update on mining contracts, page-3

KKR,

I'm worried the Chinese governent are behind this. China wants strategic supplies of copper. They hate being at the mercy of a market being controlled externally by majors - see Iron ore.
Option One is to buy one of the majors (BHP, RIO, Phelps) at the height of a commodities boom - not good for ''face - and difficult (impossible) to manage the cultural transition (its not simple technology transfer eg IBM - Lenovo)
Option 2 is to "shake the tree"in the biggest prospective copper region and see what falls out. $5b will buy a lot of influence in the DRC govt. It will be interesting to see how this plays out as it wouldn't be a good move on the DRC govts part - the Chinese aren't going to give the govt the lions share of the profits either. They're the best negotiators in the world.
The answer will be in three years from now - who ¨®wns' the majority of the decent prospects.
I still think Anvil is in a good position. But BHP and Co are being out-manouevered on the remaining big copper prospects by the Chinese.
My recommendation - Bill should be negotiating with CopperCo's in China as it will only help dissuade any direct "hits' on our ops in DRC.

Once you live in China for a few years you start to realise the scale of control the govt wants and how motivated they are. Its not ''devious'. Its just different to how westerners think.

Stu