* Pension funds, sovereign wealth funds dabbling more
* Appetite for investment growing, new companies emerging
* Financing window fully open since late 2009
* Copper favored, gold, uranium, rare earths well loved
By Pav Jordan
TORONTO, March 6 (Reuters) - A whole new class of
conservative investor is piling into the mining sector -- once
the exclusive domain of daring risk-takers -- bringing a
bonanza of funding options to junior miners racing toward
production.
Pension fund managers and sovereign wealth funds are now
hungry to provide financing for projects deemed worthy of
delivering stable, long-term returns.
"That's a very strong signal that this asset class is large
enough now and the returns are steady enough, or expected to be
steady enough," said Mike White, the president of IBK Capital
Corp, a Toronto specialist in equity financing for miners with
projects under development.
"You now have more demand than this world has ever seen for
metals," he said. "So what do we see? We see the investment
bankers of the world and other investors and institutions
reacting."
White comments some ahead of the PDAC prospectors and
developers convention running March 6-9 in Toronto. The show,
sponsored in part by IBK Capital, will bring together hundreds
of tiny-cap miners with financiers looking for new projects.
Newfound interest in mining finance is clearly evident.
Source: Reuters.Com
