Singapore private equity firm Novo Tellus Capital Partners has made an unspecified investment in Australian company Russell Mineral Equipment (RME), said to be one that “secures the future” of the company.
The Toowoomba, Queensland, manufacturer of mineral comminution mill maintenance machines brought in Resource Capital Funds and publicly funded National Reconstruction Fund Corporation as investors in 2025. Founded in 1985, RME is said to employ more than 450 people and support mill operators at over 440 mine sites in 64 countries.
Founder Dr John Russell and other senior RME figures are exiting the business.
Seventeen-year-old Novo Tellus Capital Partners, focused on industrial and technology investments, says it has more than US$1 billion under management.
“We invest in the mid-market technology and industrials sector of the Indo-Pacific, an ecosystem of over 4000 companies producing over a trillion dollars of output a year,” the firm says.
Novo Tellus managing partner and co-founder Wai San Loke said the firm’s first investment in an Australian company recognised RME’s “combination of engineering excellence, proprietary technology and global customer relationships [that] make it a distinctive industrial technology business”.
“RME has built a globally significant business from Australia with technology that plays a critical role in making mill relining safer, faster and more productive,” he said.
Resource Capital Funds head of innovation and RME chair, Andrew Jessett, said the company’s new ownership and investment from Novo Tellus ensured RME could “continue to develop advanced manufacturing capability in Australia”.
“The additional capital will allow us to take it to the next level,” Jessett said.
“As demand for critical minerals and metals like copper grows RME will continue to strengthen its position as the world’s most trusted OEM of mill relining technologies.”
Jessett said sovereign manufacturing capability and local jobs were important legacies of RME founder, Russell.
