A Western Australian Supreme Court judge has ruled on a sweeping inheritance dispute that threatens to reshape the empire of Gina Rinehart, Australia's wealthiest person and chair of Hancock Prospecting (a private mining giant built on Pilbara iron ore). The case centres on whether the Wright family — heirs to Rinehart's late father Lang Hancock's business partner Peter Wright — are entitled to an equal share of billions of dollars in royalties from the Hope Downs iron ore complex, a joint venture with Rio Tinto that generated $832 million in profit in 2025. The verdict also covers claims by two of Rinehart's own children, John Hancock and Bianca Rinehart, who allege their mother committed fraud by transferring assets out of a family trust after Lang Hancock's death in 1992, potentially entitling them to a share of projects including the Roy Hill mega-mine; the ruling is widely expected to be appealed, extending a legal battle that has run for nearly two decades.