They are hoping to install a new regime, which would favor their interests.

Source: http://www.crazydaysandnights.net

Metal, Misery & War – Mr. Hedge

There is a certain type of metal which is critical to many modern conveniences.

Your cell phone’s battery contains some of this metal.

This metal has recently become semi-precious.

The price more than doubled in the last year alone.

The supply of this metal is quite limited. Over ½ of the entire world’s annual supply is mined in one single African country.

This country, and a couple of its immediate neighbors, are simply the only places on Earth with large supplies of this metal.

Engineers see no technological design around the widespread use of this metal, at least for a couple decades into the future.

This African country is ruled by a brutal dictator, who is the son of a now-deceased former dictator.

Child labor is openly used to mine this metal.

The people of this country live in some of the worst poverty in the entire world, and that’s saying a lot.

Why?

As is typically the case, most of the windfall from mining this metal simply lines the pockets of the dictator, and the vast network of cronies keeping him in power.

The dictator’s grip on power has recently loosened, if ever so slightly.

While the massive theft and corruption represent ample justifications for his ouster, there are other forces at work.

Recently, well-armed rebel groups have popped up in multiple corners of the country.

They are financially backed in a not-so-stealth manner by large corporations in the Far East concentrated in 1 very large country, which also need a great deal of this metal.

They are hoping to install a new regime, which would favor their interests.

Ironically, this sort of arrangement is exactly how the dictator’s father got his start, and eventually took over the country, about 2 decades ago – albeit with different corporate backers.

The primary cause of this metal’s soaring cost last year – a certain type of automobile manufacturing requires a massive amount of this metal, relatively speaking.

This is also yet another reason for which an A list CEO will not deliver on the many promises he has made to investors.

Metal: Cobalt

Joseph Kabila Kabange is a Congolese politician who has been President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo since January 2001. He took office ten days after the assassination of his father, President Laurent-Désiré Kabila.

A list CEO: Elon Musk

Company: Tesla

Electric vehicles’ future relies on cobalt. It’s often mined by children and is soaring in price

The road to an imminent electric vehicle future has hit a speed bump — one made of cobalt.

An essential ingredient in lithium-ion batteries that power millions of smartphones as well as plug-in electric cars, cobalt is in heavy demand.

But just as the silverish-gray metal has established itself as a critical element in the growth of the market in electric vehicles, cobalt has also become a source of serious ethical and economic concerns.

Most notably, the majority of the world’s cobalt production is concentrated in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where in many cases children work in hazardous conditions mining the metal. – Source