 Last year, Robert Friedland received 160 million investment dollars from the Middle East. Ever since then, every single resource company seems to be running over to the Middle East to see what capital they can attract. Let's start with a little bit of a history lesson. Mel, we're going to be discussing today the Middle Eastern investment dollars in Africa. Can you start us out with a bit of an overview? Sure. I mean, you know, unsurprisingly, different Middle Eastern countries have had interest in various African countries for a long time. Some of those have been more commercial than others. If you take the DRC, for instance, the Lebanese have been very active in a very quiet way in the Congo for a long time. They trade used blue jeans for diamonds and then build real estate from the diamond trade. So they have also been, from time to time, accused of financing Hezbollah terrorist activities. And that obviously has posed a concern to the US and other Western countries. But there have been many other examples. Morocco, for instance, has been in and out of the Congo as well, with varying degrees of commercial success, most recently during the first Kabila administration, when it looked for a few halcyon moments as if there might actually be some investment in that. Somehow the other of the deal fell apart. There have been Middle Eastern countries interested in working on building the giant Inga Dam project, which would generate enough power for all of Africa, if ever done. But again, those deals tend to fall apart. So in the DRC in particular, it's a checkered past that has been only moderately impactful in terms of what it has delivered for the country. But on the other hand, the Middle Easterners historically have done a better job navigating complicated DRC waters than have Chinese who've simply steamrolled their way through. That brings me to Jack. Jack, we're all involved in the critical mineral sector. We always talk about China. No one ever talks about the Middle East. Why don't you start us off with why we should be paying attention to the Middle East? First of all, it's very important for everybody to understand that people in wealthy countries like Saudi Arabia or the UAE don't give a damn about what's happening in the United States politically. And today, these countries have a huge amount of retained capital. A friend of mine who is with a Ramco told me that last year there were days when a Ramco netted $1 billion a day profit. So there's a lot of money. And there are new ideas among the rulers of the Middle East, which is to develop their countries so that they're not one-trick ponies. They're not completely dependent on one natural resource. Saudi Arabia, for example, has the younger man who's going to be the King very soon, has a plan to develop Saudi Arabia as an industrial country by the year 2030. One of his targets is to produce 500,000 electric cars by the year 2030. How do you do this? Well, you can use the American model, but that doesn't work. So what do you do? You use the Chinese model. The Chinese model is you first build the infrastructure of natural resources. They're processing the industry to turn those process goods into consumer goods, and then ultimately you have everything in your country to make cars. That's what they're doing. What is the nearest source of natural resources for Saudi Arabia or the UAE? Well, it's Africa. And as Mel said, excuse me, I'm an old man. I'm going to call them Arabs. The Arabs have been there for a very long time. In fact, as people don't like to remember, when the Dutch arrived, it was Arab traders who sold them the first slaves they used in that. Okay. And Mel mentioned about Lebanese and the Congo. I met Lebanese and Ivory Coast. And people here in America, just one more thing they don't know. Africa is not one place. There's Francophone Africa, Anglophone Africa, and Africa Africa. And of course, in America, we don't pay attention to this because it doesn't matter we're Americans. Over to you. Russell, where do you want to go? Well, I'd like to touch a little bit on both what Mel and Jack said, which is normally I'm very granular and on the ground, but from the 30,000 feet looking down from the Middle East and really what's going on, particularly today with the conference in Saudi Arabia. On January 1st this year, the BRICS community, which is Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa expanded. And they expanded to include now UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Ethiopia and Iran. And the reason why I bring this up is because if you looked at China and India, it was roughly about a third, maybe roughly 30% of the world's consumers with Russia provided them with all the natural resources. Now you have UAE and Saudi on this hunger that Jack has highlighted for minerals. And with the natural relationship of the BRICS, where they're going to look for this hunt for their EV feedstocks and such, obviously that would be Africa. So although say five years ago the investing world would look at the BRICS as a sideshow, now I think that the BRICS community, which is now a community of 10 countries, all on aggressive growth pattern need to be a force