From the day Trump championed our cause it was clear the mineral/security deal was contingent on no Comminere or Chinese involvement in Manono(RD).
FT wont grant CATH a ML and risk jeopardising the minerals/security deal. Hence Kobold's cockiness and wrapping their ann with talk of peace and security. The subtext being: only the US via Kobold can provide Felix the deal he craves.
Therefore the only counter-bids Nigel can realistically entertain are from non-Chinese companies, preferably US ones.
My worst fears of late were that kobold had even approached avz, and got some kind of agreement, before the speculated usa discussions with drc...
We all know trump doesn't fear lining the pockets of his connections etc...
Back when avz was in a real shit fight, pre drc usa discussions, could they have approached avz and said "well, if trump gets in we can do this, this and this...." a deal would have sounded rather appealing back then compared to icsid and waiting and fighting for collection of awarded $...
All conspiracy theory which I'm not convinced of either for that matter.... but, we do know kobold was on the scene much earlier...
Of course... m23 seemed to initiate the drc running to usa, so that probably counters that argument...
But, I've often wondered if a deal was in fact done months ago...
If usa has the power to help us, they also have the power to completely ignore us and offer no assistance if we fold...or worse, make life harder for us even... off screen of course...
And this could all be me talking out my arse....
Either way, I'm convinced a deal is already done... there was no merit in usa mentioning manono before a deal was agreed to...
Happy mothers day to those wonderful women amongst us...
Or do we get in trouble for stipulating women on mothers day these days?