Matein Khalid
The India-Pakistan war in May and the Iran-Iraq war that rages as I write only reinforces my conviction that wars will be won or lost via a access to the latest missile air defense, stealth fighter jet platforms, ballistic hypersonic missile, power projection capabilities and state of the art ISR (intelligence surveillance reconnaissance) defense technologies. A nation without these capabilities is akin to a Stone Age tribe whose only weapons are bows and arrows and whose existence can be terminated at any time by any foreign predator. This is the lesson Iran has learnt the hard way in the past week and could relearn with a vengeance next week once Trump decides if he wants the USG to keep its rendezvous with destiny at Fordo.
Defense is only the icing on the cake in the exponential demand curve for key strategic metals that emanates from the robotics, data centers and EV industries worldwide. Critical minerals where demand vastly exceeds supply. This means the next generation of potential 5-20X deals exist in the netherworld of the global strategic metal markets, now that access to these critical metals has been weaponized by President Xi in China’s Cold War with Washington.
It is a sad fact of life that goldmines do not auto-mine bullion like a self-licking ice cream cone but must be nurtured, found, financed and developed by entrepreneurs who live and breathe the yellow metal. This fact is even more true for strategic metals where the world’s smartest family offices I know have partnered with minors, whose skill set is invariably more CIA than CFA or God forbid, the poor CPA.
I have often found that the destination is not as important as the journey and the journey is nowhere near as important as the travelling companion. I will cherish to my dying day the lovely memories of a trip across the chateau country of the Loire Valley and the alps maritime regions of France as a 19-year old via a second class ticket on the SNCF with my first French girlfriend. Viv la France pour toujours. My jungle guide in the critical metal jungle? Thus spake Zarathustra via Georgetown, McGill, Columbia SIPA and Mama Parsi School in my birth city by the Arabian sea.
Also published on Medium.
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