mitsui paying $US3.34bn to sisters Leonie Baldock and Alexandra Burt, daughters of Ms Bennett’s late brother Michael Wright, for their entire 25 per cent stake in Rhodes Ridge via their private VOC Group.
The mega buyout adds billions of dollars to two of WA’s wealthiest families. Media-shy Ms Bennett was listed at No.4 on The Australian’s 2024 list of Australia’s richest women with a fortune of $4.59bn. Her nieces, Ms Burt and Ms Baldock, were listed together in sixth spot with $3.21bn.
Production from the mine, operated by Rio, is due to start in 2030, with Mitsui’s annual equity share of production estimated at 16 million tonnes at the initial production stage and 40 million tonnes after further expansion.
Wright Prospecting is owned by a trio of descendants of Pilbara pioneer Peter Wright, the one-time business partner of billionaire Gina Rinehart’s late father Lang Hancock.
Ms Bennett is on one side of the Wright family and Ms Baldock and Ms Burt are on the other, via their private VOC Group.
The money to Wright Prospecting flows from deals Wright and Hancock made after pegging tenements in the Pilbara region of WA in the 1960s.
Ms Bennett’s AMB Holdings said the deal showed “strong alignment” between Mitsui, Rio and her company with a shared commitment to the protection of environmental, cultural and biodiversity value during the mine’s development and operations.
“We are excited about the potential for green mining for the future,” an AMB spokesman said.
VOC Group, whose primary asset is a 50 per cent stake in Wright Prospecting, said it did not have a strategic ambition to directly participate in the development of a project of the scale of Rhodes Ridge.
However, it wanted the mine ultimately to become a production asset as part of its ongoing family legacy in the Pilbara region.
“VOCG felt it was an appropriate time to exit its ownership stake with the Rhodes Ridge joint venture agreement having recently been modernised, initial studies having been completed and the pre-feasibility study having commenced,” it said.
Wright Prospecting’s owners shared in $307m in dividends last year; $263m paid during the 2024 financial year and another $44m paid between the start of July and the end of October. Ms Burt’s assets also include the Voyager Estate winery in WA.
Rio noted a pre-feasibility study to progress the development of Rhodes Ridge was expected to be completed this year, with a feasibility study to follow and first production by 2030.
Mitsui, which is already involved in a joint venture with Rio at the Robe River mine, said synergies were expected at Rhodes Ridge by using existing infrastructure such as railways and ports, and by blending ores.
Rio, which reports its annual results on Thursday, is counting on the high-grade Rhodes Ridge deposit to help overcome problems with the declining grade of ore from its string of existing mines.
The Wright accounts show that the family reaped $192.2m in mining royalties and $223.6m in similar royalties from its share of the Hancock-Wright partnership.
Wright Prospecting established its right to develop Rhodes Ridges, which sits between the Hope Downs No.1 and Hope Downs No.4 mines, in partnership with Rio after a long court battle with Mrs Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting.
Wright Prospecting has previously said a modernised joint venture agreement with Rio had paved the way for the development of the Rhodes Ridge deposits using Rio’s rail, port and power infrastructure.
Rhodes Ridge contains 6.8 billion tonnes of iron ore at an average grade of 61.6 per cent iron, including 5.3 billion tonnes at 62.2 per cent iron and 600 million tonnes at 63.9 per cent iron.
Originally published as Rich-listers’ $8.4bn payday with Rhodes Ridge iron ore deal
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