Ridge over troubled borders as Peter Wright’s heirs take on Rio Tinto

The heirs of Lang Hancock’s partner Peter Wright are fighting a new legal campaign to strengthen their hold on the multibillion-dollar Rhodes Ridge joint venture with Rio Tinto. A decade after fending off claims by Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting over Rhodes Ridge, the Angela Bennett-led Wright Prospecting is suing Rio Tinto over the mining giant allegedly pegging neighbouring tenements for itself. Land at stake in the Supreme Court battle includes a tenement surrounding a Rio rail hub and which neighbours Rio’s Hope Downs 4 joint venture with Hancock Prospecting. The row over tenements in rich iron ore country north-west of Newman is due to be fought in the Supreme Court next year. In a statement yesterday, Rio denied breaching any contractual or equitable obligations in acquiring the tenements. The legal action covers alleged tenement pegging by Rio Tinto subsidiaries dating from the late 1980s. An ailing Mr Hancock was then managing the affairs of Hancock Prospecting and running a successful partnership set-up with Mr Wright, who had died in September 1985. When Mr Hancock died in 1992, he left a lucrative royalty stream and valuable tenements for Mrs Rinehart. But he also left his daughter a corporate mess that she sorted out and a legal morass still being unravelled. Her legal battles included fighting a 13-year campaign by Wright Prospecting to keep hold of what she claimed was Hancock Prospecting’s 25 per cent stake in the Rhodes Ridge joint venture. Under a carve-up of assets struck by Mr Wright and Mr Hancock in 1984, they agreed the Rhodes Ridge tenements should ultimately go to Wright Prospecting after their deaths. Through later dealings, Hancock Prospecting gained control of Hope Downs tenements east and west of the Rhodes Ridge land. The Supreme Court in 2010 rejected Mrs Rinehart’s claims that her company was entitled to one-quarter of Rhodes Ridge. She unsuccessfully appealed against the decision in 2013 and was then knocked back by the High Court. Rhodes Ridge has been acclaimed as the highest grade of Rio’s Pilbara projects, with 2 billion tonnes of ore at 62.9 per cent iron and another 2.6bt carrying 61.9 per cent iron. The Rio annual report also lists resources of 387mt at 56.8 per cent iron and 328mt at 60.1 per cent. It remains undeveloped but has massive potential given its significant high-grade deposits and proximity to Rio rail infrastructure. It is also in the heartland of the giant’s Pilbara mining operations. Wright Prospecting claims Rio Tinto possesses valuable information about the Rhodes Ridge ore bodies as the manager of the joint venture since 1991 and as a long-time half-owner of the tenements. The Wright company claimed in its Supreme Court writ that Rio Tinto’s Hamersley subsidiaries pegged four tenements adjacent to Rhodes Ridge from 1987 to 2006 without telling their fellow joint venture participants about the opportunities. Wright Prospecting claimed Hamersley Iron breached its fiduciary duty and confidentiality obligations as joint venture manager and allegedly procured breaches by a subsidiary. In addition to two tenements near Hope Downs 4, Wright Prospecting wants Rio to share a tenement on the south-east border of the Rhodes Ridge joint venture land and another tenement on the western border.