to be reckoned with. And if you think about, we talked about the DRC, it's growing at 6.5% GDP, fifth largest country in Africa. If you think about what's entering the BRICS in terms of Ethiopia, the second largest country in Africa, if you think about Saudi and UAE, mostly Saudi with the power and the ability to industrialize their countries, as Jack said, moving towards that, I think that you're going to see more and more Middle Eastern investment into the central region of Africa, if not both the eastern side with the ports and the western side with the ports. Jack, I'm an investor. Everyone's telling me sustainability, sustainability. I've got invest in American investments, period, told to be cautious about Chinese investment dollars. Should I also be concerned and cautious about investments in the critical mineral sectors that have had a large percentage invested by Middle Eastern dollars? I think you're going to find that Middle Eastern dollars come today with a lot more introspection than they used to. And so most people from other parts of the world, when they invest in the United States are put off by the regulatory problems, by the 10 years it takes from discovery to a producing mind, if ever. I personally believe, as I just said before, that the Middle East is in a hurry to industrialize. The Middle East is in a hurry to break the connection that they've had for so long with their competitor, the United States. I think that my opinion, they're not so interested in investing in the United States. Of course, Jack, if you have the Middle Eastern companies investing in the African companies, because I think we're all agreeing here that the Middle East is their primary focus with critical minerals is on Africa, would you agree with that, Mel? Oh yeah, 100%, although not to disregard what both Russell and Jack have said about the interest also in developing their domestic resources. The Prince, for instance, recently signed an agreement with Japan's Sumitomakor to begin bringing forward the rare earth industry within Saudi Arabia, which is also a very astute political move because it helps from a U.S. perspective to offset the decision to also join the BRICS. So the Prince is, as usual, playing multi-dimensional chess brilliantly and taking advantage of all the available resources. He's also said publicly that the enormous Saudi investment fund is not an instrument for making money. It is an instrument for realizing Saudi's economic development and social plans. So when you have trillions of dollars at your disposal and you're not worried if you're going to make a few investments that lose a lot of money, it means that the world is your oyster because you can take a look at any nationalities company doing business in Africa today and see it struggling and swoop in and remove the struggle by investing in it and then turning it into a success or, if necessary, riding it off. That's incredible leverage. Russell, I'm going to throw you under the Range Rover here and ask you the tough question. Middle East, we're Americans. Are they our friends? Are they our enemies like Chinese have been positioned in the media? I think like all relationships, it's a morphine entity. And so what was once a friendship, a dear friendship 30, 40 years ago, has turned into a relationship of convenience. And this relationship of convenience has actually started to morph more into a friendship towards the East. And as I mentioned earlier about the BRICS, you know, it is really becoming a Western economy economic zone versus the rest of the world. You know, the US dollar still runs rampant on Africa. If you go to anywhere, Central African Republic, the DRC, Zambia, you still get charged the US dollar. They don't take Russian rubles, they don't take Chinese yuan. However, a lot of the trades now, as you see going forward, will be denominated in something other than dollars. In terms of the Middle East, they still have access to large amounts of dollars. However, they will also start trading in other currencies, non-US dollars. And so what I think is, I think what Jack said earlier about, you know, looking, and Mel said earlier about looking to grow their own economies, they're going to grow their economies for the better for their people. And if that means doing business with, you know, countries that are on the bad boy list, such as Iran, or breaking sanctions via Kyrgyzstan into Russia, or having Russian troops in the CAR, so you can get your minerals out of the CAR into the markets, that's what's going to happen. And I don't think there's anything that the West can do about it. And you know, if I think about, there was an announcement today out of Saudi Arabia saying that they've signed a memorandum of understanding with the DRC for further investment in the DRC. And then I turn around and I look at what the EU has done. They've offered 50 million euros to go into the Congo to explore for minerals. And it's just the West is so far behind the Middle East. I think the Middle East is now just a relationship of convenience for the West. Another board member for the Critical Minerals Institute told me that as long as the Middle East stays aligned with the