although all your points are valid westcott, the possibility of...

although all your points are valid westcott, the possibility of China undermining SDL and dealing direct with the cameroon/congo governments was/possibly still may be a risk...muzza's post is definitely relevant.

as for the point you make that china do not know how to run an iron ore mine i think thats a bit naive, they supply 30% of iron ore from their own low grade mines in china....plus if they owned a project outright im sure they would have no trouble recruiting staff who are capable of running a project...they could poach experienced people from any of the major miners.

In this case they want to retain all the sdl staff who know the project backwards....however it is not beyond the realms of possibility for them to shaft sdl shareholders, deal directly with the africans, then poach sdl staff (staff do not necessarily care who signs their paychecks)

muzza's posts are valid and for you to dismiss them is incorrect imo