Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 1:12 PM on Thursday, January 23rd, 2020
SPONSOR: Datametrex AI Limited
(TSX-V: DM) A revenue generating small cap A.I. company that NATO and
Canadian Defence are using to fight fake news & social media
threats. The company announced three $1M contacts in Q3-2019. Click here for more info.
BBC partnered with Google and Facebook on general election fake news
The BBC partnered with Google (GOOGL), Microsoft (MSFT), Facebook (FB), and other news outlets to stymie the spread of fake news during December’s UK general election, its director-general Tony Hall said on Thursday.
Hall said that the BBC had been working “collaboratively†with the
Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, India’s Hindu newspaper on a
partnership with Microsoft and Google to identify misinformation, as
part of a previously announced initiative.
But Hall said on Thursday for the first time that it had been used prior to last month’s UK vote.
The BBC in September announced that it was working with the
technology companies to develop an early warning system to use during
elections or when lives may be at risk, calling the move a “crucialâ€
step to fight disinformation.
The plan also includes media education, voter information plans, and shared learning initiatives.
The initiative works to de-emphasise stories that are just “plain
wrong,†Hall said, speaking during a panel discussion at the World
Economic Forum in Davos.
“We’ve tried this out on paper exercises, but we tried it for real
… in the UK election, and it worked. That combination and contact
between media that people trust and Google, Facebook, and whatever. It
worked. And we took down some stuff which was just plain wrong — in
copyright terms, but just wrong.â€
“By the way, we haven’t talked about this anywhere yet, but why not here?â€
Neither the BBC nor Google immediately responded to a request for
more information about how the initiative was used in the general
election.
Earlier in the talk, Hall noted that the BBC was still the most trusted source of news in the UK.
“For us, for the BBC, people still trust us more than any other form of media in the UK. Globally, trust is very very high.â€
“And why do people use us? They may use three, four, five sources of
news each day, but they come to us because they want to check whether [a
story] is right,” he said.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 11:30 AM on Thursday, January 23rd, 2020
SPONSOR: BetterU Education Corp.
aims to provide access to quality education from around the world.
The company plans to bridge the prevailing gap in the education and job
industry and enhance the lives of its prospective learners by developing
an integrated ecosystem. Click here for more information.
Edtech Startup Eupheus Learning Raises $4.3 Mn To Scale Operations
The funds will be used to increase nationwide presence, develop new product offerings etc
It will also start its operations in the Middle East
The company claims that in H1 FY20, it recorded a 3x increase in revenues
New Delhi-based edtech startup Eupheus Learning, on Thursday (January
23), announced that it has raised $4.3 Mn (INR 30 Cr) in its Series A
funding round. The investment is a mix of equity and venture debt, which
was led by Yuj Ventures.
Other investors in the round included Sixth Sense Ventures.
The funds will be used to increase nationwide presence, develop new
product offerings, and expand the team. The company said it will also
start its operations in the Middle East and drive international
expansion in other markets.
Eupheus Learning was founded in 2017 by Sarvesh Shrivastava, Rohit
Dhar, Ved Prakash Khatri, and Amit Kapoor. Operating across the Pre-K to
Class XII segments, Eupheus offers products in all subject areas and
packages both the curriculum and homework tracking tools in phygital
form.
Sarvesh Shrivastava, managing director of Eupheus Learning said, “The
online education segment in India is primed for massive growth, as the
next generation of children enter classrooms across the country. By
leveraging the power of technology, we’ve been able to bridge the divide
between in-school and at-home learning and offer a seamless, end-to-end
learning experience.â€
The company claims that in H1 FY20, it recorded a 3x increase in
revenues compared to the same period last year. It also said that it
expanded its geographical presence to 70 cities in India from 52
earlier. The team has also grown to 175 employees as it has also forged
new alliances with four international education players, taking its
roster of global partnerships to 17.
“We are impressed by the founders’ experience, the previous track
record of developing cutting edge content at Britannica, and the manner
in which they have scaled Eupheus in a profitable manner in the last two
years in a competitive market,†said Madhav Soi of Yuj Ventures.
