Look at say Kazakhstan. They are wedged in between Russia and China so from a geography perspective they are a high risk country in terms of supply....
But they have taken very deliberate action to distance themselves from Russia even setting up new transport routes that don't cross Russian territory. They are sending very clear signals to the West they want to maintain trade with us and wouldn't join any embargos set by Russia. Unfortunately for them they are in a high risk place and it is likely that the West will still look to diversify away from them for the most critical of minerals coming from Kazakstan (mainly Uranium).
SA is in no such position. But the current government appears to be making a proper mess of it. They are opportunistically using anti Western sentiments to stay in power and divert attention from all the mess they made...but shooting themselves in the foot once again. And with absolutely no gain.
I hope that will change. Surely they will find that neither Russia nor China care about anything but their own interests.
Luckily VR8 has an exceptionally robust project so I think they will be ok either way. But a more neutral stance form SA would have been much better.
VR8 Price at posting:
7.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
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