Gina Rinehart, Australia's richest woman, has slipped down in Forbes Magazine's listing of the World's Richest Women to fifth place. She used to be number one, but went down to second place in 2012 in BRW Magazine's separate list.

The decline in value of her holdings in the mining sector as well as investments in media is responsible for her going down several notches, overtaken by a cosmetic industry heiress, scions of the world's largest retailer and another mining magnate.

Ms Rinehart's wealth is estimated at $17 billion, while the net worth of the richest woman, L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt is estimated at $30 billion. Ms Bettencourt used to be in third place in the 2012 list.

Ms Bettencourt is followed by Wal-Mart heiresses Christy Walton ($26.2 billion) and Alice Walton ($26.3 billion) and then by Iris Fontobona, the wife of Chilean mining billionaire Andronico Luksic who died of cancer in 2005 and left her and their three sons Antofagasta, one of the world's largest copper miners.

After Ms Rinehart is Jacqueline Mars, the third generation of Mars candy, with a net worth of $17 billion, then BMW heiress Susanne Klatten ($14.3 billion), Fidelity Financial Services President Abigail Johnson ($12.7 billion), Miuccia Prada of the famous clothing brand ($12.4 billion) and media owner Anne Cox Chambers ($12 billion).

Due to the decline in commodity prices as well as her soured investments in media, Ms Rinehart's fortune has dwindled from $22 billion in 2010 when she was the world's richest woman.

Following her losses, including corporate battles with the board directors of a media company where she owns a substantial stake, other miners and her own adult estranged children, Ms Rinehart sought counsel from media executive Sam Chisholm.

His advice to the billionaire was to buy instead Fairfax and ditch Ten Network which had rejected her bid for a board seat.

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