Mining billionaire Gina Rinehart is looking to expand her business empire with a $500 million bid to take advantage of booming demand for baby formula in China.

Rinehart’s Hope Dairies is looking to acquire about 5,000 hectares of farmland in Queensland to create what is planned to be one of Australia’s largest dairy farms, which will produce an estimated 30,000 tonnes of infant formula for export to China a year.

She is expected to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Queensland government and the project’s Chinese partners in Brisbane this weekend.

A spokesman for Rinehart said the billionaire saw huge potential for Australian dairy exports.

“Gina Rinehart has had a lifelong association with the agriculture industry and she has teamed up with a great deal of expertise in Queensland to build another export industry with huge potential for Australia,” he said.

Demand for infant formula is growing sharply in China after the country’s government relaxed its one-child policy last year and is expected to double within three years.

Imported formula from countries with a reputation for safe food production practices, like Australian is especially popular in the wake of the melamine milk scandal in 2008.

More than 300,000 children fell sick and at least six die after consuming dairy products containing the industrial chemical.

Rinehart is Australia’s richest person and one of the richest women in the world with an estimated fortune of $US15.5 billion ($A16.77 billion) according to Forbes.