Billionaire Gina Rinehart has had a multi-million dollar High Court win against mining giant Rio Tinto.
The High Court of Australia ruled that Rio Tinto subsidiary Mount Bruce Mining (MBM) is liable to pay royalties to Ms Rinehart's Hancock Prospecting and joint venture partner Wright Prospecting in relation to iron ore mined in the Eastern Range and Channar areas of the Pilbara in Western Australia.
The High Court dismissed an appeal from the NSW Court of Appeal in relation to a tenement sale agreement reached in 1970 between Ms Rinehart's father Lang Hancock and his business partner Peter Wright about the payment of royalties by MBM.
Rio Tinto temporarily lost control of the tenements and later regained control to mine the rich iron ore region.
The sale made Ms Rinehart the richest woman in Australia and one of the richest people in the world.
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The High Court said under the terms of the 1970 Agreement, MBM was assured of an exclusive opportunity to exploit an area of land allocated to it irrespective of the nature or terms of the tenement authorised by the state.
"In return for that opportunity, Hanwright was assured of the payment of royalties upon the proceeds of that exploitation," the judges said.
They said the issue was resolved by the "overriding criterion" of how reasonable businesspersons would have understood the term of the agreement.
"We agree that Hanwright's interpretation of each of the disputed terms is to be preferred," the judges said.
Hancock and Wright previously won a $130.8 million legal claim for royalties against Rio subsidiaries Hammersley Iron and MBM in the Supreme Court of NSW.
However, the NSW Court of Appeal allowed an appeal, saying that they were not entitled to royalties in respect of ore being won from Channar.
During the 1950s and `60s Lang Hancock and Peter Wright found bodies of iron ore in the Pilbara and formed the Hamersley Iron and MBM which are now subsidiaries of Rio Tinto.
Comment is being sought from Ms Rinehart.
Meanwhile, Ms Rinehart's $10 billion Roy Hill iron ore project is expected to ship its first iron ore to China this month.
