Independence Policy

Effective date: 22 May 2026

Last updated: 23 May 2026

Version: 1.0.1

1. Purpose

Afrimintel produces decision-grade Africa mining investment intelligence. Sophisticated buyers — institutional investors, development finance institutions, mining companies, advisory firms — rely on Afrimintel's province scores, asset dossiers, bankability panels, and downstream-risk panels to inform capital allocation decisions in jurisdictions and assets where small editorial drift can mean large commercial consequences.

This Independence Policy documents the firewall between Afrimintel's commercial relationships and its editorial content. The policy exists so that buyers, journalists, acquirers, regulators, and any reader of the platform can verify how Afrimintel maintains editorial independence, what counts as a commercial relationship under this policy, what does not, and how conflicts are surfaced when they arise.

2. Ownership and operating structure

2.1 Founder-owned, bootstrapped

Afrimintel is founder-owned and bootstrapped. There are no external equity investors, no venture capital backers, no strategic investors, no sovereign wealth fund holdings, and no industry-corporate stakeholders. The platform's continuing operation is funded entirely by subscription revenue (Pro, Team, Institutional tiers) and project engagement revenue (bespoke advisory work under separate Statement of Work).

This funding architecture is a deliberate choice. External equity investment creates an obligation to investor returns that can shape editorial priorities. Founder-owned bootstrapping removes that obligation. Afrimintel's incentive is to publish intelligence that subscribers and project clients will renew or recommend — an incentive aligned with editorial accuracy.

2.2 Editorial responsibility

All editorial content on the platform — province scores, asset dossiers, bankability panels, downstream-risk panels, comparable transactions database, methodology documents, audit log entries, and reference materials — carries the named editorial responsibility of Nikesh Patel, Honorary Consul of Rwanda in Mauritius, founder of Afrimintel. Editorial responsibility is undelegated: no external author, no anonymous contributor, no AI system is the editorial responsibility-holder for any platform claim.

2.3 Operating jurisdiction

Afrimintel operates from Mauritius and is VAT-registered in Mauritius. Mauritius is a recognised arbitration centre and a financial services jurisdiction with established commercial law architecture. The choice of operating jurisdiction is documented for transparency; it has no editorial bearing on which African mining assets, jurisdictions, or transactions are covered.

3. What counts as a commercial relationship under this policy

Afrimintel operates infrastructure and tooling supplied by external vendors. The platform's commercial-relationship register treats these vendor relationships as arms-length supplier arrangements under each vendor's published terms, not as partnerships or alliances that could shape editorial content.

3.1 Confirmed vendor relationships (current)

Each of these relationships operates under the respective vendor's published terms of service. None confers any editorial influence on Afrimintel's published content. None is a partnership, alliance, joint venture, or co-marketing arrangement.

3.2 What is NOT a commercial relationship under this policy

Afrimintel publishes intelligence on African mining assets, jurisdictions, transactions, and commercial counterparties. The following do not constitute commercial relationships under this policy:

• Reading and citing public documents. NI 43-101 / JORC / S-K 1300 technical reports, SEC / ASX / TSX / JSE / HKEX / LSE filings, ESIA documents, government cadastre records, EITI country reports, IMF Article IV consultations, World Bank/AfDB/IFC project documents, company annual reports, and other public regulatory or institutional documents are read and cited per published terms. Citing a public document does not create a commercial relationship with the publishing entity.
• Engaging with public institutional frameworks. The AfDB Mandate Fit framework, TNFD Tools Catalogue, IISD SAVi methodology, IFC Performance Standards, World Bank Environmental and Social Framework, AfDB Integrated Safeguards System, EITI Standard, and other public institutional frameworks are engaged with through their published documentation. Such engagement does not create a partnership, joint work, or alliance with the framework authors.
• Conversations with industry contacts. Conversations with industry contacts — operators, consultants, advisors, researchers, journalists — at conferences, in correspondence, or in scheduled calls are research inputs. They do not create a commercial relationship absent a written engagement letter or contract.
• Advisory engagements that are publicly disclosed. Where Afrimintel's editorial-responsibility-holder serves in a publicly disclosed external capacity — for example, the Honorary Consul of Rwanda in Mauritius role, the Chairmanship of MUA Insurance Rwanda — these are documented in public records and named on every platform surface that references the editorial-responsibility-holder.

4. AI-assistance attribution norm

Afrimintel uses AI-assisted drafting in producing platform content. The use of AI assistance is editorial machinery — analogous to how a research analyst uses search tools, statistical software, or a structured workflow — and does not change editorial responsibility or substitute for it.

4.1 Attribution pattern

Where AI assistance materially contributed to a piece of platform content, the contribution is documented per the following pattern:

• Primary drafting tool / human-directed — substantive narrative drafted by a Large Language Model (LLM) operating under directed instruction from Nikesh Patel; reviewed, edited, and editorially signed off by Nikesh Patel. The specific LLM provider and model used for any given piece of substantive drafting is recorded in the corresponding audit-log entry.
• Reviewer-role second-pass tool / human-reviewed — hostile-audit check against substantive drafting using a separate LLM provider; final editorial sign-off by Nikesh Patel. The specific reviewer-role LLM is recorded in the corresponding audit-log entry where used.

The dual-attribution pattern is recorded in audit-log entries and methodology documents at the point of substantive contribution. Editorial responsibility remains with Nikesh Patel regardless of AI-assistance level.

