Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd is a leading Australian owned mining and agricultural business run by Executive Chairman Gina Rinehart and CEO Garry Korte. At stages of its trading, the company has been known as Hancock Prospecting Ltd, Hancock Resources Ltd, Hanwright Pty Ltd, Hancock & Wright Ltd, and Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd.
Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd is owned by Rinehart (76.6%) and the Hope Margaret Hancock Trust (23.4%).
The company was founded in 1955 by Rinehart's father, the late Lang Hancock. Hancock Prospecting holds the mineral rights to some of the largest Crown land leases in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
Upon assuming the Executive Chairmanship, Rinehart took over a company that was in a perilous financial position with significant debt and major assets mortgages and under threat of seizure.
Activities
The history of Hancock Prospecting dates from the late 1930s when Hancock and Peter Wright, a former schoolmate, formed a partnership, named Hanwright. One of the partnership's early ventures was an asbestos mine at , Western Australia. Hanwright and Rio Tinto reached agreement in the 1960s, where Hanwright secured 2.5 percent share in all iron ore sold from its Pilbara discoveries.
The Hancock Group of Companies holds numerous iron ore leases in the Pilbara. The leases cover an area of predominantly in the Central Pilbara region and contain mineable reserves of Brockman and Marra Mamba ore of over . Leases in the Eastern Pilbara region contain mineable reserves of Marra Mamba ore of over , and over of ferruginous manganese in their Nicholas Downs Project, which is a joint venture with mining services company Mineral Resources Limited.
In 2011, the company was estimated to earn about A$870 million in revenue per year; based on a 50% share of profits generated at the Hope Downs mine, operated by Rio Tinto. Hope Downs production levels of per year and at 2011 prices (around US$140 per tonne) generated over A$2 billion in revenue, and about A$700 million in net cash. In addition, the company received a 1.25% royalty from iron ore sales by Hamersley Iron (a Rio Tinto subsidiary) which delivered approximately A$170 million a year.
Hancock Prospecting exploration activities are done under the Jacaranda Alliance, a joint venture between Hancock, Minerals Australia Pty Ltd, and several former executives of Rio Tinto. Exploration and evaluation work on uranium, molybdenum, lead, zinc, gold, diamonds and petroleum deposits are conducted in Australia, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and South East Asia.
, Hancock Prospecting diversified its interests into the cattle industry, acquiring 67% of S. Kidman & Co.
In 2023, descendants of Peter Wright, via Wright Prospecting, commenced civil legal action against Hancock Prospecting in the WA Supreme Court. Wright Prospecting claimed that the agreement between Hancock and Wright included a division of certain Hanwright assets, assigning some to Wright Prospecting and others to Hancock Prospecting. Wright Prospecting sought its half of the partnership's 2.5 percent in royalties — or 1.25 percent of all profits made, likely worth several hundred million dollars. Wright Prospecting also argued that Hope Downs 4, 5 and 6 was a shared Hanwright asset — worth billions of dollars.
Institute of Public Affairs
Hancock Prospecting significantly funds the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA), paying the IPA $2.3 million in financial year 2016 and $2.2 million in financial year 2017, which represents one-third to a half of the IPA's total revenue in those years. These payments were not disclosed in IPA annual reports, and Rinehart's daughter Bianca Hope Hayward submitted in court that the Hancock Prospecting payments were credited to Rinehart in an individual capacity. Gina Rinehart was made a life member of the IPA in November 2016.
Attitudes towards indigenous peoples
Perhaps the most well known controversy in the history of the company centres around the racist views of founder Lang Hancock towards Indigenous Australians. Hancock is quoted as saying, "Mining in Australia occupies less than one-fifth of one percent of the total surface of our continent and yet it supports 14 million people. Nothing should be sacred from mining whether it's your ground, my ground, the blackfellow's ground or anybody else's. So the question of Aboriginal land rights and things of this nature shouldn’t exist."