News & Insights

Oryx in the Media

London losing luster as minerals financing hub – Oryx managing partner

S&P Global Market Intelligence
Journalist: Joseph Lam
Date: March 26, 2025

Abu Dhabi-based Oryx Global Partners Ltd., which launched in January 2024, recruited former BHP Group Ltd. executive Laura Tyler as partner and ex-Fortescue Ltd. CEO Elizabeth Gaines as senior adviser this month. The appointments “highlight the growing importance of private capital investment in the minerals value chain to facilitate the energy transition and secure supply chains,” the firm said March 4.

The Gulf is shaping up as a neutral trading and investment hub amid rising geopolitical tensions and London’s declining attraction, said Paul Schaffer, managing partner at Oryx.

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, spoke to Schaffer about how the global investment market for minerals is evolving around geopolitics. This interview has been edited for clarity and space.

Platts: Why set up Oryx in Abu Dhabi?

Paul Schaffer: Setting ourselves up in Abu Dhabi was for two main reasons. One is, unfortunately, the London mining market is really slowing down and losing critical mass that it needs from an institutional investor perspective. The London Stock Exchange has become more and more burdensome for companies to list, and the smaller cap part of the market seems to be losing its liquidity and its following. Unless you’re in the FTSE 200, there isn’t really much rationale to be basing yourself there anymore, so those who aren’t in that look to other markets with better liquidity and coverage.

When you talk about the broader asset management and hedge fund landscape, the general understanding of mining just seems to be reducing in London. There used to be something like 1,000 investors covering mining previously in London, and we’re down to around 100 now.

The second thing is that the Gulf, particularly the UAE, seems to be emerging as a bit of a neutral hub in the shift of critical mineral supply chains. When you look at the political tensions between China and the US and Russia as well, the UAE seems to be like Switzerland from a supply chain security perspective because they are neutral and friendly to all parties.

The US and UAE are close friends and strong allies. With the war in Ukraine and sanctions, a lot of Russians have moved to Dubai, which now has a massive Russian population. Then with Hong Kong being increasingly integrated and assimilated with mainland China, a lot of Chinese investors have set up family offices there. So it’s got a bit of an exposure to all and remains a friendly party to all. Trade through the region from a minerals perspective is increasing pretty massively.

How do your two new executive hires help Oryx play into that broader environment?

Laura [Tyler] is a partner and sits on the investment committee and provides technical and operational oversight to our due diligence process and also to our portfolio companies as we acquire them. Elizabeth [Gaines] is a senior adviser whose knowledge and expertise we draw on as needed, for example, when we’re engaging on things in Western Australia where we’ve been looking at a couple of projects. She obviously is very well connected in the state and understands a lot of local dynamics from First Nations through to government engagement. She’s also very [knowledgeable in] international relations, China dynamics and trade.

With the US’ tariffs, has anything emerged in global metals trade to give you pause or perhaps optimism about the investment environment?

In any challenge is also opportunity. The mineral sector as a whole has been impacted by trade tensions. The world is going from globalization to localization. You see clearly, the steel and aluminum tariffs from [US President Donald] Trump, for example, and talk of copper tariffs shaking those markets. Gold has gone on a bit of a run as a result amid broader economic and political risks.

But there has been a broader impact — you’ve seen China tightening export controls on things like gallium, germanium and antimony. More generally, there’s also been concerningly a bit of an increase in resource nationalism — and this time it’s not just emerging markets but also developed markets. That gives you pause about questions like “how permanent is it, and where does it settle long term?” But for us, it’s about how we position ourselves to minimize the risk and maximize returns while simultaneously creating a positive impact on what we’re doing.

What do you mean by positive impacts?

We want to create a positive impact through our investments, because unfortunately there have been and there still are too many bad actors in the sector not considering the environmental impact, leaving governments and communities feeling that they don’t receive their fair share. The sector has gained a bit of a bad reputation historically.

When you invest in the minerals sector, if it’s approached in a responsible and sustainable way, our view is it can inherently create a massive positive impact by avoiding, minimizing and offsetting environmental impact and then ensuring you add value to the governments and communities in which you operate through things like social engagement, job creation, infrastructure development and increased tax revenues.

Not only is it the right thing to do, but it also helps de-risk your operations, so our investments hopefully will face less friction and barriers and ultimately realize more value if they are approached in the right way.

Titanium minerals producer Kenmare Resources PLC rejected your $609.9 million takeover proposal in March. Are there any updates to that offer?

Kenmare is a live transaction at the moment. We’re still going through the process and engaging on that, and we’ll see where it ends up.

Where will you focus investments going forward for growth?

While some commodities receive all the attention, like gold being flavor of the month right now, we focus instead on those that are overlooked and where we see value. As supply chain security has become more and more critical, we also see a larger opportunity set not just in the mines themselves, but in the rest of the value chain, including things like processing and recycling.

Generally speaking, we see a lot of opportunity in equity due to the lack of equity capital being provided to a lot of small and mid-cap companies. We prefer to be private investors so companies can deliver on their strategies privately and avoid the burden of being public, but we have the flexibility to go activist or undertake structured financing if it provides a better outcome. It all depends on the opportunity in terms of the company, the commodity, the timing of the market and what’s needed in that particular situation.