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.

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.

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.

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.

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.