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GINA Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting has bought up big in the Queensland rural property market, spending more than $50 million on cattle properties in the Roma and Mitchell districts. The latest acquisitions include Hollyrood and South Maffra at Roma as well as Forestvale at Mitchell. Hollyrood is opposite Rockybank in the Mount Abundance area, which is already owned by S.Kidman and Co. Hancock Prospecting owns 67 per cent of S.Kidman and Co with partner Shanghai CRED having a one-third minority holding through its joint-venture company Australian Outback Beef. The $50m-plus deal in the Roma/Mitchell district is understood to involve some 4750 Wagyu breeders and calves. The off-market sale was negotiated by Colliers International on behalf of the Rea family. The deal also follows on from the recent launch of the Hancock 2GR Wagyu brand, which is based on cattle being bred in NSW and fed through Hancock’s Maydan feedlot near Warwick. Hancock already has about 10,000 full-blood Wagyu cattle. Hancock Prospecting’s agricultural arm is estimated to be now running some 370,000 cattle. The 10 S.Kidman &amp; Co holdings cover about 80,000 square kilometres and run about 171,000 cattle. In October Hancock was also confirmed as the buyer of the 232,000ha Northern Territory property, Willeroo Station, on the Victoria Highway, west of Katherine. Owned by Agri International, the Australian arm of the Indonesian company Great Giant Livestock, the property was used to support two feedlots in Sumatra. GGL has been importing Australian cattle for almost 30 years. Prior to Agri International, the property was owned by the Sultan of Brunei. Willeroo was sold on a walk in, walk out basis with more than 19,000 cattle. Hancock is now Australia’s second-largest cattle producer after the Australian Agricultural Company

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