Rob talks to Steve Poulton, Founder of Altus Strategies PLC, which is listed on the London & Toronto Stock Exchange.
Altus are a project and royalty generator in the mining sector with a focus on Africa who create value by making mineral discoveries across multiple licences. 
In this episode we talk about the importance of mentoring and networking in furthering your career and what Altus Strategies are achieving in the exploration and geology space.
KEY TAKEAWAYS

Steve employed a natural entrepreneurial mindset to take advantage of the lack of competition in the sector, and carve out a collection of new companies, including Ariana, and ultimately Altus, having gleaned a number of skills and a thirst for business from his brief, yet intense career thus far.
Steve was not interested in a career spent working for someone else. He wanted to see what he could personally achieve in his working life,m with the aim of reaping as many benefits for himself as he could.
Mentoring is very important in the Altus environment. By helping his team to be the best that they can be, not only does it improve the strength of his company, but also of the mining industry as aa whole. Steve is happy to know that he is contributing to the future of the industry.
Both Steve and Rob stress the importance of networking as part of your mining career. Knowing the right people, mixing with those with more experience, and learning from the mistakes of those who walked the path before you, is a vital component of your growth and development in the mining industry.
Steve chose to focus on Africa because of the “prospectivity", the ease of finding materials to mine, and also because of the simplicity of obtaining the right licences from the government. Africa is unexplored and has rich potential for geological discovery.
Technological advances are causing huge shifts in the mining industry. Some mines are now fully automated, and leaps in tech can lead to a wealth of untapped discoveries. But the industry will always need people.
Altus’s business model is primarily generative exploration, exploring the geology of Africa, looking for areas that are perhaps less fashionable than others, applying for licences based on having undertaken deep remote sensing study on a region or area.  
Steve is devoted to mining because of the variety of the job, the fact that no two days are ever the same, plus it offers a wealth of challenges and rewards that Steve finds personally intoxicating.
Altus’s responsibilities to its shareholders will always be of paramount importance to Steve. The drive to ensure that his investor’s capital is always on the increase spurs him on each day to achieve more, and to make Altus as successful as possible.
Mining is an industry in which you get out what you put in. Steve stresses the fact that you need to work as hard as you possibly can. Keep going and you’ll be successful in the end. Take on all the challenges you can and look for the bright spots. Make your mining career as enjoyable as possible.

BEST MOMENTS
‘I always had an ambition to work for myself’
‘Everyone has setbacks and challenges. But a little bit of luck doesn’t go amiss’
‘Having a strong network is one of the greatest strengths you can have in the mining sector’
‘We’re focussed on Africa because you can find things there very quickly’
‘It’s only a matter of time before the market wakes up to the opportunity in mining’
‘There are hurdles in the process, but the prize is fantastic if you’re able to achieve it’
‘The key to success is to wake early, work hard and strike oil’
VALUABLE RESOURCES 
Dig Deep – The Mining Podcast on iTunes
Altus Strategies
info@altus-strategies.com
Steve Poulton - LinkedIn
 
ABOUT THE HOST 
Rob Tyson is an established recruiter in the mining and quarrying sector and decided to produce the “Dig Deep” The Mining Podcast to provide valuable and informative content around the mining industry. He has a passion and desire to promote the industry and the podc