Alexandra Wexler

It's going to have to really turn these assets around.

But if it manages to do that, could produce up to somewhere around 5% of the world's cobalt, which would be a huge boon to the U.S.

critical mineral supply chain.

There's a limited labor pool, there's government corruption, and quite a lot of violence as well in different parts of the country.

The mine still needs several hundred million dollars in upgrades to finish processing plants and mechanization of its mining operations.

There's a lot of damage that's been done from informal miners.

So Virtus paid the family that owned Shemoff $30 million, and it's committed to spending some $720 million in investment to get these assets turned around and up and running and producing money.

copper and cobalt for the U.S.

If it manages to do that, it could produce up to somewhere around 5% of the world's cobalt, which would be a huge boon to the U.S.

critical mineral supply chain.

The Nigerians and the Americans have had some differences framing this issue.

The Nigerians have been saying these Islamist groups are a big problem, but they target indiscriminately.

They kill and kidnap Muslims as well as Christians.

And since then, the Nigerian government has made quite a big effort to engage with U.S.

officials on what is going on in Nigeria and how the U.S.

could potentially help fight some of these groups, Islamist terrorists and armed gangs that aren't necessarily affiliated with a religious group.

And the Nigerian government has said repeatedly that it had worked with the U.S., provided intelligence to the U.S.

who then launched the actual military intervention.

They discussed this attack with the U.S.

government ahead of it actually happening.