Investment activity and dealmaking in the mining industry is bustling. Metals and mining M&A activity was up 61% globally in 2025—and up a remarkable 139% in North America alone, according to Bloomberg. In Canada, S&P data shows that mining had the third highest aggregate M&A deal value by industry in 2025.
So where does private equity investment stand as mining takes the spotlight? Among PE firms, there is a general orientation against investing in the mining space, for a number of reasons. Exploration-stage projects bring speculative risk. Scalability is an issue and so is jurisdiction. There may not be a clear path to the kind of profitability PE needs to generate and the timing in a mining cycle may be off. At many stages of a mining project, financing requirements seem to be mismatched to the risk/reward profile often sought by institutional PE.
But there are opportunities, and they appear to be growing. To drill down and understand this better, we looked at the last 10 years of Preqin data on PE investment in the mining industry to see how much is being invested by PE, where it's being deployed and the most common deal types being used. We then provide our insights on what this means for PE investors and mining companies.
PE Investment in Global Mining Deals
PE activity in the global mining industry has seen a sharp rise in aggregate deal size and deal count over the past 10 years. The total value of announced or completed deals by PE investors reached a high of US$18.48 billion in 2023 (compared to US$4.71 billion in 2016) with almost 100 deals. Deal count has also picked up noticeably in mining sub-industries, from 14 deals in 2015 to a high of 46 in 2022. Materials (81 deals), software (41) and industrial machinery (33) led the way in mining sub-industries. These areas are likely more investable for PE than the earlier stages of mining projects.
To put this in some perspective, in 2025 there were 1,747 PE deals worth US$196 billion in the global IT sector.
PE Activity in Canadian Mining Deals
In Canada, 2024 had the second-highest total deal value of US$2.19 billion represented by a balance of 17 large and mid-sized deals. 2020 experienced the highest deal value of US$2.31 billion on the strength of one US$2 billion PE secondary buyout and the second highest number of deals (25). By contrast, in 2025 PE activity was substantially lower with only 11 completed deals and a significantly lower aggregate deal size of US$0.55 billion (the third lowest aggregate deal size in 10 years). Globally over the last 10 years, PE activity in the mining industry has seen an annual average deal count of 88 and an average aggregate deal value of US$9.76 billion.
PE Investment in Mining Sub-Industries
Preqin defines mining sub-industries as ones that directly support mining operations—from materials and industrial machinery to business support services and energy storage.
Between 2016 and 2020, PE investment in the mining sub-industries totaled US$4.85 billion. Starting in 2021, mining sub-industry deals completed by PE investors spiked—and deal count rose to new heights in 2022 with a total of 46 deals. Over the past five years, aggregate deal size grew to US$18.5 billion. Almost half of this investment came in 2024. Consistent with 2025 data on Canadian PE investment in mining as a whole, global PE activity in mining was substantially lower in 2025 with an aggregate deal size of $US6.4 billion and only US$677 million in the subcategories. Despite the drawback in 2025, there appears to be a growing trend of increased investment in mining sub-industries.
Of the 181 PE mining sub-industry completed and announced deals since 2021, only three exceeded US$1 billion in announced deal size. In the mid-market (mining transactions with a value of US$20 million to <US $500 million) there were 31 PE completed deals with a combined worth just over US$4 billion in total. By deal count, the majority of completed PE deals between 2021 and 2025 were in the mining subcategories of materials (53), software (26) and industrial machinery (24).
PE Deal Types in Mining
Looking at the deal types utilized by global PE investors in the mining space, we note that PE Buyouts have increased sharply in overall value—from US$4.68 billion in 2016 to a high of US$16.81 billion in 2023. Deal count declined slightly over the past 10 years from 69 in 2016 to 46 in 2025. PE venture capital investment in mining has shot up in both aggregate deal value and the number of deals but is still lagging Buyout activity.
In the Canadian mining industry, PE Buyouts mirrored the global trend of fewer deals and higher deal value. There were 39 PE Buyouts from 2021-25 with an aggregate deal size of US$6.04 billion—compared to 62 PE Buyouts from 2016-20 with an aggregate deal size of US$4.86 billion.