Digital evolution and the boom in smartphone adoption are expected to
define the way Indian students learn. Real-time book updates, online
tutoring, edutainment, online test preparation, web-based research, and
gamification — technology has changed our traditional education system
in more ways than one.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 10:51 AM on Thursday, January 23rd, 2020
SPONSOR:ThreeD Capital Inc. (IDK:CSE)
Led by legendary financier, Sheldon Inwentash, ThreeD is a
Canadian-based venture capital firm that only invests in best of breed
small-cap companies which are both defensible and mass scalable. More
than just lip service, Inwentash has financed many of Canada’s biggest
small-cap exits. Click Here For More Information.
BTC/USD is currently trading at $8,650 (+0.40%) in the afternoon in U.S. hours, the range continues to tighten, ahead of next explosive breakout. Â
ETH/USD is currently trading at $168.25 (+0.30%), there is a lack of committed direction for now following the big pump last week. Â
XRP/USD is
currently trading at $0.2360 (+1.30%), price action remains very much
narrow. The range to the upside of $0.2500 to the downside $0.2300.
Among the 100 most important cryptocurrencies, the best of the day
are GNT $0.043133 (+28.95%), KMD $0.712816 (+15.49%) and SXP $1.72
(+11.27%) and The day’s losers are BCN $0.000272 (-12.50%), CENNZ
$0.55991 (-11.49%) and BCD $0.588775 (-4.30%).
Chart of the day: BCH/USD weekly chart (price action moving within a bullish pennant pattern)
Market
Vitalik Buterin believes that Ethereum Classic can be merged into
Ethereum 2.0 in the same way as a new shard-like ETH’s current Proof of
Work (PoW) chain will be integrated.
Blockchain payments processor BitPay has added support for XRP, the world’s third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. XRP has been integrated on BitPay’s platform via Ripple’s open developer platform, Xpring.
Regulation
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), has
created a Blockchain Expert Policy Advisory Board (BEPAB) to make it
easier for governments and other stakeholders to tap the benefits of
distributed ledger technology (DLT). BEPAB is made up of several heavy
hitters in the blockchain space, including IBM, R3, and ConsenSys.
Industry
British telecom giant Vodafone has become the latest member to leave the Libra Association.
The original consortium of 28 members supporting Facebook’s ambitious
digital currency project has only left with 20 participants.
Huobi Group has announced the launch of Huobi Brokerage, a digital
asset brokerage platform, during the annual Davos forum. As the global
blockchain company’s first brokerage solution, Huobi Brokerage will
provide digital asset trading products and services to institutional
clients and high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs).
Binance has announced the launch of its Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Merchant
Program. The P2P program will allow merchants to provide fiat currency
payment solutions to people around the world and earn revenue, according
to a blog post.
The Blockchain Association has filed an amicus curiae brief in
response to litigation against Telegram initiated by the United States
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The Blockchain Association, a collective of advocates involved with
the blockchain industry, filed an amicus curiae brief with the court of
the Southern District of New York on Jan. 21.
According to a former executive from the Bank of Japan, who made a
statement on Wednesday, major central banks started to set up study
groups into crypto shortly after Facebook’s threat was made clear.
Quote of the day
The biggest barrier to Bitcoin adoption is the lack of understanding about what money is and how it works.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 8:45 AM on Thursday, January 23rd, 2020
Engaged IBK Capital Corp. to manage a private placement financing of up to C$2,000,000 by way of units of the Company at a price of $0.05 per Unit
Each Unit consists of one common share and one share purchase warrant, where each Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one additional common share at a price of $0.10 per share for a period of two (2) years from the date of closing.
January 23rd, 2020 – Rockport, ON, Canada – New Age Metals Inc. (TSXV:NAM); (OTC:NMTLF); (FSE:P7J) has engaged IBK Capital Corp. to manage a private placement financing of up to C$2,000,000 by way of units (“Units”) of the Company at a price of $0.05 per Unit. Each Unit consists of one common share and one share purchase warrant (“Warrant”), where each Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one additional common share at a price of $0.10 per share for a period of two (2) years from the date of closing. This financing is fully subscribed and is anticipated to close on Friday January 31, 2020.
