Gina Rinehart earned close to $10 billion last week when South Korean steel maker Posco sealed a deal with her Hancock Prospecting, reports said.

Australia's richest person, according to BusinessDay, has agreed to divest 15 percent of her holdings on the Roy Hill Project at the Pilbara region of Western Australia, easily kicking up her reported net worth of $10.3 billion to $20 billion.

The Posco sale, experts said, underscored Hancock's consistently increasing wealth that were mostly sourced from mining interests in Western Australia, which has hosted the Hancocks even before the region emerged as one of the world's biggest producers of resource minerals.

The Hancocks immense fortune saw its beginning from the mining investments of Lang Hancock, Gina's father, who made his name as one of the mining pioneer in Western Australia.

BusinessDay considered the elder Hancock as largely responsible for transforming WA to its current prosperous state, earning for him too enough money that daughter Gina will further multiply after his death.

Trading skills obviously imprinted on her DNA paved the way for the younger Rinehart to improve on the riches left behind by the Hancock patriarch, as she maintained investments on mining activities that mostly concentrated on iron ore productions.

Hancock Prospecting, media reports said, holds considerable roles on almost every facet of mining investments in the region, which include drawing significant earnings from Rio Tinto, one of the world's biggest miners.

Her continued success made her as Australia's richest individual, overtaking fellow mining moguls like Andrew Forrest and Clive Palmer.

And there could be no stopping Gina Rinehart from getting to the top of the world soon as BusinessDay reported that she is well-placed to become the world's richest woman in due time.

In such event, Rinehart would replace Wal-Mart's Christy Walton, who as of last year was estimate by Forbes with a whooping net worth of more than $24 billion.

But with current economic trends that saw commodities becoming further in demand as developing nations accelerate their industrialization, Rinehart may soon find her iron ore and coal investments attracting more money than she could ever imagine.

It is not a remote possibility that very soon, Rinehart's worth would eventually shoot up to $100 billon in U.S. dollar terms, allowing the Australian to further climb up the billionaires' circle and even beat out the perennial names up there.

Rising hauls consistently reported by the companies operating in Western Australia, from which Rinehart holds considerable interests, may soon earn the mining mogul as the first Australian in history to amass hundred-billions, BusinessDay wrote.

In fact, the paper noted, she would be the first person in the planet to do so in case she reaches the hundred-billion-dollar mark.