Australian Gina Rinehart gets richer by 1 million dollars every half hour.

Even family financial squabbles could not stop the unrelenting flow of money. The fortune of the owner of mining companies is estimated at $29 billion, which is $3 billion more than that of Christy Walton, widow of the owner of the U.S. retail giant Wal-Mart. Reinhart "raked in money" from Australia's natural resources, earning $18.87 billion last year, according to BRW magazine. This was aided by a gigantic increase in the flow of foreign investment in new projects, production expansion and a rebound in the price of iron ore over the past six months, BRW reported.
The title of the richest man in the world at the moment, belongs to Mexican telecommunications magnate Carlos Slim Hel, with a fortune of 69 billion dollars.
"A $100 billion fortune is not an issue for Reinhart if the resource boom continues," said a BRW magazine spokesman. Gina Rinehart has four children, three of whom -- John Hancock, Bianca Rinehart and Hope Walker -- began a lawsuit against their mother last September. They are trying to challenge their late father Lang Hancock's decision to place their mother's billion-dollar fortune in trust. Unlike many wealthy heirs, Reinhart didn't just maintain her fortune, but multiplied it several times over. When she debuted on the Rich List after her father's death in 1992, her fortune was estimated at $75 million; now she has 386 times that amount.

Based on foreign press for ForTrader.org