Gina Rinehart and other mining billionaires raked in huge gains to their wealth as spikes in commodity prices boosted profits.
But as the value of iron, copper, and rare metals soared, the share market dived, giving Australian tech giants like Atlassian record market losses.
The Hancock Prospecting executive chairman retained the top spot of the Australian Financial Review Rich List for another year with $35.9 billion.
Ms Rinehart added another $2 billion to her net worth since May and her her private company made almost $20 billion in profit in the past four years alone.
Gina Rinehart (pictured) has remained as Australia’s richest person in the latest Rich List released by the Financial Review. The mining billionaire added $2 billion to her wealth since May last year
Mining companies have been reporting record profits over the past year as the demand for resources remains strong (stock image)
Though her wallet grew fatter, Ms Rinehart had a controversial 2022, most notably the fallout of severing her sponsorship deal with the Australian netball team.
The mining magnate withdraw the $15 million sponsorship deal after indigenous player Donnell Wallam raised concerns about wearing the Hancock logo due to racist comments made by Ms Rinehart’s father Lang Hancock.
Mr Hancock suggested that indigenous people needed to be sterilised during a 1984 television interview.
Ms Wallam was supported by her teammates who also took issue with Hancock Prospecting’s environmental track record.
The partnership was soon withdrawn and Ms Rinehart slammed the athletes as ‘virtue signalling’ and said political and social issues had no place in sport.
Fellow mining magnate Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest followed Ms Rinehart on the Rich List and also grew his wealth.
He received a dividend cheque for $1.3 billion in September from his company, Fortescue Metals Group.
This is despite shares in his company trading lower towards the end of the year.
Other wealthy mining billionaires also significantly increased their wealth including Mineral Resources managing director Chris Ellison.
Mr Ellision made almost $600 million since the last report, which is a 32 per cent increase to his fortune.
Ms Rinehart (pictured right with her Hancock Prospecting chief executive Garry Korte) retained her spot as Australia’s richest person after coming off the back of her sponsorship fallout with the with the Australian Diamonds netball team
The price of coal reached record levels in Australia, with company profits in the mining sector rising by $10.2 billion or 14 per cent in the last June quarter (pictured, an open cut mine in the Hunter Valley)
Mining companies flourished during a boom driven by strong demand for iron ore and coal in overseas markets.
Company profits in the mining sector skyrocketed by $10.2 billion to $81 billion in the June quarter last year, Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed.
That was a 14 per cent increase on operating profits in just three months.
Many energy companies also reported big jumps in their share price at the time due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which gradually continued through the new year.
Technology giants faced the biggest losses, with Atlassian co-founders Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar losing more than 30 per cent of their wealth
However, technology giants experienced the biggest losses over the past year as the Australian, and global, share markets suffered.
Atlassian founders Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar each lost about $16 billion from the value of their shares declining.
Their wealth dwindled from around $26 billion to $17 million, a loss of more than 30 per cent of their fortune.
The tech pair had the third and fourth worst declines in their net worth out of all billionaires in the Financial Review’s Rich List last May.
Last November, the software company blamed slow growth from paying customers and slower conversions from free to paid subscriptions for its software as the reason behind Atlassian’s significant plunge.
Atlassian, along with other high-end tech companies, also suffered because of rising interest rates and inflation.
