Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart, has become the biggest shareholder in American rare earths producer MP Materials Corp, boosting her global support of strategic minerals.
Rinehart’s company, Hancock Prospecting, is said to hold about $US3 billion of US-listed stocks, according to new regulatory filings, with an additional one million shares bought during the third quarter of the year – lifting Hancock’s stake to around 8 per cent.
The move underscores Rinehart’s expanding global investment in strategic minerals in line with increasing global demand.
It’s understood the second-largest shareholder in the company is its founder, James Litinsky, who owns a 7.9 per cent stake.
As reported by Bloomberg, the investment makes it the biggest position in Hancock’s portfolio after the rare earth miner’s share price doubled in the quarter with the value of Rinehart’s shares sitting at $US997 million (approximately $1.5 billion).
Recent reports place Rinehart’s net worth at around $38 billion.
Her investment comes around the same time as the announcement of a landmark critical minerals agreement between the US and Australia – with the framework seeing joint investment into different projects in Australia totalling around $US8.5 billion.
The agreement, the Prime Minister said at the time, represents a significant new chapter in the formal alliance between Australia and the US spanning over 70 years and positions Australia as a key producer of critical minerals to support the growing demand in the modern economy.
MP Materials is said to be America’s only fully integrated rare earth producer and received a $US400 million equity investment from the Pentagon in July.
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