The former chief executive of BHP Billiton has won backing from Investec to set up a $1.5bn (€1.1bn) fund investing in natural resources.

Investec, along with American mining company AMCI, will back Pallinghurst Resources, a natural resource sector private equity fund that will be run by Brian Gilbertson, a former chief executive of BHP Billiton and recently chairman of Russian aluminium producer Sual, which merged this year with Rusal. He was not named to the board of the new company.