A published report says Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart, has thrown her weight behind Mongolia’s emerging coal industry, spending an estimated USD 3 million on positions in two companies exploring in the country.

According to the newspaper The Australian, share registry searches reveal Rinehart has in recent months taken positions in Australian Securities Exchange-listed Mongolian explorers Aspire Mining and Guildford Coal.

Mongolia’s coal mining industry has grown rapidly in recent years on the back of a number of substantial discoveries, with the country’s proximity to China meaning it is set to become one of the world’s biggest exporters of coal.

The share registry search results show that Rinehart bought 812,681 shares in Guildford in September, representing a 0.19 per cent interest in the company. In October, she bought almost 4.4 million shares, or 0.7 per cent, of Aspire Mining.

Aspire is exploring the Ovoot coking coal project in northern Mongolia, with the company having already identified a 330.7 million-ton resource of high-quality coking coal.