You're relying on the pre-Trump arrangement. Things have changed and will remain so unless China's counters with their own security for minerals offer.
Thus right now FT is beholden to Trump's dictates which includes no China involvement in RD.
Repeat after me: Trump is my saviour.
Trumps influence may well be a game changer for us .
OR
TACO.
Nothing happened yet.
Also, the agreement is "no Chinese involvement in Manono IF USA BUYS IT".
Manono is the jewel in the crown of the usa-drc agreement, but not tis entire scope. They can only block China out ONCE THEY BUY IT ie after we have been given an offer that we can accept.
There is nothing in the usa-drc deal that stops them doing business with China still.
1. It's entirely plausible that usa could increase there investments in DRC under the umbrella of a security agreement AND manono still gets developed with AVZ/CATH without us involvement.
2. It's hopefully redundant speculation because would only happen if KoBold made a stupidly low offer, which I think they are too smart for and able to see the bigger picture.
3. All that is just to say though that in out negotiations with Kobold we don't just get down on our knees and accept whatever they give us. We have other viable options now, its on KoBold to offer something better.