Cat Stock Blog

I doubt many Americans have any idea where Guinea is. They probably think it’s where the chubby pet rodents come from. Actually, it’s an impoverished but mineral-rich East West African nation where there was a coup awhile back after a longtime dictator died.

This morning’s news roundup has Rio Tinto, one of the worlds biggest mining companies, trying to wheedle answers out of the new Guinea regime in regards to big mining projects it’s running there.

Anyplace Rio Tinto goes, Cat machinery presumably follows.

Cat’s connections to far-flung locales was one of the fascinating things about the company when I was growing up — Mom was always coming home with tales of people jetting off to Grimbergen or South Africa for something or another. China opening its economy to outsiders played a huge role in Cats renaissance after the near-death experience of the early 1980s.

Cat’s next big thing could happen in Africa — even after centuries of exploitation the continent has abundant mineral wealth. Of course the Africans would have to cease 10,000 years of bloody tribal rivalries, but hey, the 100 Years War eventually ended, too.