Former Gold Fields chief executive Chris Griffith has joined a private equity team seeking to raise $1 billion to invest in Africa’s critical minerals sector, as investors increasingly look to the continent for supplies of metals used in energy, technology and industrial applications.
Griffith disclosed the initiative during an online broadcast by South African bank Investec, saying fundraising was still at an early stage.
The proposed investment vehicle will focus on African critical minerals, with commodities including cobalt, copper, lithium, nickel and rare earth elements identified as being within its scope.
“I’m part of a private equity team now, seeking to raise a billion dollars to invest in African critical minerals,” Griffith said.
He is working on the venture with Colin Coleman, a former Goldman Sachs banker, and Sam Jonah, former chairman of Ashanti Goldfields. Griffith said the team had been assembled to establish the private equity business and that he was spending considerable time on setting up the fund.
The planned fund comes as critical minerals gain strategic importance because of their use in batteries, electric vehicles, electronics and other technologies. Africa has significant resources of several of these minerals, including cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo, lithium in Zimbabwe and copper across the Zambia-DRC copperbelt.
For Griffith, the proposed fund marks a new phase following his departure from Gold Fields in December 2022. He stepped down after the South African gold producer’s $6.7 billion all-share bid for Canada’s Yamana Gold failed when Agnico Eagle Mines and Pan American Silver tabled a rival offer.
Griffith later spent two years leading Vedanta’s base metals division before resigning in July 2025. His return to private equity therefore shifts his focus from managing a major listed gold producer toward raising capital for projects centred on Africa’s mineral resources.
The former Gold Fields CEO has also reflected on the Yamana transaction, saying gold was trading at about $1,700 an ounce when the deal was proposed, compared with roughly $4,300 an ounce now. Gold Fields has since completed major acquisitions including Osisko Mining and Gold Road Resources.
The new fund remains at the fundraising stage, with no first-close capital yet reported. Its formation nevertheless places Griffith alongside experienced African mining and financial executives seeking to channel private capital into the continent’s critical minerals industry.