energy mandates of the United States, they're not going to have any problems. So I want you to comment a little bit more about this, Subrussel. Also, since you do run, since you're an American that runs a London-listed company in the Critical Minerals sector in the Congo, can you comment on the Brits as well in their perception of the Middle East moving in or they've always been there as Mel has stated, correct, Mel? Yes, but they're just expanding their presence. Can you comment any further on that, Russell? The British interests. Yes. So I was actually on an email exchange yesterday with Lord Puppet. And Lord Puppet's the representative in Rwanda, Uganda, and the DRC. And there's an aggressive push towards the United Kingdom entering those three countries. The reality is, is unless there's capital allocation and the capital allocation is not in the way of loans, right? The capital allocation is that a country comes in and says we're going to invest and if it happens to go to zero, it goes to zero. But if it works out the way it should, we're going to get the offtake and we're going to be able to export that to our country to beneficiate, to make batteries, rechargeable batteries and such. And so again, this happened yesterday in my exchange. There's lots of noises coming out of the West in terms of trying to make things happen. But the difference is Middle East, Chinese, the Indians are all allocating capital, actively making things happen. And it's actions not words. And unfortunately, I see the British much like the Americans, much like the Canadians. A lot of words and no financial allocative actions. Back to you, Jack, because you do a lot of work, you get a lot of, you receive a lot of phone calls from the US government and of course, automotive companies alike. Is anyone talking to you on this particular topic? The only thing that's happening is that the automotive companies are quite aware of the fact that all the resources they need are in Africa, could be coming from Africa. But they don't know how to approach that. They have no idea. So they're aware of it and that's it. OK, I have never discussed anything like this with anyone in the government. I doubt that anyone I know would even understand the problem. OK, well, so this is a perfect segue to Melissa with strategic relations with the US and with Africa, for instance. I'd like you to talk about this, but further to this, and my board had been contacted. He told me when a acquisition play was being made by the Chinese for a South African critical mineral company and the government had called him to say, should we stop the Chinese? Do you know of anything that's happening like that for Middle Eastern investment, for instance, in Africa? And what would you recommend that we as Americans and Canadians and British and Australians do with our relations with Africa right now? And where would you start? This is a big question. Well, what I can say in response to that is that just as is the case with Africa, quote unquote, being actually so many individual countries and Americans not always thinking about that. The same is true for the Middle East. So from a Washington policy perspective, it matters greatly which country might be talking about investing in what where. So, for instance, right now, Saudi Arabia, the Biden administration has very positive outlook on Saudi Arabia. Prior to the beginning of the current Israel Hamas war, this administration was actively trying to broker some relationships. For Saudi Arabia in the DRC as part of a broader deal affecting relationships in the Middle East. So given that as a preliminary statement, if it was a Saudi investment that was under discussion, there probably would be not so much heartburn in Washington as if there was an Iranian investment being discussed. That would definitely be a blocker because they're already on the enemy's list. But countries that are not in China have recently landed on it more or less. But countries who are not on that list, if the government in Johannesburg were to pick up the phone and call Washington and say, oh, the Saudis want to buy a company here, Washington probably would be fine with that because the other problem is we're pretty far behind the curve in terms of Washington's realization of what the impact can be of these targeted Middle Eastern investments. And by the time, as was the case with China, that Washington wakes up and bestows its behemoth self to develop some policies relative to the question you posed. Probably too late to have any material impact whatsoever. The good till already be gone. Russell or Jack, can you comment on the technology advancements of the Middle East, for instance, on things like rare earth extraction technology processes? Do you know where they are in the food chain? Well, I tell you that a lot of that has come out of the Western universities. A lot of the Middle East are educated in Europe and the US. And although the technologies are fairly new, they are extracting that from the Western world and trying to bring it back and replicate it in Saudi. I think with, again, with this BRICS thesis and China having the, let's say, the head start of 20 years or so on the