Gina Rinehart, the wealthiest individual in Australia, has significantly increased her stake in MP Materials, a leading rare earths producer based in the US. Hancock Prospecting, the company owned by Rinehart, acquired an additional one million shares during the third quarter, boosting its ownership in MP Materials to 8.4%. This move has made Rinehart the largest shareholder in the company, surpassing James Litinsky, the CEO and founder of MP Materials.
As of the end of September, Hancock Prospecting’s US-listed stocks and exchange-traded funds were valued at approximately $3 billion (A$4.62 billion). The increased shareholding in MP Materials, valued at $997 million at the same time, now represents the largest holding in Hancock’s investment portfolio according to calculations by Bloomberg.
MP Materials is the only rare earths mine in the US and recently received a $400 million equity investment from the Pentagon. Rinehart’s latest investment in the company further solidifies her business group’s presence in the US defense supply chain.
Rinehart’s net worth, as per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, currently stands at $32.3 billion, primarily derived from her iron ore assets in Western Australia. MP Materials is set to commission a new heavy rare earth separation facility at Mountain Pass in California by mid-2026. This facility is designed to process around three billion tonnes per annum of feedstock and will initially focus on producing dysprosium (Dy) and terbium (Tb).
The Dy/Tb circuit at the new facility will have a nameplate capacity of 200 million tonnes per annum and will support MP Materials’ planned production of 10 billion tonnes per annum of high-performance neodymium iron boron magnets. The company describes itself as the only integrated rare earth producer in the US, operating across the entire supply chain from mining and processing to advanced metallization and magnet manufacturing.
Drawing from one of the world’s richest rare earth deposits in California, MP Materials extracts and refines materials to manufacture high-performance magnets used in various industries including transportation, energy, robotics, defense, and aerospace. In a strategic move, Maaden signed a memorandum of understanding with MP Materials in May to establish a fully integrated rare earth supply chain in Saudi Arabia.
The article “Gina Rinehart becomes largest shareholder in MP Materials” was originally published by Mining Technology, a GlobalData owned brand.
