A self-made mining billionaire? Indeed that is fascinating. He must have been working really hard down in those mines to make that much without any help.
The fact is, he started some speculative mining ventures that found massive mineral deposits. That's self made.
[0]: Marc Rich might be an exception. His company was basically him and a telephone for a while, but he was still leveraging his relationships with other commodities firms, which are themselves massive employers.
"[During his senior year] Friedland served as the caretaker of an apple farm […] owned by his millionaire uncle".
Clearly absolutely nowhere near multi-generational wealth.