rare earth processing, I think you're going to see some type of amalgamation of processes. And I think you're going to see something very interesting come out of the Middle East in terms of rare earth processing. We know that the rare earth companies are speaking to Saudi and UAE type investors. Note for a fact, because I have a friend that runs a rare earth company that's speaking to him. So I think that you could see some type of rare earth industry emerge from the Middle East. And again, it would make a lot of sense because they're playing the West against Asia and the East. And they're playing neutral. So to me, it does make a lot of sense. Back to you, Mel, because this is a strategic comment that Russell just made. Is that your perception as well that you see happening? Limited to today's Washington outlook, Saudi Arabia is seen as a friend and China is seen as a foe. And from those very simplistic terms, absolutely the United States would have far less heartburn over supporting Saudi Arabia's development in Africa, especially if it was seen as eroding China's influence. Jack, you like to comment frequently that you have over 60 years of professional experience. So you've seen a couple of historical cycles. Would you like to talk about what you see happening if we continue down this road? Or would you like to offer some advice or both? No, Russell is right. The rare earth companies are very much interested in Saudi, not to mind where since Saudi Arabia, but since Saudi Arabia is quite frankly focused on getting rare earth ores and concentrates into their country, they're of course going to need processing. Now, note that the Chinese have just recently officially cut off any export of technology or equipment required. But rules are made to be broken. My guess is that the Chinese are now in Riyadh drinking Mu Tai and imported. And saying to them, you know, rules could be bent and if you let us build an industry here, OK, we might bend the rule. On the other hand, Sumitomo doesn't need the Chinese for all of the technologies required to make rare earth permanent magnets. They know how to do that. So they could set up there. It's actually a great place for technology, rare earth processing technology to be sold, implemented, et cetera. Oh, gee, in the United States, we don't know anything about that anymore. So I guess we won't be the seller. And we won't be supplying them with rare earth ores or concentrates. So what have we got in this? Nothing. OK, I guess that's it. Ouch. I'm going to go back to you, Mel, just simply because of your foreign service background. You've seen and you've traveled internationally. You've been boots on the ground in the Congo and many other countries around the world. Do you have any comments about how Washington might be redirected with the current formula? Should it be proceeding the way Jack has just narrated? You know, there's very little impact that Washington can have on that scenario that Jack outlined unless they're willing to make some very difficult and relatively dramatic domestic political decisions in terms of doing pragmatic things with permitting regimes, in terms of doing pragmatic things with direct capital investment and mine development and direct capital investment in accelerating processing technologies, is there's no current indication that they're going to do that. The only thing that would shift the dynamic would be the entry of another player, another inimical player on the stage and I'm thinking about Russia. Russia also has long ties to Africa. Russia also is interested deeply and has been for decades in rare earth and critical materials for the defense industry. And Russia has far fewer scruples, even then Middle Easterners do, probably far fewer scruples even than the Chinese do when it comes to accessing what they need, particularly since they are capital poor. So if we saw Russia emerging as a player in this dynamic in Africa, Washington would certainly be forced to take some more dramatic interest and some more dramatic steps both at home and far. Russell, your boots are on the ground. You finish a long day. Every time I send you a message, you're like, can't talk, I'm in the congo. OK, at the end of the day, when you have a nice drink, you know, you might Russians, Chinese, Middle Easterns at the bar, what are we dealing with here? Well, it's fairly complex. Now, the Russians are now guarding that area in the Rwandan, Ugandan, northeast corner of the congo. And if you look back, say, 2020 when President Ticacati actually visited Washington and the US said to him, we'll give you military support, military cooperation. The only problem with that is the US government also transient in the Rwandan armies. So the complexity of the US government funding militaries who were actually in battle in certain areas, and I mentioned the corner of the northeast corner of the congo. It's a complex situation to try to unravel. And we are seeing more and more Russians enter Africa to try to keep the peace. But the reality is, is Russia is looking for that offtake. And again, it's becoming more and more complex. And I suggest it will probably continue to become more complex as the demand