Not only the public will feast on the raging controversy between Gina Rinehart and her children, the family feud could also spawn considerable concerns on the business interests of Australia's richest person.

According to The Australian, that possibility was admitted by Paul McCann, lawyer for Rinehart, in a filing that the multi-billionaire had submitted before the New South Wales Supreme Court September last year.

Rinehart's specific concern is the $7 billion Roy Hill iron ore project in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.

McCann told the court that his client feared for unnecessary side issues that will be created once details of the case were released to the public, which became a reality last week as the courts turned down's Rinehart's plea for the media to be denied access on the legal tussle.

The likely scenario, according to The Australian, once the details were leaked out is investors and financiers of Hancock Prospecting projects would be turned off by the dispute and could delay existing and planned investments of the company.

"This could be fatal to the project, and result in HPPL not being able to export its ore. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested in the project to this date to enable it to have reached the stage of debt financing," the affidavit reportedly said.

There exists a strong possibility that the Roy Hill project could be derailed if delays and other pressing issues would attend the investment, McCann told the court as reported by The Australian.

Senior executives of Hancock Prospecting share the sentiments, McCann said in the affidavit.

In the end, the family spat could impact on the ownership of Hancock Prospecting, which could serve as a bigger blow for Rinehart's iron ore company, the report said.

Media reports have indicated that Rinehart's three children - John Hancock, Bianca Rinehart and Hope Rinehart-Welker, have petitioned for the court to give them control of the family trust fund that was set up by in 1988 by Lang Hancock, the family patriarch.

Another Rinehart child, Ginia had sided with her mother and described the legal battles as motivated by greed on the part of her siblings.

Estimated worth of the fund could reach a high of $5 billion, with the Rinehart children as beneficiaries and Gina Rinehart as the trustee.

The fund also represents some 23.6 percent of stakes in Hancock Prospecting, The Australian said, which reports said further convinced Rinehart to extend her hold on the trust in order to protect the company.

Rinehart had declared this week that she's working to temporarily deny the fund from her three renegade kids so they would learn to work, apart from protecting them too against the financial woes normally attached with the huge holdings.