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The most dizzyingly rich women in the world have something in common: It's almost always their husbands or fathers who actually earned the dizzying riches. But while Australian mining magnate Gina Rinehart inherited $75 million when her father died in 1992, she has spent the last two decades multiplying that sum -- 386 times. She's now worth $29 billion, according to BRW magazine's latest rich list, which makes her the wealthiest woman in the world.

Of the humans roaming this planet with at least $1 billion in their bank accounts, just 8.5% are female, according to Forbes.

There's Christy Walton, the Walmart heiress; Jacqueline Mars, the candy empire heiress; Anne Cox Chambers, the Cox media empire heiress; Dorothea Steinbruch, the Brazilian steel heiress; Liliane Bettencourt, the L'Oreal heiress; Iris Fontbona, the widow of a mining magnate, Birgit Rausing, the widow of a packaging magnate; and Rosalia Mera, the ex-wife of the founder of clothing chain Zara.

Rinehart may have inherited some handsome seed money, but she now earns her own $75 million every day and a half. And she's done it by riding the soaring demand for Australia's resources, reports ABC News.

"If the demand for natural resources remains strong, additional multi-billion mines are almost inevitable," writes BRW. "There is a real possibility that Rinehart will become not just the richest woman in the world, but the richest person in the world."

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/05/24/t...d%3D164492