for these unique strategic critical minerals grows. On the ground, we've seen the Israelis. On the ground, I've seen the UN people leave. And so when a peacekeeping organization leaves and leaves a gap and the fighting starts, who is there to try to keep the peace? And it's a rhetorical question because it's complex. And the answers aren't really evident to me right now. OK. So it's complicated. Jack, I am certain you have some commentary in your spots to wrestle. No, no, in addition to Russell. Look, you know, everybody's, Russell entered the magic word, demand. Everybody assumes, well, whatever the demand is in New York or London, that's the important one. No, it isn't. Not to these people. They have domestic demand, not only the Middle East, but the Africans and the South Americans. And we have trained them how to find these materials, process them. And more and more of them are saying, value must be added in our country so we get more benefit. In South America, just to make a point, the Chileans have nationalized lithium industry. OK. And the Chinese came in and said, OK, we'll make batteries here and we get to export most of them to our country because you don't need them. But when you do need them, we'd even make cars here. Now, American companies walk around with their fingers stuck in various parts of their anatomy and say, oh, that's a good idea. We'll talk about it after the next quarterly review because, you know, the share prices, blah, blah, blah. The future demand for critical minerals is in the southern hemisphere where most of the, and let's say we're half the world's people are. They have the resources and none of the benefits. What do you think is going to happen? You remember the liberal world order? That seems to be ending. It's regional now. And as they say, those that have the lithium control the lithium. So good point. I want to ask you a little bit further on that. Let me just redirect these questions to all three of you. I'd like all three of you to answer this question. So right now, we're announcing in the US, Canada, and Europe we're putting these billions of dollars of investment into finding more of the critical minerals we need to advance our technologies and be competitive worldwide. Jack, do we need to be putting more time? Should we just be keeping it within our own countries or should we be looking at Africa? Because clearly the Middle Eastern investors are. I don't think the US is going to do very well in Africa. I think that we are the hind end of the dog because you've had the European empires there forever, the Muslim empires there forever. People live there. They know the languages. They know the people. They're looking for the resources. We're coming over there and saying, hey, have you seen the latest Broadway show? They don't have no idea what we're talking about. And we don't have any money. Not compared to the like Mel said, our guys strictly are making money for themselves. The Saudis, for example, they don't have to worry about that. Like Russell said, they can make an investment. They can make money or lose money. The whole point of their investment is to advance their nation's welfare. That is not the point of American investments. It is to make money. The Third World, or is that what they call it now? Or the rest of the world? Yes, we're not using Third World anymore, Jack. OK, I'm an old man. I'm an old man. I still remember the British Empire. So look, I guess to speak my life's comment, it's over for us. We're not running the world from either Washington or London. We're not running the world. We're reacting. We don't have national. We're against China Incorporated, Saudi Arabia Incorporated. And then there's 500 corporations in the United States, 100 corporations in Great Britain. Governments can't support this. Our governments don't understand this. This is not the way they function. So we're screwed. Russell, I'd like you to comment, because I'm getting to you, Mel. I would like you to finish this particular question. What are your thoughts? You agree with Jack? I agree with what Jack says, and I'll add to it. I look at, you know, I sit in Africa and I look at what Africa has to offer. Billion people, natural resources, a hungry consumer class, little power, little food, but the desire to improve oneself. I look at, say, North America, and I see some of the most incredible technologies get developed. It's a big laboratory that, and there's a reason why people like Elon Musk move from South Africa and come to North America and be successful, right? Because this is a can-do, the North America is a can-do place. But the reality is, those can-do attitudes in that laboratory need to be transferred into Africa somehow, right? Where the source of the raw materials is. And I think what's happened now is Jack's right. We've run it down, you know, every empire lasts for about 150 years. Pretty clear that the up-and-coming empire is either China or India. But North America still has its role to play. Now, the reality is, are we going to be insular and just say, well, we're only going to give capital and allocate capital on a win or lose basis in North America and to the detriment of the