Copper and silver mining legend and environmentalist Ross Beaty joined Cambridge House Live at the Vancouver Resource Investment Conference in Vancouver this past Sunday.

Beaty is best known for founding Pan American Silver, one of the world's largest primary silver producers, and the Lumina Copper franchise, one of the most successful copper exploration groups ever, which returned greater than 80x to early investors (Backstory here).

Ross doesn't expect higher metals prices in 2014, however he thinks valuations for resource equities are compelling. Regarding the earlier stage mining ventures, he commented, "My gut feeling is another sloshy year. Fairly whippy. You'll get some great wins and lots and lots of continuing misery among the juniors."

Ross discussed his clean energy company, Alterra Power, which was founded five years ago with a geothermal focus. Beaty says he's learned some hard lessons about the risks of drilling geothermal wells which is why he's been diversifying the company into Wind, Solar, and Hydro, away from Geothermal.

"Having been bruised a fair bit in building the company to the point that Alterra is a sustainable, long term business that will stand on its feet for hundreds of years... We produce enough power to almost satisfy a city the size of Vancouver... We're a decent sized company, but it's not a simple business."

Alterra Power Corp trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol AXY.

Related: Ross Beaty CEO.CA Interview