Red Kite co-founder plans new Orion metals fund – sources

US mining financier Oskar Lewnowski is preparing to launch a base and precious metals fund, sources say, his latest step in recreating the famed trading and investment enterprise he co-founded a decade ago, Red Kite. Two years after striking out on his own to create private equity investment firm Orion Resource Partners, the 50-year-old New York native has already deployed almost $1-billion in equity, loans and royalty streams into at least 17 junior mining firms, and hired a physical metals trader to handle supply.