4.2 What AI assistance does not change

AI-assisted drafting does not change:

• Editorial responsibility (sole — Nikesh Patel)
• Quality Standard tri-state framework (every numeric or factual claim is Sourced, Derived, or Absent)
• Counterparty Extension protocol (no commercial-relationship language without confirmed substrate)
• Hallucination Guard discipline (every unverified number flagged; cross-check against at least two authoritative sources before publishing any correction)
• Audit Log Protocol (every correction, fix, data update, or version bump documented before declared complete)

5. Revenue concentration discipline

Afrimintel's commercial architecture is designed to prevent revenue concentration creating editorial pressure. The target operating constraint is no single subscription client above 7% of annual recurring revenue as a binding operational constraint once the platform exits closed beta and reaches a specified ARR floor.

In the current closed-beta state, aggregate recurring revenue is below the level at which a single-client concentration cap can operate as a binding constraint. The 7% threshold is therefore declared discipline rather than operational constraint at this stage — it commits the platform to a structure that, when revenue scales, will not permit single-client concentration above the threshold. The threshold becomes binding at $1M ARR.

Project engagement revenue is treated separately; project engagements operate under explicit Statements of Work with named deliverables and do not bear on platform-wide editorial scope.

Where revenue concentration approaches the 7% threshold (post threshold-binding state), Afrimintel discloses the concentration state in the next audit-log entry following the close of the relevant reporting period. Until the threshold becomes binding, the discipline operates as a forward-looking commitment surfaced in this policy and in subscription agreement architecture.

6. Specific commitments

6.1 No paid placement

Afrimintel does not accept payment in any form for inclusion in, exclusion from, or favourable treatment within province scores, asset dossiers, bankability panels, downstream-risk panels, comparable transactions database, or methodology documents. No "premium listing" tier exists. No "sponsored dossier" tier exists.

6.2 No editorial trade for access

Afrimintel does not trade editorial treatment for data access, interview access, document access, or any other commercial consideration. Where a company declines to provide non-public information or refuses an interview request, the editorial coverage proceeds on the basis of publicly available sources with the access state noted in the relevant dossier.

6.3 No advisory work conflicting with editorial coverage

Afrimintel's project engagement work (the bespoke advisory tier) is bounded by the Counterparty Extension protocol: where a named commercial conversation, pilot relationship, or advisory engagement is in progress with a counterparty whose assets, jurisdictions, or transactions appear in platform editorial content, the relationship is documented in the relevant audit-log entry and the editorial coverage either remains on the basis of publicly available sources only or is recused. This is a discipline check at the point of engagement, not a retrospective audit.

6.4 Quality Standard tri-state on every numeric claim

Per the platform-wide Quality Standard, every numeric or factual claim Afrimintel surfaces is in one of three states: Sourced (named authoritative document with date), Derived (Afrimintel calculation with published methodology, inputs themselves Sourced or Derived, output carrying confidence range or tier), or Pending (under verification with named target resolution). No fourth state. Field-level provenance is required on intelligence-grade dossiers. The tri-state discipline is the operational expression of editorial independence: it prevents commercial-relationship pressure from drifting claims out of their evidentiary state.

6.5 Audit Log Protocol

Per the platform-wide Audit Log Protocol, every correction, fix, data update, or version bump triggers an audit-log entry before the patch is declared complete. The audit log is public at /audit-log/ and operates as the editorial-discipline record of record. Independence Policy violations, if and when they occur, are surfaced in the audit log under their own version-marked entry.

7. Conflict-of-interest disclosure

7.1 Standing disclosures

The editorial-responsibility-holder, Nikesh Patel, currently holds the following publicly disclosed external roles that may intersect with platform coverage:

• Honorary Consul of Rwanda in Mauritius. A diplomatic role for Rwanda. Where Afrimintel platform content covers Rwanda or Rwanda-relevant African mining assets, jurisdictions, or transactions, the diplomatic role is disclosed at the surface where it could reasonably be relevant. Rwanda's mineral-sector context appears across the Great Lakes mineral province coverage; coverage proceeds on publicly available sources with the role disclosed.
• Chairman, MUA Insurance Rwanda. A board chairmanship in the Rwandan insurance sector. MUA Insurance Rwanda does not operate in mining and has no commercial relationship with any mining counterparty covered on the platform.
• Author, What Others Walk Over. A trade-published book on resilience and entrepreneurship (whatotherswalkover.com). No editorial intersection with platform coverage.
• Prior career exposure. Artisanal mineral trading across Uganda, Rwanda and Zaire (1989-1994); Africa leadership at Motorola (12 years); commodity exposure to tantalite, tin and tungsten via international traders in London and Rotterdam. Where prior commercial exposure to a specific commodity or jurisdiction is editorially relevant, the disclosure surfaces at the relevant platform surface.

7.2 New disclosures

Where a new external role, commercial relationship, or advisory engagement is undertaken that could reasonably be relevant to platform coverage, the disclosure is published as an addendum to this Independence Policy and surfaced in the next audit-log entry.

8. How to report a perceived independence concern

If a reader, subscriber, journalist, regulator, or any other party identifies a perceived independence concern — content that appears to reflect commercial-relationship influence rather than editorial judgement, an undisclosed conflict, a deviation from the tri-state Quality Standard, or any other editorial-discipline concern — the concern can be raised at:

nikesh@afrimintel.com

Material independence concerns are addressed in the audit log under the Correction Velocity SLA published in the Quality Standard: material errors corrected within 7 business days, non-material within 30. The full Quality Standard is at /quality-standard/.

9. Versioning and updates

This Independence Policy is versioned. Material updates trigger a version bump and an audit-log entry. The version history will be appended to this page as updates occur.

10. Contact

Afrimintel — Africa Mineral Intelligence

Editorial responsibility: Nikesh Patel, Honorary Consul of Rwanda in Mauritius

Operating jurisdiction: Mauritius (VAT-registered)

nikesh@afrimintel.com