The sheila set to be the richest person

Gina Rinehart. Photo / Getty Images

An Australian woman is predicted to become the richest person in the world, Britain's Daily Telegraph reports.

Gina Rinehart, 57, has seen her wealth double in the last year to A$10.3 billion (NZD13.3 billion) because of the commodities boom.

Financial group Citigroup said Ms Rinehart is on course to overtake Carlos Slim, the Mexican magnate worth NZD$91.2 billion, and Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, who is worth $69.4 billion, as the three coal and iron ore projects she is developing will see her to overtake the men mainly because she owns her companies outright and has no shareholders, the Telegraph reported.

Australian business website SmartCompany said if Rinehart was a company listed on the ASX and valued using the same 11-times price-to-earnings ratio as Rio Tinto she would be worth NZD$38.8 billion, putting her in the Forbes top 10 rich list.

"Rinehart, however, has three more mines on the way, and potentially more in the exploration phase," the website said.

Ms Rinehart is little known outside business circles and shuns publicity. In 1952 her father, Lang Hancock, discovered the world's largest iron ore deposit in Australia's Pilbara region.

She married twice. Her second husband was Frank Rinehart, an American lawyer, who died in 1990.

- NZ Herald staff