Old diary entry casts doubt over lucrative claim to Hancock mining assets
An 18-year-old diary entry from a former Wright Prospecting executive has cast doubt over a billionaire family’s claim to the ownership and lucrative royalties flowing from one of Gina Rinehart’s Pilbara mines.
Excerpts from a 2005 diary entry by Wright Prospecting’s general manager were aired in the WA Supreme Court on Monday, showing they concluded the company was not entitled to a share of royalties from mining tenements now central to a multibillion-dollar legal dispute.
Gina Rinehart and her company, Hancock Prospecting, started by her father Lang (inset far right), is defending claims to its Hope Downs iron ore tenement in the Pilbara from Wright Prospecting, started by Peter Wright (inset left). Fairfax Media
Wright Prospecting, the family-owned company of the billionaire West Australian Wright family, is now suing Mrs Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting for riches produced from several Pilbara mining assets.
The descendants of Peter Wright, the business partner of Mrs Rinehart’s father and Pilbara icon Lang Hancock, argue the family is entitled to a portion of the past and future royalties from sections of the Hope Downs mine, including the mining tenements referred to in the 2005 diary entry.
At Monday’s hearing, Hancock Prospecting barrister Peter Brereton, SC, described the diary entry by Wright Prospecting general manager Chris McSweeney as important evidence that suggested the Wright family had no claim to the land.
“[Wright Prospecting] would not be entitled to share in that royalty,” the court heard Mr McSweeney wrote in 2005 after learning of Hancock’s deal with Rio Tinto to develop the asset.
Mr Brereton told the court that there “cannot be a moment’s doubt” that Wright Prospecting knew that the tenements in question, known as East Angelas, belonged to Mrs Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting.
“What the evidence shows is that Wright learned of the joint venture on 1 July 2005, considered it carefully, got legal advice and possibly disavowed an interest in the asset and then took no steps to advance any claim in respect of East Angelas for a further seven years,” Mr Brereton said.
The court also heard that Mr McSweeney’s diary entries acknowledged that Hancock Prospecting was taking on risk by pursuing a mining venture with Rio Tinto in the region in the mid-2000s.
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