The Dubai of South America’: How the Promise of Riches from Lithium Mining Turned to Dust in Bolivia
September 5th, 2025
Via The Guardian, a look at Bolivia’s lithium sector: Growing up near Bolivia’s Uyuni salt flats, Franz Alí Ramos remembers playing in the high-altitude wetlands near his home during the rainy season. “It was a beautiful recreation area for us and for animals,” he says. Now, the wetlands have given way to cracked, sunbaked earth – […]
Read more »Bolivia Launches Industrialized Iron Complex
March 1st, 2025
Via MercoPress, a report on Bolivia’s iron sector: Bolivian President Luis Arce inaugurated the El Mutún complex, the South American country’s first industrialized iron facility, which can boost other infrastructure developments, particularly those sponsored by Russia and Iran. Steel from the State-owned El Mutún could be used in constructing agricultural equipment, storage facilities, telecommunications towers, […]
Read more »Tired of Spotty Internet, Bolivians Smuggle In Starlink
February 14th, 2025
Via Rest of World, a report on Bolivia, which relies on a Chinese-built satellite for some of its connectivity, banned Starlink — but that hasn’t stopped people from smuggling the device into the country: Bolivia’s internet comes from a Chinese-built satellite, and connectivity is patchy. Demand for contraband Starlink kits has grown since the company […]
Read more »A South American Waterway Becomes A Cocaine Superhighway — To Europe
December 30th, 2024
Via The Washington Post, an article on a South American waterway that has become a cocaine superhighway to Europe: It was envisioned to be the Mississippi River of South America. The Paraguay-Paraná waterway runs about 2,100 miles, connects at least 150 ports in five countries and serves as the most important commercial river route on the […]
Read more »Bolivia’s Tragedy Will End in Devaluation, Default and Chaos
December 2nd, 2024
Via Bloomberg, commentary on how South America’s once-successful socialist story has collapsed. Unfortunately, the worst is yet to come. The plea was dramatic: If Bolivia’s government didn’t help the aviation industry to face urgent dollar-payment demands from suppliers, the landlocked country could end up without flights and isolated. It was the latest dismal event in the […]
Read more »Bolivia Seeks Oil & Gas Investment, Russia’s Help To Solve Energy Crunch
July 7th, 2024
Via Reuters, a report on Bolivia seeks oil and gas investment, Russia’s help to solve energy crunch: Bolivian state energy firm YPFB is looking to improve conditions for investment in the country’s flagging oil and gas sector and seeking help from Russia to overcome recent fuel shortages, the head of the company told Reuters. The […]
Read more »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.