Speech by the Executive Chairman, Mrs Gina Rinehart AO – Hancock Iron Ore Launch

Warm greetings to everyone and thank you for joining us on this special evening, on a beautiful Pilbara day.

This would be my dad’s birthday, June 10, 1909. Dad spent a lot of his life in the Pilbara, he loved the mining and agriculture industries, recognising how important these were to Australia, often trying to educate the government not to bring in policies to hurt these industries. I’d like to welcome family members and family friends joining us in the Pilbara tonight. 

 And always wonderful to see so many of our veterans.

 My dad was a vet too; he was assigned to the land army to defend the Pilbara with his rifle! and became a sergeant. My mother joined the navy, also as part of Australia’s defence in World War 2.  

And I’d like to especially welcome too our very special ladies, who have also battled, I refer to the cruel and frightening disease of cancer. What these special ladies go through is very, very hard. I appreciate hearing of friendships, kindnesses and assistance our staff extend to cancer sufferers, and to others suffering serious health issues. Thank you most sincerely. You possibly don’t know how much your kindness, assistance and friendships mean, when people are struggling with cancer. 

And a very warm welcome too, to those of you who are long service staff, we’re very proud of our long service record, a record hugely exceeding our competitors, so we must be doing something right. We do try.

You might have seen, I spent this year’s ANZAC Day Eve and Anzac day in Sydney, where I was privileged to be invited to speak alongside Sir Peter Cosgrove, a great Australian who I admire very much, at the beautiful, outstanding and touching inaugural sunset service at the Sydney Opera House, followed by other services on ANZAC Day, including the final one at Martin’s place. 

I felt deeply honoured to meet and speak with so many fine veterans and widows of veterans, who have sacrificed so very much and who to a man and woman, still want to see us more adequately defend our country.

The gentleman I’m greeting showing on the screen, was a delightful and modest ex-Airforce pilot, who would have served under my uncle, Sir Valston Hancock, for some of his active service. And yes, he’s now reached 100 years old, but that didn’t seem to mar his enjoying the inaugural opera house Anzac eve service. And I rather hope some of the famous 2 Up celebrations afterwards. Such fine people, Aussies we can always be very proud of. 

I was also very pleased to see photos of the ANZAC services held here at Roy mine and indeed all our Pilbara sites and offices in Perth, and across our country. Thank you for respectfully pausing and respectfully considering the sacrifices of our men and women who served to defend our country and help our allies. 

Let’s please show appreciation to our veterans with a warm round of applause.

Today marks another exciting chapter in our companies journey together. After months of careful planning by Gerhard, Greg, Dale, and our teams, I’m delighted to be able to officially unveil here in the Pilbara on my father’s birthday, our new company name. Hancock iron ore. 

Today we are not just rebranding. We are building on the exceptional legacy and remarkable achievements of you all at Roy Hill, Atlas Iron and Hancock. 

This November will mark 10 years since first ore left the Roy railyard, not far from where we are today. Tad and I and others were there on National Mining Day, November 22, alongside the railway line just outside Port Hedland, to welcome that first train load of fine ore. 

And in another fantastic milestone I am delighted to announce that in just 7 days or so, all going to plan we will have loaded and shipped 500 million tonnes of ore to our customers around the world. What a contribution that has brought to West Australia, indeed Australia!

For instance, that has enabled the employment of tens of thousands of police and nurses, helped provide revenue for our defence, hospitals, healthcare, elderly, emergency services and more, and further enabled our companies charitable care to many. Australia would be a very, very different place without the Australian mining industry.

But it’s become an increasing battle to try to develop new mines or even expand existing ones. And this is not just me repeatedly saying this, the Minerals Council of Australia has carefully studied and reported the very disturbing fact, that 80 percent of mining projects in the pipeline, have actually become the casualty list. How can that be good to maintain our current living standards, employment, or help our school leavers.

Thank you for all you do to stand up for our industry and its contributions. Much needed.

And in October it’ll be seven years since Hancock acquired Atlas, a company that at the time was facing financial difficulties and its future was uncertain, until it joined the Hancock portfolio. Let’s raise applause for all at Atlas. 

Roy, Atlas and Hancock have been recognised with many prestigious awards, including for operational excellence, outstanding safety practices, the use of innovation and new technologies like AI – leading the way and setting new standards for others in the industry to aspire to.

Combined, Roy and Atlas have delivered more than $11.5 billion in royalties and taxes to governments and injected billions more into West Australia by supporting countless small, medium, and large businesses through contracts for goods and services. And more of course through Hancock’s 50 percent interest in its major mines at Hope downs. When the mining industry suffers it affects many others. 

All of this huge contribution is the result of your dedication, loyalty and hard work and as Executive Chair I can say I am incredibly proud that across our operations, we have such dedicated and loyal people. Thank you. And thank you too to our fantastic CEO, Gerhard. 

Please give yourselves a huge round of applause.

As we move forward under our new banner of Hancock Iron Ore, we will carry these proud achievements with us, combining our strengths and positioning us to be more productive and better than ever before.

It’s the beginning of an exciting new chapter, a future where we are not just a great mining company, but we are the best mining company in Australia.

And for this new chapter we will have an exciting new headquarters in West Perth, near the HPPL headquarters, with its interior planned to be completed this November, and move in planned for 2026. Some photos to show this exciting new office chapter, now on the screen. 

Thank you again, and please enjoy this historic night.