Running discussion on SP, page-84849

You need a functioning railway line all the way to port and I have bolded the key part - China does not have a functioning railway line all the way to the port and certainly is playing second fiddle in Angola at Lobito and the corridors to that port.

And certainly you need railway of standard gauge, with appropriate passing loops, and appropriate balayst and formation works given the weight freight trains operate at - don't have that won't get you nowhere and reduces rail capacity and how many trains you can run on it. What the USA is building is equivalent to what you see in the Pilbara in WA and how trains operate there and that is what you need given a wagon on a train carries around 45 tonnes and a train pulls a number of wagons by the way and why trains are so long in the Pilbara (check the size of trains hauling there). I will leave it at that and just post this link:
The Lobito Corridor: Washington’s Answer to Belt and Road in Africa

and

https://atlas-report.com/how-the-massive-us-financed-lobito-railway-across-southern-africa-is-the-wests-first-significant-response-to-the-chinese-silk-road/

As to all the news about - clearly it is the start of a bidding war. It is now about price for AVZ to get out of the project, altogether. Probably they will end up at 70c - $1.

I see the US is saying no deal unless Cominiere is out of the project as well. They see them for corrupt pigs they are

All IMO