countries? Or are we going to say, look, what do we want to be in 50 years and what do we need to do to get there? And I think that's what Canada and the US must do, is say, look, we have to be intertwined. We are going to be the third dog in the race, but we need to take our intellectual capital and our IP and put it in Africa and create value there for the benefit of both Africans and North Americans. Well, I would love for you to conclude this point. I just want to remind you that once you told me about another topic, you said, when Americans decide there's a problem, watch out, OK, or something to that level. So I would like to hear an optimistic conclusion to this particular point, please. I don't know if I'll achieve optimism, but I do want to offer some nuances and some cautionary tales that may lean a bit towards optimism. It's amazing to me, given how little America has done for African nations, that so many African nations still prefer America as a partner and still look to America as a power player that can be of useful influence for them. And some of that comes from their experience of the boots on the ground, because the few American companies that have had and still do have a presence in Africa, by and large, treat Africans much better than the Chinese do, for instance, or than the Middle Easterners do, Jack's reference to the slave trade. And that's an advantage that we have not utilized to our advantage, because as Russell rightly indicated, Africa is a long-term play. You have to build the relationships. You have to invest your intellectual capital, but you also have to invest your time capital. And for cultures like China and the Middle East and India, did he have a different outlook on time? And therefore, our better long-term strategic thinkers than the United States is. Because we've always been bad at it. People say, oh, well, it's the quarterly business cycle. Now, no, we've always been bad at strategic planning. Everything that comes to us is a big surprise. So we have failed to capitalize on our advantages in Africa so far. That's the nuance. The cautionary tale, and this applies to the Middle East as well as Africa. It's a problem that the prince in Saudi Arabia is very aware of, the ticking time bomb of unhappy youth. In Africa, across the nations, they are the youngest continent now, and they are going to continue to be. And they are well-educated, and they are restive. There's just not enough demand for the human intellectual capital that exists in Africa. This is a strategic problem, not just for the United States, but for the world, because we see how disruptive wars are. And we know the history of the African continent in terms of war, and particularly when we're talking about the importance of that element, that content as a supply source for the future of all of our economies. The last thing, collectively, we should want is for those nations to explode into poverty-driven and frustrated wars. But it's tending that way. So the optimistic note that I think I can strike here is there's growing realization of this. And I think that an inadvertent consequence of the scramble for critical materials in Africa could be saving the youth of Africa by providing more and better jobs in more diverse industries, and thereby staving off the conflict that could cripple us all. So if I was President Biden, and I called the three of you and said, can you come up with a strategic relationship strategy for one country in Africa, because you want to have one test, obviously, and you pointed out that there's numerous countries in Africa, could you three fix this mess? Absolutely. I'm trying to fix it now, but I can't seem to get to here of Washington, DC. The one country, though, might be a bit tricky, because if you're an automobile maker and you need to platinum or platinum or rhodium, there's only two countries in Africa that produce that. If you are an EV maker and you need to feed stock, whether it's Meganese or Nickel or Cobalt, lithium, that would be a different country. So if the government came to me, I would pick probably two or three different countries based on what the 20, 30, 50-year goal is for North America. But it is fixable. It is fixable. I'm not sure they want to hear how to fix it, but it is absolutely fixable. This is a tough one, Russell. Which critical mineral would you put as the number one priority? Well, if you want to be green, you need to have uranium, but you can't build a nuclear power plant without Cobalt. So it depends what your priorities are. If your priorities are to have massive housing and you need to have 30-story skyscrapers, your critical mineral would be niobium or vanadium. So it all depends on what the goal of the country and the government is. Fossil fuels is going to be around for longer than I think people expect. So it might not be lithium, particularly with sodium ion batteries now coming to the forefront. I think that's how long is a piece of string type of answer, unfortunately, because each country, each government has different goals and different requirements and different needs. So we want to avoid war, although if we go to war, that's going to change the critical