Uzbekistan: The Next Critical Minerals Hub?
February 3rd, 2025
Via Global Trade Review, an article on how Uzbekistan which has an abundance of high-value commodities – minerals and metals – that will be vital to the energy transition. Could this resource-rich, landlocked country become a key supply source for the US and Europe? Uzbekistan, one of Central Asia’s largest economies, was for many years […]
Read more »A Taliban highway Could Lead To The Future. But It’s Stuck In The Past.
February 2nd, 2025
Via The Washington Post, an article on Taliban plans to turn one of the country’s remotest corners into a global trade hub by linking the Afghan heartland with China: More than three years after the Taliban seized power, Afghanistan remains economically decrepit and politically isolated. But now, the Taliban government has a plan to turn one […]
Read more »How Pakistan’s Military Is Taking Over Its Economy
February 1st, 2025
Courtesy of The Financial Times, a look at how investors are increasingly nervous over the extent to which Pakistan’s armed forces have become intimately involved in everything from canal projects to energy contracts: On a sunny early January afternoon, two thousand fishermen, farmers and activists gathered on the dry river bed outside Kotri Barrage in Pakistan, […]
Read more »Ankara Declaration: A Positive Development Imbued with Regional Risks
January 31st, 2025
Via African Arguments, a look at the Ankara Declaration and what it may mean for Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea, and Somalialand: Ethiopia and Somalia have agreed to de-escalate yearlong tensions in Türkiye-mediated negotiations resulting in the Ankara Declaration. The two countries agreed to forgo contentious issues, cooperate in mutually advantageous bilateral arrangements, and decided to finalize negotiations […]
Read more »Beijing-Backed Lending Boosts China’s Dominance In Clean Energy Minerals
January 31st, 2025
Courtesy of The Financial Times, a report on Chinese entities that loaned billions to create mining and processing supply chains: China has built up control of critical minerals across the developing world over the course of two decades through a network of at least 26 state-backed financial institutions, according to a new report that traces […]
Read more »Afghanistan’s Untapped Mineral Wealth: Lost Opportunity or Path To Stability?
January 31st, 2025
Via Amu.tv, commentary on Afghanistan’s mineral potential: Under the Taliban’s current regime, Afghanistan faces an unprecedented erosion of civil freedoms, especially for women. Deprived of their fundamental rights to education, work, and participation in public life, Afghan women endure a gender apartheid that starkly contrasts with international norms. The Taliban’s oppressive policies have not only […]
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.