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- 2022
- Other Unpublished Work
Got 'Critical Minerals'? Hooray! But Be Careful
By: Louis T. Wells
When a country has “critical minerals,” certain issues require special attention in the country’s mining legislation or while negotiating contracts with potential mining investors. As well, to obtain maximum benefit the government should prepare for negotiations with...
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- June 2022 (Revised January 2023)
- Case
South Africa – a 'Just Energy Transition'
By: Richard Vietor
South Africa, like most other countries, is in the process of reducing its carbon emissions to comply with COP26 and, hopefully, reach net zero emissions by 2050. However, because South Africa relies almost wholly on coal (93%) for electricity, and on coal for...
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- 2021
- Working Paper
How to Fix ESG Reporting
By: Robert S. Kaplan and Karthik Ramanna
Investors, advocacy groups, academics, and the 200 CEOs of the US Business Roundtable have asked corporations to take on an added purpose beyond a narrow pursuit of shareholder value. In response, many companies now issue ESG (Environmental, Societal, and Governance)...
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Keywords:
ESG Reporting;
Sustainability;
Corporate Purpose;
Greenhouse Gas;
Activity-Based Costing;
Environmental Sustainability;
Environmental Management;
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact;
Measurement and Metrics;
Goals and Objectives;
Agreements and Arrangements;
Corporate Accountability
- July 2021 (Revised January 2022)
- Case
K.C. Li: The Tungsten King
By: Geoffrey Jones and Casey Verkamp
This case examines the business career of Kuo-Ching Li, who was born in China in 1892, and built a successful minerals trading business called Wah Chang in the United States during the interwar years. He acquired a prominent role in tungsten, the strongest natural...
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- May 2021
- Teaching Note
DeepGreen - the Metals Company and Polymetallic Nodules
- February 2020 (Revised August 2021)
- Case
Australia: Commodities, Competitiveness, Climate and China
By: Richard H.K. Vietor and Laura Alfaro
For the past few decades, Australia has dealt with the benefits and costs of repeated mining booms—inflation, a housing bubble, a current account deficit, and growing dependence on China. Between 1996 and 2007, however, Australia had most of these issues under control...
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- February 2020
- Case
Klöckner & Co: Steeling for a Digital World
By: Scott Duke Kominers and Carin-Isabel Knoop
Hoping to get ahead of potential digital disruption at Klöckner & Co.—one of the world’s largest steel and metal distributors—CEO Gisbert Rühl set up both kloeckner.i (KCI), an internal transformation arm, and XOM Materials (XOM), an independent industry platform. KCI...
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- January 2020
- Teaching Note
Chile: Unrest in the Copper Nation
By: Laura Alfaro and Sarah Jeong
For decades, Chile enjoyed the stability of being the world’s largest producer of copper. Keynes would have advised that this period of growth would have been the time for the government to save, that “the boom, not the slump, is the right time for austerity at the...
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- November 2019
- Case
Chile: Unrest in the Copper Nation
By: Laura Alfaro and Sarah Jeong
For decades, Chile was heralded as South America’s pillar of stable economic growth. Chile was the world’s largest producer of copper and enjoyed a long period of over 30 years of world demand for its resources. In 2013, the commodity boom ended and was replaced by a...
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- November 2019 (Revised May 2021)
- Case
DeepGreen - the Metals Company and Polymetallic Nodules
The world has begun a “green transition”—a move to reduce carbon emissions. Part of this will entail a growing shift to electric vehicles. Huge amounts of metals—cobalt, nickel, and copper—will be needed to supply electric vehicles. Mining these on land, however, is...
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- January 2019
- Supplement
The De Beers Group: Launching GemFair for Artisanal Diamonds
By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher
In April 2018, the De Beers Group launched a pilot project called GemFair to create a new supply of ethically and environmentally sourced diamonds from artisanal and small-scale mines (ASM) in Sierra Leone. Whether this project would yield a meaningful supply of rough...
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- February 2018
- Case
Rosslyn Resource: Monetization and Sales Strategy
By: Robert J. Dolan and Sunru Yong
Rosslyn Resource identifies exploration targets (potential mineral deposits) in the mining industry and advances them until the project can be monetized, usually through sale to a larger mining company, in return for an upfront fee and a royalty on future revenues....