PE venture capital investment in mining increased slightly in Canada between 2016 and 2025 from $US36 million to US$1.64 billion—with a high of US$2.07 billion in 2022. This is well below the spike in overall global PE mining activity and with a fraction of the deal value of Buyouts. There were 237 venture capital deals announced or completed from 2021 to 2025 with an aggregate deal size of US$7.24 billion. This compares to 253 Buyouts during the same period worth US$62.2 billion.
PE Strategies in Mining
We looked at how PE funds are investing in mining to see whether it is much different than PE investment in other industries and which strategies are most commonly deployed. The data evidences that globally, PE funds are utilizing the following strategies for their mining investments:
- add-on
- buyout
- LP direct
- PIPE
- private debt
- seed
- Series A
- Series B
- trade sale
- unspecified round
Based on deal count, we note that PE funds have favoured add-on transactions over PIPEs, with add-ons having the second-biggest jump in the past five years. Add-on deal value rose from US$1.65 billion between 2016 and 2020, and US$7.7 billion from 2021 to 2025. Both seed and Series A investments are also attractive to PE in the mining space as they have more than doubled in deal count, but the deal size remains modest.
PE Deal Types—Mining Investment in Canada
In 2021 to 2025, PE investment in the mining industry in Canada was primarily deployed to complete PIPE transactions as evidenced by with 20 completed PIPEs having an aggregate deal size of US$1.4 billion. The number of PIPE deals in Canada was down from 2016 to 2020, when there were 42.
The two largest PE deals in the Canadian mining industry in the past five years had a combined value of US$1.9 billion and included both add-on and public-to-private components. From 2021 to 2025, there were three trade sales—where the portfolio company is sold to another company—worth US$1.05 billion in total.
Top Target Countries for PE Mining Investment and Investors
The US, China, Canada and Australia have dominated global PE activity as being the most favoured countries for PE investment in mining over the past five years. From 2021 to 2025, the US attracted US$10.16 billion of investment on 120 deals and China was next with US$9.37 billion and 100 deals. Canada came third at US$6.44 billion on 76 deals. Australia had the fewest deals at 54, but was the target of US$25.87 billion in investment.
European entities are the leaders in global PE activity in mining from 2021 to 2025 with US$19.18 billion of investment. North America is second with US$13.61 billion, followed by Australasia (US$13.25 billion) and Asia (US$11 billion). Globally in the past 5 years, 309 deals worth US$51 billion have been made in the in the primary mining industry and 181 deals worth US$18.5 billion occurred in mining sub-industries.
PE investors from North America, Asia and Australasia overwhelmingly invested in their own regions. European PE is the most international in its investments—with Canada being its top country target by deal count. Ten investments from Europe have been made in Canada over the past 5 years' worth $1.27 billion.
Where is PE Investment Going?
S&P Global reports that private equity dry powder stood at US$2.18 trillion in 2025. This is down from the previous year but still the third highest total on record. For PE in mining, 2025 seems to have been an anomaly year, with low deal count and low deal value in comparison to the last 5 years. We expect deal value and size to both increase in 2026 to at least 2023 levels given the cash on hand by private equity investors. In its latest global private equity report, Preqin says that despite a continued cyclical slowdown in the global private equity market, 2025 brought some indications of a potential recovery. When it comes to mining capex, Bain & Company is predicting an 8% increase globally over the next three years—and that capex is growing the fastest in Canada and the US at 29%.
All of this bodes well for Canada given the strength of its mining sector and European and other PE interest in the country. While "capital mismatch" issues may continue to limit PE investment in mining generally, we expect sub-category investments in materials, software and industrial machinery to further increase, and add-ons to continue to be the most common deal type with higher deal values.
About Bennett Jones
The Bennett Jones Private Equity & Investment Funds group is a leader in Canada. Our clients include sophisticated financial sponsors who are looking to balance risk with expected return and who require tailored advice from the initiation of the investment phase through to exit. Bennett Jones represents all sides in private equity transactions, with particular depth on behalf of United States and domestic financial sponsors and Canadian institutional investors.
Bennett Jones is widely recognized for our industry-leading expertise in Mining. Our mining lawyers are practice leaders, known for their extensive industry experience and our clients include mining companies of all sizes, investment banks and investors.
To discuss the developments and opportunities in private equity in mining, please contact one of the authors.
