Take East Africa's iron ore, for example. East Africa's iron ore resources were quite abundant; from south to north, from east to west, sizable iron deposits could basically be found everywhere. Coal mines, comparatively speaking, were rather scarce.
Yet although East Africa was rich in iron ore, its annual steel production had grown too rapidly. Last year alone, it had reached over thirty million tons—ten times the output at the start of this century. Therefore, East Africa's consumption of iron ore was enormous, and every year it had to import large quantities of resources from India and the Middle Eastern region.
Thus, Baster believed that if iron mines existed in Western Australia, and were of considerable scale, there might be something to work with.
So he said to Howard, "Could I take a look at the samples?"
Howard had come to do business in the first place. Since Baster was interested, he naturally would not refuse.
"Of course. However, the samples I brought are at the hotel. If you want to see them, we'll have to wait until we return. But right now, I'd rather tour Dar es Salaam city's industrial district. If Mr. Baster is interested, we can discuss it again tonight," Howard said.
"That works too!" Baster said.
After all, whether the iron ore Howard mentioned truly existed, whether it held economic value, and what its reserves and quality were—all of that remained unknown.
Compared with Baster's uncertainty, Emperor Ernst of the Empire had ample confidence in Western Australia's mineral resources.
However, Ernst did not intend to let resources such as Australia's iron ore reveal their potential ahead of time. This was also the main reason East Africa had not made a great fanfare of developing Western Australia's mineral resources.
Australia's mineral resources, like East Kalimantan's abundant coal