prioritization as well. Jack, let's say we're prioritizing green or EVs, which critical minerals in Africa and which country in Africa would she be prioritizing? The Congo, or intensity, because they have lithium, a lot of lithium. But Congo may have, it's probably got the world's largest reserve of untapped lithium. So that would be my favorite place. No, what I'm saying, and then the Congo has Cobalt, the Congo has copper. That part, and I believe it was our source of uranium in the Great Dustup of WW2. So they've got everything they need for us, but they're beginning to think that maybe it should be for them. I just saw the other day that after 10 or 15 years, I can't remember which of the big mining companies that has just got to go ahead on the world's largest iron ore deposit in India. Rio, Rio Tinto. Rio Tinto. OK, and I want to emphasize something here that it's wonderful to talk about critical minerals and all that stuff for cell phones and all the things we can't and tell them we can't live without. But in Africa, you're going to need steel to build a civilization. And guess what? Looks like Guinea might be providing the iron, OK? And there's plenty of coal for coking in Africa. So we'll have blast furnaces. And the coal also will be providing not only coal, but fuel. So I wonder if Africa isn't going to go through an industrialization that very much resembles Europe and America about 100 years ago, OK? So they may not be too interested in our problems, except to help them with technology and initially with capital, OK? And if they ever have any surplus, most Americans don't know that Africa has a billion people. So they may not have any surplus in the near future. But if they do, I guess we could buy it at prices which they determine if we have enough RMB to pay for it. For the sake of this conversation, Mel, I'd like you to give and I'd like to extend this question to all three of you. I'd like you to provide advice to the US government on how they should conduct themselves in Africa. And can you also make a comment on how the Middle Eastern community should invest in Africa at this time, a piece of advice for them? So you're going to give a piece of advice to the Americans about investing in Africa and a piece of advice to the Middle Eastern community as well for investing in Africa. I'm going to start off by surprising the collective universe by not selecting the DRC as a model country for American success for a couple of reasons. In my personal opinion, the most successful African state is Botswana. And there's a reason for that, two tribes, one of which is massively dominant numerically over the other. The dominant one chose freely to share the diamond resources with smaller tribe. And they've been peacefully going along, taking care of their business. Using that as a launching pad, I think that America should look to Namibia. Great uranium resources in Namibia. Other resources also available there as well. Fewer tribes, beautiful port, so easy logistics, comparatively speaking. Because if you're going to do it, you have to go full bore. And you have to bring success. Because you are being scrutinized, and other countries must want what you're offering. So my advice in terms of Washington Pick your target carefully. Pick it strategically. Energy is the linchpin to the success of economic transformation. It's wonderful to say let's all build EVs. We all need to be able to charge those EVs somehow, whether it's going to be through a Lend-Lease program or pull in and get a different battery or whether it's going to be a charging station. Irrelevant comes down to energy. You can build all the skyscrapers you want if you can't power them so that people can ride up to their 20th floor condo in an elevator. Irrelevant. So I do agree Russell sort of denominated uranium as a key mineral. I'm going to go with uranium, of which Namibia has a lot. The US needs to go in politically to work with the government of Namibia on a national economic development plan that suits their needs. Provide appropriate capital funding, not USAID development resources. And most importantly, actually have a dialogue with American companies and provide some reassurance to American companies. Yes, go to business over there. We're going to make sure that Exxon provides you bridge funding. Yes, go to business over there. We're going to make sure that you get the necessary import, export insurance. And oh, by the way, they're doing business insurance. We'll issue it ourselves if we have to. These are impediments to American businesses that are very rarely talked about. And oh, by the way, Namibia has far fewer human rights problems. We haven't even touched on the potential obstacles posed for Western end users in terms of sourcing out of Africa. Concerns about child labor, concerns about abusive women, concerns about a variety of things that would mean that we will have difficulty buying the products from Africa. Namibia is a good example. What would I say to the Middle East? Gosh, it's hard to provide advice to a country that is sufficiently wealthy that it's not even concerned about making losses on its investments. But what I would say is humility is