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- 2017
- Working Paper
International Business and Emerging Markets: A Long-Run Perspective
By: Geoffrey Jones
This working paper explores long-run patterns in the strategies of international business in developing countries. There was a massive wave of Western multinational investment in the developing world during the first wave of globalization before the 1920s. The...
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- June 2017 (Revised August 2018)
- Case
Goodbye IMF Conditions, Hello Chinese Capital: Zambia's Copper Industry and Africa's Break with Its Colonial Past
By: Rafael Di Tella, Vincent Pons, Sarah Mehta and David Lane
Over the past several decades, rapid growth in Chinese investment and trade has created for Africa a new development partner. China represents an alternative to U.S. and European nations whose past imperialism, resource avarice, and economic dictates—through the...
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- June 2017
- Case
Harmonie Water: Refreshing the World Naturally
By: John A. Quelch and John L. Teopaco
The marketing director of Harmonie Mineral Water—the second-best selling bottled water in the world—is using findings from two project studies to assess how to establish a global brand identity for Harmonie via television advertising. He must decide what product...
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- 2016
- Case
Africa Strategy of China Nonferrous Metal Mining Group
By: F. Warren McFarlan, Jie Jiao, Dayong Yang and Shanshan Cao
Founded in 1983, China Nonferrous Metal Mining (Group) Co., Ltd. ("CNMC") is one of the earliest and largest global Chinese nonferrous metal industrial enterprises. It has investments and projects in 27 countries and trade networks in nearly 100 countries with a...
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- October 2015 (Revised September 2016)
- Case
Peru: Economic Miracle or Just a Mirage?
By: Richard H.K. Vietor, Fernando A. D'Alessio and Ricardo M. Pino
After years of rapid growth, Peru's economy had recently slowed. Mineral prices were down and the current President, Humala, had only a year remaining in office before the next election. And he could not run again. While the country had many strengths, especially in...
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- October 2015
- Teaching Note
Molycorp: Financing the Production of Rare Earth Minerals (A)
By: Benjamin C. Esty and E. Scott Mayfield
Molycorp, the western hemisphere's only producer of rare earth minerals, was in the middle of a $1 billion capital expenditure project in its effort to become a vertically integrated supplier of rare earth minerals, oxides, and metals. Yet it had just reported lower...
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Keywords:
Convertible Debt;
Uncertainty;
Competition;
Startup;
China;
Supply ＆ Demand;
Growth;
Rare Earth Minerals;
Discounted Cash Flows;
Mining;
Payoff Diagrams;
Option Pricing;
Capital Budgeting;
Capital Structure;
Cash Flow;
Financial Strategy;
Market Entry and Exit;
Vertical Integration;
Valuation;
Metals and Minerals;
Mining Industry;
Industrial Products Industry;
Canada;
California
- February 2015 (Revised February 2017)
- Case
Winnan Metal: Fulfilling the Dream
By: William R. Kerr, Jim Sharpe and James Weber
Neil Kashyap and Neil Lombardo (HBS '08) acquired Winnan Metal, Inc., a metal fabrication shop, after raising a search fund and an 11 month search to fulfill their dreams of becoming business owners. Two weeks after they took control of the company, Winnan's largest...
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Keywords:
Entrepreneurs;
Entrepreneurial Management;
Turnarounds;
Bank Loan;
Crisis Management;
Financial Analysis;
Search Funds;
Acquisitions;
Financial Capital Needed;
Management;
Operations Management;
Sales;
Entrepreneurship;
Decision Making;
Change Management;
Manufacturing Industry;
United States;
Indiana
- August 2014 (Revised March 2015)
- Case
Molycorp: Morgan Brothers' Reverse Convertible Notes (C)
By: Benjamin C. Esty and E. Scott Mayfield
In August 2011, Morgan Brothers Bank was issuing a $2.5 million reverse convertible note with payoffs linked to the price of Molycorp's common stock. These financially engineered securities were just one of many kinds of structured notes available in the retail market....
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