So much excitement, so little faith.14 Sep 2025 09:50
With so much volatility and noise on Friday, I think a lot of people missed this little gem;
"Japan has committed $7 billion to develop the Nacala Logistics Corridor"
https://www.mining.com/japan-pours-7b-into-african-corridor-backing-sovereigns-project/
https://www.indexbox.io/blog/japan-invests-7b-in-nacala-logistics-corridor-for-critical-minerals/
There are a few ways to interpret this news;
1. $7bn for infrastructure to secure critical minerals access for Japan's supply chain says a lot. (EEE already have all that infrastructure available)
hundreds of very large and otherwise "no-brainer" projects in Africa are mothballed since decades. (look at Simandou in Guinea, or Zanaga in Congo). These all have NPV's off the charts and 100's of millions invested already in exploration, processing, PFS, DFS, FEED etc etc and still not producing due to political risk and lacking funds. Yet $7Bn for Malawi and Mozambique? It says a lot about the criticality and desperation to secure supply. And possibly a little about the quality output and credibility of Sovereign's mines(!).
2. So why hasn't Empires Pitfield got the same investments? (or why did Japan chose Malawi instead of making a $10Bn+ offer for Pitfield?)
I think it's the simple fact that these investments, especially at this scale with government participation take years to move, not based on last week's lab results, or even a single MRE.... But, for what it's worth, I do think it says everything we need to know about the path ahead for Empire and it's Pitfield project, especially IF SB is able to come up with the process plan and output samples that can blow their socks off.
IF someone throws $7Bn into deepest darkest Africa to secure supply of Tio2 and graphite, well.... we ain't gonna be staying at 48p much longer with Pitfield, are we?
I've been quite vocal about the utter farce that Georgia turned out to be, and criticised the BOD loudly, so not a stranger to calling a spade a spade. However, I do recognise that Shaun Bunn has jumped onboard when this wasn't worth anything and has excelled at navigating the tricky path to becoming a company with an amazing outlook. That feat alone is exciting beyond our current Mcap.
I think the long awaited MRE will confirm what most of us already know, and hopefully allow to put some early, but real, $$$ numbers to this. That MRE should bring the attention of the global players. I hope Shaun will have the ability to qprovide decent size and amount of samples to back up the claims, and start meaningful engagements with governments directly. Japan will need a hell of a lot more than a single supplier in Malawi, and the world is still controlled by Ti ouput of russia and China. That is a totally unacceptable situation to EU, US, Airbus, Lockheed Martin, Boeing etc etc...and all of the above have set billions of $ aside to secure those supply chains. This move from Japan is the first I've seen hit the ground.
I'd expect some exciting times a
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