Ex-JPMorgan Bankers Raise $375 Million for Mining Fund

Former JPMorgan Chase & Co. bankers Michael Scherb and Verne Grinstead raised $375 million from investors to target acquisitions of mining assets through their Appian Natural Resources Fund LP.

“The whole thesis was really created when I was at JPMorgan, when I could see that traditional sources of capital were going to dry up to the industry,” Scherb, who founded Appian two years ago after leaving the bank, said in a phone interview from London yesterday. “I thought that private equity made sense. I thought it made sense to match long-term capital to a long-term industry.”