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Lascaux Resource Capital
Lascaux Resource Capital operates from Stamford as a private credit and structured-equity provider to the global natural resource sector.
Lascaux Resource Capital
Lascaux Resource Capital operates from Stamford as a private credit and structured-equity provider to the global natural resource sector. The firm was founded by Christopher Grillo, who previously spent over a decade deploying royalty and streaming capital at Franco-Nevada Corporation, giving him direct operational insight into the financing gap between junior miners' development-stage equity and senior lenders' secured-debt requirements. Senior Advisor John F. Sorte, former CEO of Newfield Exploration, brings operator credibility to underwriting decisions. The firm targets producing and near-producing assets across mining, oil & gas, and renewable fuels. Rather than taking equity positions or competing on reserve-based loans, Lascaux originates structured royalties, prepaid forward contracts, and convertible credit facilities that align repayment with actual production volumes. This creates downside protection from commodity-price drawdowns while preserving upside participation. Confirmed portfolio exposure includes base-metal streaming agreements and production-linked credit lines issued to operators in the Americas, with additional pipeline activity in West African gold projects and Australian battery-metal assets. Lascaux maintains a deliberately lean structure — commonly fewer than 15 investment professionals — using third-party engineering consultants and independent reserve auditors to diligence each asset. The firm typically commits between $10 million and $50 million per transaction, avoiding syndicated club deals in favor of bilateral origination through long-standing operator relationships. While total committed capital remains undisclosed, the firm's repeat issuance of non-dilutive facilities to re-capitalize single-asset producers indicates a permanent-capital or long-dated closed-end vehicle structure rather than a traditional drawdown fund. The firm's structural differentiator is its pure-play dedication to prepaid production finance — an instrument class historically dominated by only Franco-Nevada, Wheaton Precious Metals, and a handful of specialist royalty aggregators. Unlike those public-company platforms, Lascaux operates as a private partnership that can write bespoke, unrated, single-asset obligations without mark-to-market pressure or quarterly earnings optics. This makes the firm a liquidity provider of last resort for operators that are too small for bank debt but too advanced for exploration equity.
General information
Firm type
Private Equity
Year founded
—
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Stamford
Corporate office
Stamford, CT, United States
Principals
Christopher Grillo
Managing Partner
John F. Sorte
Senior Advisor
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at Lascaux Resource Capital?
Investment decisions are led by Managing Partner Christopher Grillo, who previously originated and underwrote royalty and streaming transactions at Franco-Nevada Corporation. Senior Advisor John F. Sorte, former CEO of Newfield Exploration, contributes operator-level due diligence and sector-network access. The firm's flat structure means credit committee decisions typically involve fewer than five voting members.
How does Lascaux source its deal flow?
Lascaux originates bilaterally through principals' long-standing operator relationships rather than through broker-led auctions or syndication desks. The firm leans on independent geological and engineering consultants to identify producing or near-producing assets where conventional bank debt is unavailable and equity capital is prohibitively dilutive. This origination model typically surfaces single-asset, single-counterparty transactions below $50 million — below the minimum threshold for most royalty aggregators' public-company economics.
Is Lascaux a royalty aggregator like Franco-Nevada or a conventional resource-focused credit fund?
Lascaux occupies an interstitial position. Like Franco-Nevada, the firm structures production-linked instruments — net smelter royalties, prepaid forwards, and gross-overriding royalties. Unlike a typical credit fund, however, Lascaux does not underwrite to a fixed repayment schedule or reserve-based borrowing base; instead, its instruments repay pari passu with production. This makes the firm structurally closer to a private, partnership-form royalty aggregator than to a conventional energy-credit manager.
What investment stages does Lascaux typically target?
The firm targets producing assets and near-producing development-stage projects where permitting, offtake, and feasibility studies are substantially complete. It does not finance greenfield exploration or early-stage appraisal drilling. This late-development to early-production window is precisely where operator equity has been most heavily diluted and where conventional project-finance lenders require completion guarantees that junior operators cannot provide.
Which sectors does Lascaux explicitly avoid?
Lascaux avoids thermal-coal financing and has not publicly transacted in deepwater or Arctic hydrocarbon projects. The firm's portfolio skews toward base metals, battery minerals, onshore natural gas, and renewable fuels. It does not pursue non-resource private-equity buyouts, generalist corporate lending, or venture-stage clean-tech equity.
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