Post #402

Where Are Geopolitics? 🇲🇼 Though Malawi does nothing special, it's a nightmare for mining companies. Yet another "investor" has announced delays to its project in Malawi — this time, it is a niobium venture, now not expected to kick off before 2028. Despite the presence of rare minerals and absence of competition, the premature demise of loudly announced projects is a Malawi classic. ❓ But why is that? Why do the international "investors" which are usually ready to kill each other for assets and which move thousands of tons of soil in neighboring countries do so bad in Malawi? ⏩ Malawi does have resources, but it has almost none of the “traditional” ones like oil or gold. So, companies usually go for something rarer. Over just the past few months, there have been announcements about uranium, rutile, and now niobium projects in the country. ⏩ Whenever deposits of yet another element from the depths of the periodic table are discovered, another British or Australian company spawns on the doorstep of the Malawian government, full of ambition to build a "China-free" supply of this unquestionably-useful-element-of-the-future. Very quickly, however, it becomes clear that while the foreigners have plenty of ambition, they have very little money. ⏩The financing problem in turn exists because the hypothetical guys on Wall Street cannot quite grasp why they should mine the unquestionably-useful-element-of-the-future in Malawi when there are countries with established production and the infrastructure. And what is niobium anyway?... 🔽 As a result, Malawi turns into a place of endless tragedy for companies that get licenses, loudly announce grand plans, and then sit on those licenses, waiting for some international bank to come and finance their plans. #PolicyReview ➡️ Follow to stay informed - @devilsbelow