Mining is a long-term game, but in southern Africa dramatic political changes have transformed the investment mood for the better in the space of a year.
Robert Friedland, founder and executive chairman of Ivanhoe Mines, said he would be happy to pay higher taxes if there is stability in Congo's rules and transparency in the accounting of those royalties.
"Keep an eye on what we call China’s old economy – the property market, the infrastructure segment. That’s where we expect a slowdown sometime this year.”
DRC tried to strike more conciliatory tone after week of heated exchanges between Africa’s top copper producer and some of its largest foreign investors.
Chile is an obvious place for Tesla's chief executive, Elon Musk, to look for secure supply, as the global lithium mother-lode is in the brine lakes of the country's Atacama desert.