JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – A new collaborative China/Africa private equity fund that embraces value-adding beneficiation in Africa, has been launched to boost mining on the continent.

Ruukki South Africa CEO and former South African Department of Trade and Industry director-general Dr Alistair Ruiters told the Africa Mining Congress 2012 in Johannesburg that the China Mining United Fund represented a collaborative new Chinese/African approach which embraced the adding of value to Africa’s metals and minerals on the continent itself.

“This is about creating value in Africa,” Ruiters told Mining Weekly Online.

The fund, which is eligible to raise funds in Chinese renminbi (RMB) currency for global mining investments, is one of the first private equity funds in China to gain the approval of China’s National Development Reform Committee, a political body that endorses State-owned entities going abroad.

The new fund, China Mining United’s second private equity fund, is represented in South Africa by the privately held Kermas group, which controls Ruukki South Africa.

It provides equity and equity-linked capital with a value-adding role and uses strategic alliances within China and internationally.

It is a collaborative effort among Chinese companies and institutions, together with overseas partners and financial institutions and it targets near-production mining start-ups.

Through its global partnerships, the fund, is predicated on the belief that continued economic growth in China will create ongoing demand for resources, has been able to generate a significant volume of deal flow.

Ruiters said that the challenge of the current depressed global economy provided the fund with an investment opportunity.

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