By all accounts, heterogenite should fetch a similar price for the same grade regardless of where it was sold, so there were clearly other market forces behind the variance in prices. Perhaps being forced by soldiers to sell cobalt at the depots at Lake Malo pushed prices downward in that area. Perhaps open competition at Musompo pushed prices upward. Perhaps the inability to access markets except via négociants explained why prices near Kipushi were so low. Whatever the reasons, the variability of pricing at depots, along with the lack of bargaining power and access to markets, represented
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