Gina Rinehart has been awarded Cambodia’s highest honour for non-citizens in recognition of her unheralded charitable work on behalf of the country’s children.
Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni awarded the Royal Order of Sahametrei to Australia’s richest person for “distinguished services to the King and people of Cambodia” at a recent ceremony.
Through her Hope Foundation scholarship, run in partnership with the Cambodian Children’s Fund, Ms. Rinehart helps girls in the southeastern nation living in poverty attend college.
At the ceremony, Ms Rinehart was photographed wearing a royal sash and flanked by nine girls from impoverished backgrounds whom the foundation has helped.
Ms Rinehart is said to be close to the girls whom she calls her “daughters” since 2019.
Hancock Prospecting, Ms Rinehart’s mining company, says on its website that the project aims to “break cycles of poverty and abuse and create positive change in Cambodia through youth intervention and education”.
“They started their lives very differently from each of us,” Rinehart said in a rare interview on the subject.
“They had to search for food in the collapsing rubbish dumps in Cambodia, some of them sadly without parents. Dumps are not safe places for girls.”
Gina Rinehart (pictured) poses in the centre with some of the Cambodian girls she has helped educate through her company’s charity work.
The Royal Order of Sahametrei was awarded to Ms Rinehart for her “distinguished services to the King and people of Cambodia”
In 2014, a source close to Hancock Prospecting told the Sydney Morning Herald that Ms Hancock was keen to see her daughters and had flown them to Kuala Lumpur twice so they could see her receiving international awards.
“She looks forward to seeing them every year, including twice when she flew them to Kuala Lumpur to be with her when she received international awards,” a source said at the time.
Hancock Prospecting supports a number of other charities that focus on promoting indigenous businesses and educational opportunities.
“I began supporting swimming in the early 1990s, in conjunction with the Heart Foundation, to support and promote healthy lifestyles,” Rinehart said in 2016.
In March, it was revealed that the mining magnate gave away $100,000 in tax-free raffle prizes to dozens of his employees at company parties.
The billionaire’s roughly 4,000 employees, spread across the privately held company’s mining, energy and agriculture divisions, had the chance to win “life-changing” sums of money at the firm’s gala events.
Between the Christmas holidays and Ms Rinehart’s birthday party in February, about 70 employees are understood to have received a tax-free prize of $100,000, equivalent to $7 million.
“It’s like a station worker working in rural Queensland earning $100,000 after tax – it’s like something crazy happens to them that changes their life,” a company source told Daily Mail Australia.
Ms Rinehart received the highest award for non-Cambodian citizens from King Norodom Sihamoni (pictured centre)
As chief executive of Hancock Prospecting, which primarily mines iron ore, Ms Rinehart’s personal wealth is estimated at a staggering $50.48 billion, according to Australia’s 250 richest list.
Last year her fortune was worth $37.1 billion, putting her on a par with fellow mining magnate Mr Forrest and his ex-wife Nicola this year.
But over the past 12 months his wealth has increased by another $13.4 billion.
His rise in fortune was largely due to the performance of his majority-owned Roy Hill iron ore mine in Western Australia’s Pilbara region, which posted a net profit of $2.7 billion in 2023.
That gain was driven by record iron ore shipments of 63.3 million tonnes, and Ms Rinehart used the earnings announcement to call on governments to cut red tape to allow for further mining expansion.