Gina Rinehart and rival heirs brace for court verdict on claim to billion-dollar fortune

Judgment will rule on whether spoils of some of Hancock Prospecting's iron ore projects must be shared with family of her father's business partner

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Gina Rinehart faces the possibility of losing billions of dollars in riches from her Pilbara iron ore empire and her mantle as Australia's wealthiest person when a long-awaited court verdict is delivered in Perth on Wednesday.

The Western Australian supreme court judgment will rule on whether Rinehart must share the spoils of some of Hancock Prospecting's most lucrative iron ore projects with the family of her late father's business partner.