Pandion Mine Finance

Evan Smith, Pandion's CEO and CIO, leads sourcing and execution from the Houston office. Smith previously directed energy and mining investments at Mount Kellett Capital. Chairman James Litinsky, who founded JHL Capital Group, is closely involved in portfolio construction and risk management for the firm's structured mining exposure.

The firm targets mid-tier mining operators that cannot access traditional bank financing or equity markets. Transactions typically originate through mining-industry networks, financial restructurings, and direct operator relationships in North American and Latin American resource jurisdictions. The connection to JHL Capital Group also surfaces complex capital-structure opportunities that smaller independent lenders cannot underwrite.

Pandion's primary instruments are senior secured loans, convertible debentures, metal streaming agreements, and royalties. While convertible structures introduce an equity-linked component, the firm underwrites to asset coverage rather than equity upside, making it fundamentally a secured-lending operation.

The firm concentrates on development-stage and producing assets that have completed feasibility studies and hold defined mineral reserves. It avoids early exploration, where geological risk is highest, and instead provides capital for mine construction, working-capital shortfalls, and distressed-balance-sheet rescues.

Pandion Chairman James Litinsky is the founder and CEO of JHL Capital Group, a Chicago-based multi-strategy asset manager. Pandion operates as a dedicated mining-finance vehicle under JHL's umbrella, which provides anchor capital, operational infrastructure, and the ability to hold positions through commodity cycles without third-party redemption pressure.

The firm's disclosed transactions concentrate in the United States, Mexico, and other Latin American mining jurisdictions. It favors regions with well-established mining law and enforcement of secured-creditor rights, which aligns with its asset-level collateral model for development and production-stage mines.

Because Pandion's capital is sourced through the JHL Capital Group platform, it can lead or participate in structured financings without syndicating to third-party limited partners. This closed-architecture model allows single-lender structures that mine operators may prefer for speed of execution, though it limits third-party co-investor visibility.