Refining the Lobito Corridor: The Future of Cobalt in Sub-Saharan Africa
August 29th, 2024
Via Harvard International Review, a report on the Lobito Corridor and the future of cobalt production in sub-Saharan Africa: By 2040, clean-energy technologies will need 40 times more lithium, 25 times more graphite, and 20 times more nickel and cobalt than in 2020. These metals are essential to the batteries in smartphones and electric vehicles (EV) and […]
Read more »Scramble for Critical Minerals Spurs an African Rail Revival
August 27th, 2024
Courtesy of Bloomberg, another look at the critical mineral-enabled interest in African rail lines: Central African copperbelt forms heart of the logistics plans Years of neglect caused a $10 billion maintenance backlog Southern Africa’s railways are suddenly getting global attention and attracting billions of dollars in investment, with a race to secure copper supplies needed […]
Read more »Africa’s Copperbelt and the Atlantic
August 26th, 2024
Via Geopolitical Futures, a quick summary of the Lobito Corridor, whose success depends on financing: The Lobito Corridor is a planned 1,850-km (1,150-mile) railway connecting the Democratic Republic of Congo to the Atlantic Ocean via Angola’s Port of Lobito, with an additional 500 km extension linking Zambia to the main route. Announced in September 2023, […]
Read more »The Green Economy Is Hungry for Copper — And The New Frontier Is Central Africa
August 23rd, 2024
Via Wired, a look at copper which – in the coming years – we’ll need more of it than ever: Moqadi Mokoena had been feeling uneasy all day. When he’d left his home on the outskirts of Johannesburg, South Africa, for his job as a security guard, he’d had to turn around twice, having forgotten […]
Read more »Rise of Chinese Surveillance Tech in Africa: Development or Espionage?
July 11th, 2024
Courtesy of The Africa Report, commentary on the growing deployment of Chinese CCTV equipment in African cities: Chinese technology companies like Huawei and ZTE are contributing to smart city development on the continent, but analysts warn that their tools provide authoritarian governments with the means to spy on citizens and promote repression. More than a […]
Read more »Africa’s Copperbelt Sets Off Investment Race for EV Metals
June 20th, 2024
Via Nikkei Asia, a look at the growing investment race for EV metals in Africa: Businesses from the U.S., Japan and Europe are moving to tap mineral reserves in Central Africa, using the latest technologies to locate critical electric vehicle materials, as China currently dominates development on the continent. The so-called Copperbelt spans across 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.