Robson Hard Assets Inc., the manager of Van Eck Robson Hard Assets Performance Trust, has obtained regulatory approval for an initial public offering of units of the trust.

The minimum offering size is $20 million and the maximum offering size is $75 million. The price per unit is $10 and the minimum purchase is 100 Units.

The investment objective of the trust is to provide long term capital growth through a portfolio of securities focused on hard assets sectors such as gold and precious metals, energy, forest products, and industrial metals, as well as hard asset commodities.

The trust’s strategies are similar to those of the portfolio manager’s current hard assets hedge fund, which has experienced a 13% compound annual return since 1996.

The portfolio will be managed by Van Eck Associates Corp. and its subsidiaries. Van Eck, based in New York, created the first gold oriented mutual fund in the United States in 1968 and with its affiliates now manages approximately US$1.5 billion (including US$950 million concentrated in hard assets) in a variety of funds for retail investors and institutional clients

Administrative services will be provided to the trust by Robson Hard Assets Inc., a subsidiary of Robson Capital Inc. Robson Capital is an alternative asset management company based in Toronto.

A Canadian institutional investor has committed to invest US$15 million in a parallel investment fund, which will have the same investment objective, strategies and restrictions as the trust, except that the parallel fund will not hedge for portfolio exposure between U.S. and Canadian dollar currencies.

Desjardins Securities Inc., BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc., RBC Dominion Securities Inc. and CIBC World Markets Inc. are co-leading the syndicate of agents that includes National Bank Financial Inc., Canaccord Capital Corp., Dundee Securities Corp., HSBC Securities (Canada) Inc., Raymond James Ltd., First Associates Investments Inc., Research Capital Corp. and Wellington West Capital Inc.