The newly constituted fund will continue the Houston, Texas and Perth, Australia-based firm's strategy of partnering with management teams with proven track records, to acquire companies and assets in the metals and minerals sectors that are close to or already in production.

Denham is targeting investments in base metals, metallurgical coal, and industrial and specialty minerals.

"It's an attractive market where we see in many jurisdictions the opportunity to secure projects that meet our investment criteria," said managing director Bert Koth.

"We seek to partner with local management teams who understand capital efficiency and can demonstrate edge in accessing opportunity and execution through their superior technical experience and regional knowledge."

Denham managing partner and co-founder Carl Tricoli said the close of the first mining fund marked a significant and strategic milestone for the firm.

"We are pleased that our limited partners share our belief that there is a robust pipeline of opportunities across the global mining sector and that they chose to work with us," he said.

"We are grateful to have the support of our partners who see value in backing our plans to expand Denham's mining portfolio."

The closing of the fund brings the amount of invested and committed capital under Denham's management to about $9.8 billion.

The firm's current mining portfolio includes Pembroke Resources, a Sydney-based company pursuing and developing metallurgical coal projects in the Asia Pacific region; Perth-based Auctus Minerals, which is developing base metals assets in Australia; Mining Ventures Brazil, a company currently developing a heavy rare earths project in Brazil; Pangea, a Johannesburg-based African mining platform targeting and developing projects in several African countries; Santiago Metals, a Chilean mining venture developing copper mines in Chile; and Stellar Mining, a mining and exploration company in Peru.

Denham sold Canadian miner JDS Silver, its first full-cycle investment in the mining space, in 2017.

Denham established the fund with third-party commitments from institutional investors globally, representing foundations, endowments, public and private pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and family offices. Latham & Watkins LLP served as the fund's legal counsel and First Point Equity acted as placement agent.