Investing in today’s and tomorrow’s producers of the metals & minerals essential to national security, the clean energy transition, and global economic growth

Sierra Morena is a public equity fund investing in producers, developers, and advanced explorers of “critical” or “strategic” metals and minerals important for energy transition technologies and national security (e.g., copper, uranium, lithium, nickel, cobalt, platinum group metals (PGMs), rare earths (REEs), tin, titanium, tungsten, etc.) Sierra Morena only invests in companies that operate in stable jurisdictions, defined broadly as jurisdictions with good rule of law friendly to liberal democracies. “Reshoring”/”friendshoring” of critical minerals supply chains is a key aspect of Sierra Morena’s thesis.

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Why Invest in Critical Minerals?

Critical minerals supply chains are controlled by China and Russia; China is increasingly imposing critical mineral export restrictions in retaliation to US policy

Trump administration is focused on critical minerals & reshoring (e.g., expedited permitting processes and grant funding for defense-focused critical minerals)

Energy transition (e.g., EVs, solar, wind, and nuclear); total clean/renewable energy investment up to $2.2T in 2025, up from $1.3T in 2019

Increased energy/electricity demand due to AI/data center buildout – by 2050 the EIA projects data center server electricity consumption to grow from 7% of the commercial sector to 22-33%

Long lead times to permit & build mines (16 years on avg. from discovery to production)

Domestic supply also limited by processing capabilities (smelting & refining)

Longstanding insufficient investment in new supply due to suppressed prices and lack of specialist capital – global critical mineral investment actually decreased by 9% from 2024 to 2025

Our Strategy

Identify and invest in companies across all critical metals and minerals with the following characteristics:

  • High-quality, experienced management teams (often repeat mine builders or explorers with a history of success) 
  • Economically compelling projects that are in production or (typically) 0 to 4 years from initial production
  • Favorable macroeconomic outlook for the metal(s) to be produced
  • Preference for low-capex projects (whether brownfield/restarts or otherwise)