Gina Rinehart will be the headline act a Sydney mining Club dinner with Roy Hill number cruncher, Garry Korte, to celebrate what will hopefully be the first shovel of "Big Roy" ore leaving our shores.

"The first shipload of Roy Hill iron ore is scheduled to push out from Port Hedland on a high tide before Christmas, to the sound of dockside cheers! We are delighted to announce that the Roy Hill team leaders Mrs Gina Rinehart, and Roy Hill CFO Mr Garry Korte have at last been able to accept our invitation to present this astonishing new project in an evening that will effectively be the eastern states 'debut' of this mega project," promises the club's flyer.

The club is so excited it has been bombarding members for weeks advising it is their "last chance" to snatch the $145 a head tickets to the club's big event.

The latest last chance, emailed Tuesday morning, even offered a "mystery VIP" who will receive some sort of special recognition, but let's not take the focus off the main event.

The Tuesday update included pictures of the Anangel​ Explorer docking at Port Hedland, ready to swallow the first load of ore from "Big Roy" which "is creating great excitement around the country."

Rinehart offered an update to attendees at a Melbourne CEO awards ceremony last Thursday.

"Much to the upset of some quarters in the Aussie media, the first ship is tonight only 1020 nautical miles away from Port Hedland. Just a few days ago I was on site and together with my executives and daughter Ginia witnessed our first fine ore being loaded onto a Roy Hill train and then arriving in Port Hedland the next day," she said.

It is purely coincidental, of course, that the price of iron ore sunk below $US40 a tonne just as the ore hit the hold of the Anangel​ Explorer.

As Rinehart would say, Big Roy is not threatening to have a Titanic impact on the ore price.

Can't buy me ..

Money comes and goes, which is why reputation is so important in business.

So let's take the focus of the $463 million in cold hard cash that Anchorage Capital Partners extracted in just 13 months it owned the electronics retailer, Dick Smith.

Or, the fact that it is unlikely any of the $94 million Anchorage paid to Woolworths for the business come from its own pocket. It is said the initial $20 million payment to Woolies was extracted from the Dick Smith business, and the final $24 million was paid by the investors who bought into the Dick Smith float at $2.20 a share.

Let us focus on the industry accolades that flowed from this audacious deal lead by Anchorage boys Phil Cave and Michael Briggs.

Just as Anchorage exited its final 20 per cent stake in Dick Smith last year, it took home one of the big awards from the private equity sector's night of nights sponsored by the Australian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (AVCAL).

Apparently, the night was designed to address media perceptions that the industry was all about buying businesses, loading them with debt, ripping out costs and quickly flogging the result to joe public.

"People think private equity is in there for a three to five-year time frame, to rip and tear, make a quick buck and sell out," CHAMP Private Equity executive chairman, Bill Ferris, told the event.

"Which is just crap, because [when] building a better business, you have to think for at least a decade ahead in terms of business modelling. While you can make great improvements in three to five years, you also have to sell to an owner who can also see a three to five-year investment horizon."

Did we mention that Anchorage's ownership of Dick Smith lasted less than 23 months from the day it bought the business to the day it sold its final stake?

Last year, the Turnaround Management Association also gave Anchorage a gong for large company turnaround of the year for its work on Dick Smith.

You can't buy recognition like that!

Got a tip? ckruger@fairfaxmedia.com.au