GINA Rinehart has appointed controversial climate change sceptic Professor Ian Plimer to the board of several key family companies.

According to disclosures made to the Australians Securities and Investments commission overnight Prof Plimer was appointed to the boards of Roy Hill Holdings and Queensland Coal Investments on January 25.



Roy Hill is the key to Mrs Rineharts ambitions of challenging the big three Pilbara iron ore players in her own right. The company is the manager of the Roy Hill mine, which plans to export 55 million tonnes of iron ore a year through Port Hedland when it is up and running at full capacity.



Prof Plimer is an experienced mining geologist, and a professor of mining geology at the University of Adelaide. He currently serves on the board of stock exchange listed miners Ivanhoe Australia and Silver City Mines, and has held previous board roles at CBH Mining and a number of other Australian mining companies.



But Professor Plimer is better know in recent years as one of Australia's most prominent sceptics of the idea that carbon dioxide emissions from industry are contributing to global warming.



He has been a regular feature in the media and on the speaking circuit, and released a book on the subject in 2009 which was heavily criticised by climate scientists.



His views are shared by Mrs Rinehart, who has also publically criticised the idea that human activity is contributing to global climate change and has been openly contemptuous of the Federal Government's carbon tax legislation.



Last year Professor Plimer spoke on the subject at a high-powered lunch hosted by Mrs Rinehart on the fringes of the BOAO forum in Perth. He is also listed as a member of Mrs Rinehart's Australians for Northern Development and Economic Vision (ANDEV) lobby group, which has taken strong positions on corporate taxation and climate change initiatives.



This week Mrs Rinehart has made headlines across the country after making a $192 million raid overnight to build her current 5 per cent stake in Fairfax Media to around 10 per cent.



She has also been ringing in the changes on the boards of the family companies, in the wake of a bitter dispute with three of her four children over control of a trust that reportedly controls much of the family's immense wealth.



She has promoted the only one of her daughters to take her side in the dispute, Ginia Rinehart, to the board of a number of family companies, and removed two others as directors of companies within the group.



