As much as i hate to say it, Industrial Espionage is just a...

As much as i hate to say it, Industrial Espionage is just a standard Monday for the US & the CIA! As much as China is looked upon as the enemy of the west in this whole critical minerals race, the west is certainly no saint and China are doing no more than defending their industries that they were smart enough to establish a long while ago. The reason that China has managed to have substantial growth is because the West has become complacent. Europe in particular spend more time regulating things than they do supporting their local industries.

The thing that shocks me is there have been reports and laws/bills/acts pushed through over the last 5 years from the west so they know that China has beaten them to the chase but they are still moving way too slow in allocating funds to the right areas & companies - There has been some funds splashed around but not enough across the entire industry/suplpy chain.

We all know it's coming but the funding for ionic should have been sorted 6 months ago. Tim has been on record on videos with the Crux investor for like 12 months + talking about "there are sovereign funds and we hope to be able to share that with the market soon". In my opinion, Tim and co. have been pushing extremely aggressively for the funding in all directions and although governments have created these acts to issue funds & permits quicker, it still is extremely slow.

If funding still hasn't been locked and loaded 4 weeks after the FS drops for Belfast i will be extremely disappointed but not surprised. Why hasn't the brazilian government also issued funding to the JV with VMM in order to progress the scoping study over there as well, similar to how the UK gov issued funds to help the Recycling facility pilot plant.

Politicians are happy to get up on stage and talk about how bad China is but aren't willing to actually push the cart to make progress. I foresee China maintaining a dominant lead into the 2030's and by that time if they manage to lead the charge with AI & Robotics, that will translate into a further lead due in their dominance in the critical mineral race.