Gina Rinehart’s Roy Hill pumps out record iron ore exports to deliver FY23 profit of $2.7 billion

Billionaire Gina Rinehart’s massive Roy Hill operation has reaped another multibillion-dollar profit on the back of record shipments, which helped to offset weaker iron prices.

But Australia’s richest person has again sounded the alarm on government red tape.

Roy Hill produced iron ore shipments of 63.3 million tonnes for the 2023 financial year, which was the second year in a row it had surpassed the 60mt milestone.

Net profit was $2.7 billion for the full year, but declining iron ore prices resulted in a reduction of its bottom line by about 16 per cent from the prior year.

Benchmark prices for iron ore swelled to more than $US200 at some stages during FY22, while in FY23 they maxed out at less than $US140.

Cash flow from operations was $3.3b, enabling Roy Hill to shell out $2.25b in dividend payments during FY23 and a further $800 million in October this year.

A total of $808m was committed to new capital during FY23, including an expansion to Roy Hill’s autonomous haulage fleet, upgrades to its mine site accommodation, as well as completing the fourth run of mine pad and fifth crusher at the operation.

The company paid $605m in State royalties and native title royalties, along with a further $1.4b in corporate tax to the end of June 2023.

Mrs Rinehart applauded the result but said she was concerned future mining investment would become more difficult due to “excessive government tape”.

“We are currently battling onerous, time and money consuming regulation with overlapping approval processes and other damaging policies all of which put a brake on investment and business development, and choke business with government tape,” the mining billionaire said.

This echoed comments she made on Thursday with the release of Atlas Iron’s financial results. Mrs Rinehart gave the green light to progress the McPhee Creek project near Nullagine shortly after her Hancock Prospecting scooped up Atlas Iron for $427m in 2018 amid a three-way takeover tussle.

Mrs Rinehart said “significant increases in government processing times and multi layers of red tape” had further delayed the project, which is expected to produce about 14 million tonnes a year.