Build cases read against the base rate of what similar builds actually delivered.

Governments from Conakry to Lilongwe are ordering miners to process at home. A smelter needs about 500 MW of firm power, and the record shows the decision that matters is who owns that power and the capital behind it.

Forty-seven years and more than $8bn after construction began, Ajaokuta has never lit its blast furnace. That record is the base rate every West African build case should price.