The legacy Gina Rinehart would like to forget

The Hancock family’s mining empire did not originate with Lang Hancock’s fabled discovery of iron-red cliffs in the Pilbara in 1952 – it started with asbestos, writes Jonathan Barrett.

Viewers of the ABC‘s Australian Story on Monday night were reminded that the Hancock family’s mining empire did not originate with Lang Hancock’s fabled discovery of iron-red cliffs in the Pilbara in 1952.

Hancock discovered what would become the Wittenoom blue asbestos mine in the 1930s. The primitive project included having workers detonate the rocks and chisel out asbestos. Hand-packed sacks were 0taken to the Pilbara port of Point Samson and shipped to Fremantle.

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