UPDATE 1-Temasek bullish on mining in Mongolia, Africa

* State investor is keen to increase Mongolia mining exposure

* Looking at African opportunities in mining, other sectors (Updates with details)

SINGAPORE, March 23 (Reuters) - Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings [TEM.UL] wants to increase its exposure to mining in Mongolia and is also looking for opportunities to invest in the mining sector in Africa.

"We made investments in Mongolia and we are fairly bullish about Mongolia," said Nagi Hamiyeh, managing director of investments at Temasek, on the sidelines of a mining conference in Singapore on Tuesday.

"We believe that Mongolia is starting its journey in the mining space so that would be one of the many countries that we would look at."

Mongolia is treading cautiously as it taps its huge mineral wealth. For an analysis and factbox see [ID:nSGE62E08P] and [ID:nSGE62G030].

Temasek was one of the cornerstone investors for the $439 million Hong Kong IPO of Mongolia-focused miner SouthGobi Energy Resources (1878.HK)(SGQ.TO) in January. [ID:nTOE62705O].

It also holds a stake worth $150 million in Lung Ming, which owns and operates the Eruu Gol iron ore mine in Mongolia, according to its latest annual report.

But Temasek has not been as aggressive as sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corp (CIC), which has invested billions of dollars in resources deals in Indonesia, Singapore and Mongolia [ID:nHKG368809].

"We went in several opportunities beyond the pre-IPO opportunities, which were in private companies. The issue is timing and when we see the right opportunity we will invest," Hamiyeh said.

"Generally we prefer to invest in corporates, but our investment could be very well to finance underlying assets," Hamiyeh told reporters.

Temasek CEO Ho Ching said last year that the state investor was interested in resources as an asset class. Energy and resources made up just 5 percent of Temasek's portfolio, as of March 2009. It managed $122 billion in total as of end-July.

Hamiyeh said Africa, on a "risk-adjusted basis", also offered some investment opportunities.

Sovereign wealth funds around the world, which manage an estimated $3 trillion in national assets, are emerging from the financial crisis and stepping up investments. For further stories on such funds see [ID:nL236030]. (Reporting by Saeed Azhar and Harry Suhartono; Editing by Neil Chatterjee)