important. Africans expect and demand respect in relationships. And historically, it's kind of a problem for the Middle Easters. Work on that one. Who would like to go next? Russell or Jack? I'll go next. I'll go next. I'll take a hybrid of Mel and Jack. So if I was a US government and I wanted to make a difference, you need two things. You need electricity and you need logistics. And what I would do, everyone's familiar with a nuclear submarine and a nuclear aircraft carrier, I would take that type of energy units and put one every 1,000 kilometers. And so it's easy to build. It's manageable. And what happens is is you can put it in areas there that you would not normally see electrification. And I would electrify everything first. And that would actually help a lot in terms of communications, telecoms, industry and such. And then I would make sure that the rail and road system are particularly the rail. And if you've seen that with the Bogota corridor and the US government sponsoring that and it's actually sent its first couple concentrate down the rail a week ago. So in terms of a country, I think there's just too many countries to actually pick. What I can say is from the South, you've seen Ford, you've seen Chevy, you've seen CDs, you've seen BMW, all high tech type of automobile manufacturers in South Africa. So you know that the ability and the capabilities are there. And in fact, probably the battery manufacturing plants will be located because the OEMs want their EV battery manufacturing plant as close to assembly line as possible. The other part that I would look at is I would look at East Africa and I think it was touched on a little bit earlier. Again, it's more of a regional and it's closer to Saudi Arabia and such. But there are a lot of those minerals that we've been speaking about now that are located in that Ethiopian, Sudanese, Ugandan area. That would be, and there's 110 million people plus in that region. So you have some consumers there that you have the ability to, again, if you electrify it properly, you have the ability to put some type of commerce and you have ports. So for the US government, my advice to them is is take these small reactors that you use in submarines, put them every 1,000 kilometers, start electrifying the place, give the people the wifi, give the people the telecommunications, work on the logistics. For the Middle East, I think they have a long road to run. They're certainly ahead of the US in terms of investing in Africa, in my mind, but they have a long way to catch up versus the Chinese. And I sit back and I'll watch them and I won't give them any advice, but I'll sit there and watch them and see how that relationship between Middle East and China, India and the Middle East and the Western world develops because it could be complimentary or it could be adversarial. I just don't know yet. Jack? Well, I have an idea. You know, the real problem with electrification is wiring the place, the grid, not producing the power, getting it to the customers. That's gonna be awful difficult in a continent without roads and without bridges over rivers and things like that. I have a real good idea and Russell made me think of it. American companies and British companies and European companies are shutting down their internal combustion engine manufacturing lines. Let's move them to Africa. So the Africans can have internal, they can drive their Range Rovers and their Jeeps all over the place they've been doing this in movies forever, okay? And they won't need to have a grid, just the gas station. And a gas station could be fed by a truck that's also running on gasoline, doesn't need any wires. So why not let Africa go and develop the way we did? First, let's have internal combustion engines, Range Rovers and Jeeps, I'm using them because they don't need roads so much, okay? Gasoline trucks running around to filling stations and they'll be able to move around and get things done. How are they gonna get to that site for the reactor without a truck? Okay, without a jeep. So and our American companies and their wisdom are shutting down their factories. So before they have a second wind, let's have, let's say the UAE or Saudi Bios factories and move them and the remaining geriatrics that know how to run them to Africa to train them. I'm very serious. Let's, I'm starting a movement, Africa for internal combustion engines, okay? Because that's gonna work. You don't need billions of years. So is this your advice for the American government? Yes, buy those plants, move them to Africa and look like you're trying to help. And what kind of advice would you give to the Middle Easterners who are investing, expanding their investment dollars into Africa at this time and in the critical mineral sector? Develop a gigantic end user of oil products in Africa. Huge market. I'd like to thank everybody for joining us today. This critical minerals institute masterclass on the Middle Eastern investment dollars into the critical mineral sector. If you'd like more information on any of the individuals who participated today, please go to our website. They are all, their links to their LinkedIn accounts are on the site. Thank you.