Chapter 14: Lithium, Deals, and Winning Big — The AVZ Play
Let me tell you something about minerals — the real power isn’t in gold, it’s in lithium. That’s the future. That’s the battery in your phone, your car, your life. And I saw it coming. That’s what separates winners from losers — vision. Some people sit around, thinking. I deal. That’s why I was fascinated by AVZ Minerals. Small company, big potential — sitting on one of the biggest lithium deposits in the world, right in the DRC. Manono. Sounds exotic, right? It's a goldmine — except with lithium. Better than gold.
Now, the DRC — Democratic Republic of the Congo — not exactly Wall Street, but they’ve got the dirt we need. And the U.S. government? They need that lithium. Big time. China’s been scooping it up for years, locking down supply. We’re not gonna let that happen. I said, Let’s make a deal. America’s going electric, and I’m not about to let Beijing power our Teslas.
So here’s what we do — we get AVZ in the room. We get the DRC’s President in the room. And the U.S. throws in some “security cooperation.” That’s code for — we get the lithium, they get a little muscle, everybody wins. I call it strategic synergy. Some people call it geopolitics. I call it common sense.
Of course, the lawyers go nuts — "sanctions," "permitting," "jurisdictional risk" — blah blah blah. Let me tell you something — I’ve stared down bigger regulators before breakfast. You find the angles. You push the papers. You get the signatures. Because in the end, deals are made by people who want them more. And I wanted this one more.
Now AVZ is looking at a seat at the table with the big players. U.S. battery manufacturers? Smiling. DRC? Getting investment. China? Nervous. And me? Sitting back, sipping Diet Coke, watching it all play out — just like I planned.