Canada’s Franco-Nevada (TSX, NYSE: FNV) co-founder Pierre Lassonde won The Northern Miner’s Lifetime Achievement Award for pioneering the modern royalty model and helping reshape mine finance.
Accepting the honour in London during the International Metals Symposium, he traced Franco-Nevada’s origins to a “carpe diem purchase” based on a time-sensitive opportunity for a Carlin Trend royalty. It later returned more than $1 billion (about C$1.4 billion) and revealed the power of “optionality” – reserves deplete, operators keep exploring and royalty holders benefit without new capital.
Lassonde urged renewed ambition for Canadian mining head offices and highlighted copper’s central role in electrification. “Copper is the number one critical metal in the world, because without copper, we have no electricity,” he said.
Lassonde recalled a fireside chat with The Miner’s podcast host Adrian Pocobelli, when he spoke about nearly selling Franco-Nevada after Goldstrike sent the shares soaring. That is, until Barrick Mining (NYSE: B; TSX: ABX) geologist Brian Meikle – the discoverer of Goldstrike – pulled him aside: “Goldstrike is not the discovery of a lifetime. It’s the discovery of three lifetimes.” The blunt counsel kept Lassonde on the build-and-hold path that defined the company.
Watch the full interview below:
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