2020 has been a year like no other. In pandemic year, there were rapid-fire public offerings, surging crypto currencies and skyrocketing stock prices. The total number of billionaires on Forbes 35th Annual List of The Worlds Wealthiest exploded to an unprecedented 2755, up by 660 in 2019. Altogether these billionaires are worth USD 13.1 trillion, up from USD 8 trillion in 2020. The top 5 spots were taken by Mr Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Mr Elon Musk of Tesla, Mr Bernard Arnault of LMV, Mr Bill Gates of MicroSoft & Mr Mark Zuckerberg of FaceBook. However there were only 66 billionaires from our world of steel, metals & mining, accounting for meagre 2.4% by number and 3.2% by worth. Significantly, 22 or 33% billionaires known as Oligarchs from former USSR account for 43% wealth out of 66 billionaires from steel, metals & mining.

The top 10 billionaires in steel, metals & mining are

1. Mr Alexey Mordashov of Severstal -- Rank 51

2. Mr Vladimir Potanin of Nornickel – Rank 55

3. Mr Vladimir Lisin of NLMK – Rank 59

4. Mr German Larrea Mota Velasco of Grupo Mexico – Rank 61

5. Ms Gina Rinehart of Hancock Prospecting – Rank 70

6. Ms Iris Fontbona of Antofogasta – Rank 74

7. Dr Andrew Forrest of FMG – Rank 87

8. Mr Alisher Usmanov of Metalloivest – Rank 99

9. Mr Lakshmi Nivas Mittal of ArcelorMittal – Rank 133

10. Mr Wang Wenyin of Amer Copper International – Rank 161