Quotes from Stephen Gill, Managing Partner, Pala Investments

“There is an emerging premium for material with good provenance and sustainable supply to feed the energy transition.”

Among the private equity firm’s past and current investments, are Canadian cobalt miner Cobalt 27 plus Australia’s rare earths producer Lynas and lithium supplier Altura. These investments help to diversify supply away from the concentration of cobalt in the DRC, rare earths out of China and lithium coming from Chile, Gill said. Pala is also invested in the Achmmach tin mine in Morocco – a material critical to the production of semiconductors.

“We expect to see increasing ESG scrutiny from large mutual funds that invest in mining majors, much as we are now seeing for the oil majors. This year, we will see the first annual disclosure from mining companies around their carbon footprint and their response to it.”

The full piece is available for BloombergNEF subscribers here.