Gina Rinehart rails against net zero again, even as miner she backed with $1.3 billion aims to get there by 2034

Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart, has railed against net zero targets again, this time focusing on rival iron ore miners and even joint venture partners for “sacrificing” dividends on the “green altar” of net zero.

Rinehart’s comments, recorded in several newspapers and reposted on her company’s website, were made to celebrate National Mining Day, an event she created in 2013. Like the Bush Summit Rinehart sponsors, a lot of energy is devoted to attacking green policies and net zero targets in particular.

The latest comments single out BHP and Rio Tinto. “How much is being burned in the green incinerator, while Australia’s productivity and competitiveness decline?” she was reported as saying, urging shareholders to ask these questions of their company boards.

Rinehart has also been at loggerheads with Andrew Forrest, the owner of Fortescue, another major iron ore miner, who is going further than net zero and is targeting “real zero” at his Pilbara mines by 2030 – by which time he aims to be not burning any fossil fuels for power or mining activities.

It’s a bold targets but many smaller mines are already making major headway into shedding the use of fossil fuels, particularly for power supplies, usually on off-grid mines.

One of these is Liontown Resources, which operates Australia’s first underground lithium mine at Kathleen Valley, and into which Rinehart reportedly ploughed $1.3 billion in 2023 to pick up a 19.9 per cent cent and thwart a takeover by the US firm Albermarle.

Liontown, as we have reported before, reached an average 81 per cent renewables over the last year from its hybrid wind, solar, and battery system, backed by diesel and gas. In the September quarter, it maintained that average, hitting an average 83 per cent wind and solar in the month of September.

As its recently released annual report explains: “We aspire to attaining net-zero operational (Scope 1 and Scope 2) emissions by 2034 and acknowledge that strong governance foundations need to be developed, implemented and maintained to achieve this commitment.” 

It goes further: “Liontown recognises the need to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and energy use, and to manage climate-related risks and opportunities.

“We are committed to acting on climate change and reducing our own operational carbon footprint in support of a transition to a low-carbon future, whilst retaining shareholder value.”

The hybrid power system it has had installed at its mine site combines 30 megawatts (MW) of wind (pictured above), 16 MW of solar and 18 MW of battery storage.

Liontown says the 81 per cent average renewable share achieved over the last financial year is much better than the 60 per cent renewable share expected before commissioning, and the system has powered the mine with 100 per cent renewable power “over sustained periods.”

The company has also been trialling electric utes for use at its mine site.

But Rinehart, in comments made at a separate event, and reported in another newspaper article reposted on her company’s website, insisted that “net zero was sold as a dream on the false hope of lower electricity prices”, and was a “nightmare” Australians could not afford.

Per the article reposted on the website of Hancock Prospecting, Rinehart’s company, the mining boss is not phased by the impacts of climate change.

“Fires can be put out, floods are followed by feed and if you have to de-stock in drought then you can restock later,” Rinehart was quoted as saying.

“But you can’t avoid bad policy without leaving the country altogether. Net zero is very bad policy. “If government policies and net zero mean they (farmers) can no longer grow food and fibre here, we’ll be relying on imports from countries that care about their own people trying to earn a living, not about emissions.”

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