Gina Rinehart is Australia's richest person. She is a billionaire mining magnate, and executive chairman of Hancock Prospecting, a company she inherited from her father. Gina's activities in Australia are well documented. Much less is known about her activities in South America.

In Ecuador, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hancock Prospecting, called Hanrine, is pursuing mineral deposits in the country's remote north an area rich with gold and copper.

In 2017, Hanrine was handed a number of mining concessions there, since then, illegal miners and organised crime groups have taken up residence on the companies land, tearing apart local communities, and damaging the environment.

It’s gotten so out of hand, that the Ecuadorian government has sent in security forces on multiple occasions to clean out illegal miners, and crush community opposition.

Investigative reporter Marta Pascual Juanola spent a month in Ecuador investigating a mining industry that operates in shades of grey, where she found alleged worker exploitation, intimidation tactics and violence.

Read our full investigation into Hanrine's activities in Ecuador:

https://www.theage.com.au/world/south...


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