Archive for May, 2024

Without Indonesia’s Nickel, EVs Have No Future in America

Courtesy of Foreign Policy, commentary on how the U.S. IRA and Senate opposition to a free trade deal with Jakarta are undermining the United States’ green transition: Without Indonesian nickel, the United States’ electric vehicle market will flounder. My nation sits on the world’s largest reserves of the metal that is central to EV batteries. […]

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Can Africa Take Advantage of the Critical Minerals Boom?

Via The Atlantic Council, a report on the critical minerals boom and Africa’s opportunities therein: Technology is increasingly influencing the way people around the world live, creating opportunities in some cases and introducing new challenges in others. Just as important as a technology’s impact is the technology’s origin—or origins. Any given technology can be traced […]

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Visualizing Global Gold Production in 2023

Via Visual Capitalist, an interesting graphic of global production and the large number of frontier markets on the list: Over 3,000 tonnes of gold were produced globally in 2023. In this graphic, we list the world’s leading countries in terms of gold production. These figures come from the latest USGS publication on gold statistics (published January 2024). […]

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Green New Wave: How China Adapts to Central Asia’s Renewable Energy Landscape

Via Carnegie Endowment, commentary on how China has been investing in solar and wind energy projects in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, increasingly adapting its approach to the needs and regulations in each country: China has become a global power, but there is too little debate about how this has happened and what it means. Many argue […]

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China’s Continuing Influence Over Cambodia’s Economy

Via East Asia Forum, a look at China’s continuing influence over Cambodia’s economy: China’s significant investment in Cambodia, including infrastructure support as part of the Belt and Road Initiative, has turned Cambodia into a major manufacturing hub and bolstered its global supply chain ties. But given China’s dominant influence on Cambodia’s economy and substantial loans, […]

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Angola to Leverage Chinese Investment to Stimulate Oil Production

Via Energy, Capital and Power, a look at Angola’s efforts to leverage Chinese investment to stimulate oil production: China’s state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) is sending a team of senior executives to Angola to discuss investment opportunities in oil exploration. The move aligns with Angola’s target to increase production to 1.18 million barrels […]

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ABOUT
WILDCATS AND BLACK SHEEP
Wildcats & Black Sheep is a personal interest blog dedicated to the identification and evaluation of maverick investment opportunities arising in frontier - and, what some may consider to be, “rogue” or “black sheep” - markets around the world.

Focusing primarily on The New Seven Sisters - the largely state owned petroleum companies from the emerging world that have become key players in the oil & gas industry as identified by Carola Hoyos, Chief Energy Correspondent for The Financial Times - but spanning other nascent opportunities around the globe that may hold potential in the years ahead, Wildcats & Black Sheep is a place for the adventurous to contemplate & evaluate the emerging markets of tomorrow.