Gina Rinehart faces legal payout to Wright Prospecting

Gina Rinehart's Hancock Prospecting will have to make a multimillion-dollar payment to Wright Prospecting after the latest round in the legal battles between the billionaire descendants of two giants of the Australian iron ore industry.

A judgment handed down in West Australian Supreme Court on Thursday means Hancock Prospecting will pay the lion's share of legal costs relating to a dispute over ownership of the high-grade iron ore deposit Rhodes Ridge in the Pilbara.