Will the World’s Biggest Mining Project Help Guinea?
February 25th, 2025
Via The Economist, commentary on a very large planned mining project in Guinea: “This is the last thing we need,” said my wife when I returned home with a fertility totem. It was one of the stranger things this father of three children—and no more, thank you very much—has received from an African politician. The […]
Read more »Be Kennedy, Not Kissinger: What Cold War Competition in Guinea and Angola Can Teach Us About U.S. Influence in Western Africa
October 6th, 2024
Via War On The Rocks, commentary on what Cold War competition in Guinea and Angola can teach current policymakers about U.S. influence in Western Africa: Since 2020, a number of African governments have distanced themselves from the United States and its allies while deepening ties with Russia and its Wagner Group mercenaries. Moscow has ramped up its […]
Read more »China’s Relationship with Africa Grows Murkier
September 6th, 2024
Via The Economist, an article on China’s relationship with Africa, where a decline in capital flows does not necessarily signal disengagement: It has been the highlight of most African leaders’ diplomatic calendar for nearly a quarter of a century. Ever since the inaugural Forum on China-Africa Co-operation (FOCAC) in Beijing in 2000, the triennial shindig has […]
Read more »Simandou Iron Ore Project in Guinea: China’s Pilbara Killer Comes of Age
August 13th, 2024
Courtesy of Geopolitical Monitor, a report on Simandou – China’s extensive iron ore project in Guinea: Summary The Simandou iron mine in Guinea represents one of the last greenfield projects in the world, and its vast reserves of high-grade ore are expected to tip the scales of global supply. Some even call it the “Pilbara killer,” referring […]
Read more »Africa’s New Railway Age
July 23rd, 2024
Courtesy of The Economist, a look at how Sino-American tensions in Africa are playing out on the tracks: “Every inhabitant of Thiès”, wrote a Senegalese novelist, Ousmane Sembène, in 1960, “depended on the railway.” Like many African cities, Thiès was a product of the continent’s first, colonial-era rail revolution. The French-built railway that ran through it […]
Read more »Mining Expectations: Robert Friedland’s $5bn Rail Plan to Break Mount Nimba Deadlock
April 12th, 2024
Courtesy of The Africa Report, a report on Robert Friedland who – facing the blockage caused by ArcelorMittal’s exclusive rail deal with Liberia – decided to take his iron ore mine project in Guinea into his own hands – and build his own railway. From Conakry to Monrovia via Washington, he has been mobilising his network […]
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.