When Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart, heard about the secret horrors unfolding in a country we rarely think about, she knew she had to do something. Now she has received their highest honour

Australia’s richest woman, Gina Rinehart, has received Cambodia’s highest non-resident award in recognition of her charity work for impoverished children in the Southeast Asian country.

Cambodia’s King Norodom Sihamoni recently awarded the Royal Order of Sahametrei to Mrs. Rinehart for “exceptional services to the King and the Cambodian people.”

With her scholarship from the Hope Foundation, which is provided in partnership with the Cambodian Children’s Fund, Ms. Rinehart helps poor Cambodian girls attend university.

At the ceremony, Mrs Rinehart was photographed wearing a royal sash and flanked by nine girls from poor families who had received help from the charity.

Mrs Rinehart affectionately calls the girls helped by the charity her ‘daughters’, after first meeting them in 2019.

Hancock Prospecting, Ms Rinehart’s mining company, says on its website that the charity aims to “break the cycle of poverty and abuse and bring positive change to Cambodia through youth intervention and education”.

“They started their lives very differently from us,” Mrs. Rinehart said in a rare interview on the subject.

‘They had to relieve themselves on sinking garbage dumps in Cambodia, some of them unfortunately without parents. The garbage dumps are not safe places for young girls.’

Gina Rinehart (pictured center) poses with some of the young Cambodian women she has helped educate through the charitable efforts of her company Hancock Prospecting

The Royal Order of Sahametrei was awarded to Mrs Rinehart for ‘exceptional services to the King and people of Cambodia’

A Hancock Prospecting insider told the Sydney Morning Herald in 2014 that Ms Rinehart often looked forward to seeing “her daughters” and had flown them to Kuala Lumpur twice so she could see her accept her international awards.

Hancock Prospecting supports a number of other charities that focus on promoting Indigenous businesses and training opportunities.

In March, it was revealed that the mining magnate had given away tax-free lottery prizes worth $100,000 to dozens of employees at company parties.

The billionaire’s approximately 4,000 employees, working in the mining, energy and agriculture divisions of her private company, all had a chance to win “life-changing” sums of money at the company’s black-tie events.

It is reported that about 70 staff members received a tax-free prize of $100,000, equivalent to $7 million, at Mrs Rinehart’s Christmas parties and birthday party in February.

“It’s like a station worker in rural Queensland winning $100,000 after tax. It’s crazy and life changing,” a company insider told Daily Mail Australia.

Mrs. Rinehart received the highest award for non-Cambodian citizens from King Norodom Sihamoni (pictured center)

According to Australia’s Richest 250 list, Ms Rinehart’s personal wealth, as executive chairman of Hancock Prospecting, a company that mainly mines iron ore, is estimated at a staggering $50.48 billion.

Last year she was worth $37.1 billion, putting her around the same level as fellow mining magnate Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest and his estranged wife Nicola this year.

But in the past 12 months, her fortune has increased by another $13.4 billion.

Her fortunes rose largely on the performance of her majority-owned Roy Hill iron ore mine in Western Australia’s Pilbara region, which posted a net profit of $2.7 billion in 2023.

The gains were driven by record shipments of iron ore of 63.3 million tonnes. Ms Rinehart used the earnings announcement to call on governments to cut red tape so they could expand mining.