Newfoundland-based mining entrepreneur Brian Dalton, who earned his first score in mining staking claims near the Voisey's Bay nickel project in Newfoundland during university, joined BNN Television Tuesday to provide an update on his company, Altius Minerals (TSX:ALS).

Altius is a base metals and bulk commodities focused royalties company. It tries to emulate the portfolios of the big diversified miners like TECK or BHP at the royalty level, Dalton says.

“We don’t see anything in our skill set that makes us suitable to run major industrial operations… The royalty level is the place for us.”

The company owns royalties on operations in Newfoundland, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Brazil.

Last week, Fairfax Financial invested $100 million in Altius to do more streaming deals. Fairfax CEO Prem Watsa is one of the best followed investors in Canada. Dalton admits to being an admirer or Watsa, and says he wanted his autograph before asking for investment. “We ended up with the best autograph we could have hoped for.”

“The due diligence was unusual,” Dalton says of Fairfax. “It went back to the beginnings of the company, back when we were founding it in university 20 years ago, and it dealt with all of the successes and all of the failures, and how we dealt with those… It’s an awfully big honour… But it does create pressure and expectations.”

Dalton says now is not a great environment for Altius to buy assets. The recovery in mining markets mean there are cheaper alternatives to mine developers in the equity and debt markets. Altius is looking to invest in new exploration and development projects and hopes to acquire non-cash flowing royalties for the future of the company, 5-10 years out.

The Altius CEO admitted an Alberta coal mining and power investment will not be as long-lived as hoped, a blow for the company.

He’s talking up portfolio company Inventus Mining $IVS, and says Altius will help it finance new acquisitions in the zinc space.

Watch:  http://www.bnn.ca/video/altius-minerals-to-get-deeper-pockets-with-fairfax-investment~1067278