PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Specialist venture capital fund African Lion on Friday said that it was looking for African opportunities of up to $12-million, at a time when the African resources sector presented more investment opportunities than at any time in the past ten years.

Company chairperson Mike Brook told the Africa Downunder conference that the $79-million venture capital fund had identified more than 400 potential opportunities, three-quarters of which were with listed explorers and miners, and of those, two-thirds of them call the ASX and the TSX home.

“Many of the best opportunities are in gold and we are seeing a lot of those opportunities coming through, particularly via the TSX,” said Brook.

“The highest level of opportunity is in South Africa, but there is a reasonably broad spread dominated by southern and western Africa but with Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo making some claim in the centre of the continent. Tanzania is also a prime opportunity along the eastern seaboard.”

Brook said that by commodity, African Lion 3 saw precious metals opportunities largely coming from South Africa and West Africa “but we are seeing the spread across the continent with some weighting towards gold in western Africa”, he said.

“In bulk commodities, South Africa dominates for iron ore and coal.”

However, Brook noted that the opportunities to invest in Africa changed constantly, and it was vital to re-assess and update on an ongoing basis.

The fund’s major shareholders include the Lion Selection Group, Botswana African Mining Fund, the UK-based development Bank, CDC Group plc and the European Investment Bank and has current investments in seven African resources projects.