Author Archive

Malaysia’s Largest Port To Double Capacity To Chase Singapore

Via Nikkei Asia, a look at Malaysia’s efforts to build logistics competition in southeast Asia: Malaysia’s largest port, on the major sea route of Malacca Strait, plans to double its capacity over the coming decades, chasing neighboring hub Singapore as the shift in global supply chains adds to the competition in Southeast Asia’s logistics sector. […]

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Tourist Numbers Up In Post-War Afghanistan

Via Al Jazeera, a report on tentative growth in Afghanistan’s tourism economy, with nearly 5,200 visitors in 2023 – a 120% year-on-year increase: His soldier son toured Afghanistan with fighters in his crosshairs, but US traveller Oscar Wells has a different objective – sightseeing promoted by the Taliban’s fledgling tourism sector. Marvelling at the 15th […]

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Emerging Powers and the Future of American Statecraft

Via the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a new report on how, collectively, emerging powers in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East are growing in their geopolitical weight and diplomatic ambition. How closely do they align with the United States when it comes to Russia and China? What drives their decisions on the […]

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China’s Tianqi Lithium’s $4bn bet on Chile at risk of backfiring

Courtesy of The Financial Times, an article on China’s Tianqi’s $4bn bet on Chile’s lithium which is at risk of backfiring: When China’s Tianqi Lithium paid $4bn in 2018 to become the second-largest shareholder in Chile’s SQM, it was making a gamble to gain a strategic foothold in one of the world’s top lithium reserves […]

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Robert Friedland: Africa’s King of Copper

Courtesy of The Africa Report, an in-depth article on Robert Friedland, whom many consider to be Africa’s king of copper: At the head of Ivanhoe Mines, the American-Canadian tycoon has established himself as one of the key figures in the world of copper mining. He entered the continent via the DRC in the early 2000s, […]

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Who Controls Argentina’s Lithium?

Via Diálogo Chino, a detailed report on Argentina’s lithium industry, where nearly one million hectares of the country’s lithium-rich salt flats are controlled by just five companies: Argentina’s lithium, with all its promises of bringing foreign currency and economic progress, is spread out across millions of hectares of unique ecosystems: salt flats. Below these sparse expanses, […]

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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.