The Critics Are Wrong... Copper Demand Is Here to Stay

On this week's Stansberry Investor Hour, Dan and Corey welcome Brian Dalton back to the show. Brian is president and CEO of Altius Minerals, a diversified mining royalty and streaming company operating in Canada, the U.S., and Brazil. Brian kicks things off by sharing the basics of Altius Minerals – what the company does, what sets it apart from other natural resource royalty companies, and the option value of its assets. He also talks a bit about his background and how he got his start in prospecting. (1:21) Next, Brian explores the renewable-energy part of the business. Altius took its coal revenues and reinvested those to write royalties on renewable-energy projects, particularly wind and solar. As Brian explains, nearly all of these projects have some aspect involving energy storage. And best of all, renewable energy's resource life is basically "infinite." (15:53) Then, Brian delves into copper. He urges listeners to ignore all of the noise around the metal – from both the "woke" and "antiwoke" sides of the aisle – and to realize that demand is steadily rising. In the short term, he says that investors can really take advantage of volatility and the irrationality of price cycles. But there's also a lot of money to be made long term, as demand isn't going anywhere. "Copper is electricity," Brian notes. Further, he discusses incentivization prices, operating costs, and the future of the industry. (28:59) Finally, Brian talks about nuclear energy's prospects, Altius' history with uranium royalties, and how he makes decisions about Altius' capital allocation. Unlike many other companies, Altius treats share buybacks as if they're competing against external investment opportunities. If the best value in the market is in the assets Altius already owns, and if there's a wide spread between that value and the share price, only then do buybacks happen. (44:50)