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Article by Daniel Newell courtesy of The West Australian.

It won’t just be Australia’s richest person counting the ginormous piles of money generated by iron ore’s runaway price rise this year.

Gina Rinehart’s personal wealth has taken another leap into the stratosphere thanks to China’s insatiable appetite for WA’s red dirt.

But the mining mogul will also be sharing the riches with the high-vis heroes helping to run her Roy Hill operation through the company’s Chairman’s Profit Share Scheme.

Speaking at the annual Diggers & Dealers Mining Forum in Kalgoorlie-Boulder this morning, Roy Hill’s new chief executive Gerhard Veldsman said reward and recognition were high priorities for the company.

“We’re really fortunate to have Mrs Rinehart as our executive chairman and from the early days on she’s actually supported the program where we share the profits that goes back to our employees,” Mr Veldsman said.

“To put it in perspective, this year of you’re a truck driver or process plant operator in Roy Hill your bonuses over the year will be 50 per cent of your pay salary.

“I don’t think there’s any other mining company that shares that amount of profit with its employees and that’s directly attributed to our chairman.”

The performance-based profit-sharing scheme was introduced in 2018 as the privately held Roy Hill Holdings — 70 per cent owned by Mrs Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting — ramped up production from the operation north of Newman.

It is applicable to the 2800 staff members directly employed at Roy Hill across a range of professions.

In November, Roy Hill announced a 60 per cent increase in earnings to $2.2 billion on revenue of $6.4b when the price of the steel-making commodity was still sitting under $US120 a tonne.

Iron ore has enjoyed a stellar run this year as constrained shipments from COVID-hit Brazil have crimped global supply, with prices recently breaking new ground above $US230/t.

The Pilbara’s other big players, Rio Tinto and FMG, last month reported average realised revenue of between $US158/t and $US168/t for the last quarter — prices that could set up Mrs Rinehart to splash more cash across her workforce later this year.

The profit-sharing payment is available to permanent and fixed-term employees, according to Roy Hill’s website.

It said a separate bonus payment for sustaining Roy Hill as a 60 million tonne-a-year operation will be payable this year.