The securities to be issued in
connection with the private placement will be subject to a four-month
plus one-day hold period from the date of closing in accordance with
applicable Canadian Securities Laws. Completion of the private placement
and any finder’s fees payable are subject to regulatory approval.
Harry Barr, Chairman and Chief
Executive Officer of New Age Metals, reports: “This year’s palladium
price increase to more than US$2,400 per ounce or C$3,100 highlights the
potential of our River Valley PGM project as one of the largest
undeveloped primary palladium projects in North America.”
Michael White, Chief Executive
Officer of IBK Capital Corp., states, “We believe there will be a
positive rerating of the market value of palladium exploration
companies. This would reflect the increasing value of the metal in the
ground due to strong palladium prices based on a lack of stable supply
from South Africa. We also believe the PGM producers of the world will
need to acquire ounces in the ground in favourable jurisdictions to
replace and geographically diversify their PGM reserves.”
Use of Proceeds
The Company intends to use the
proceeds of this private placement to complete certain recommendations
from the recent PEA completed on the company’s River Valley Project; one
of North America’s largest undeveloped primary Platinum Group Metals,
(PGM) Projects. Additionally, proceeds will be used to build global
investor awareness in NAM, and for working capital purposes.
The River Valley PGM Project is 100%
owned by New Age Metals and located in the Sudbury Mining District, 100
kms away from the Sudbury Metallurgical Complex.
About NAM
New Age
Metals is a junior mineral exploration and development company focused
on the discovery, exploration and development of green metal projects in
North America. The Company has two divisions; a Platinum
Group Metals division and a Lithium/Rare Element division. The PGM
division includes the 100% owned River Valley Project, one of North
America’s largest undeveloped Platinum Group Metals Projects, situated
100 kilometers from Sudbury, Ontario as well as the Genesis PGM Project
in Alaska. The Lithium division is the largest mineral claim holder in
the Winnipeg River Pegmatite Field where the Company is exploring for
hard rock lithium and various rare elements such as tantalum and
rubidium. Our philosophy is to be a project generator with the objective
of optioning our projects with major and junior mining companies
through to production. New Age
Metals is a junior resource company on the TSX Venture Exchange, trading
symbol NAM, OTCQB: NMTLF; FSE: P7J with 96,843,766 shares issued to
date.
Investors
are invited to visit the New Age Metals website at www.newagemetals.com
where they can review the company and its corporate activities. Any
questions or comments can be directed to [email protected] or Harry Barr at [email protected] or Cody Hunt at [email protected] or call 613 659 2773.
On behalf of the Board of Directors
“Harry Barr”
Harry G. Barr, Chairman and CEO
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor
its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the
policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the
adequacy or accuracy of this release. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward
Looking Statements: This release contains forward-looking statements
that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements may differ
materially from actual future events or results and are based on current
expectations or beliefs. For this purpose, statements of historical
fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. In addition,
forward-looking statements include statements in which the Company uses
words such as “continue”, “efforts”, “expect”, “believe”, “anticipate”,
“confident”, “intend”, “strategy”, “plan”, “will”, “estimate”,
“project”, “goal”, “target”, “prospects”, “optimistic” or similar
expressions. These statements by their nature involve risks and
uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially depending on a
variety of important factors, including, among others, the Company’s
ability and continuation of efforts to timely and completely make
available adequate current public information, additional or different
regulatory and legal requirements and restrictions that may be imposed,
and other factors as may be discussed in the documents filed by the
Company on SEDAR (www.sedar.com), including the most recent reports that
identify important risk factors that could cause actual results to
differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. The
Company does not undertake any obligation to review or confirm analysts’
expectations or estimates or to release publicly any revisions to any
forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the
date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.
Investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 2:59 PM on Wednesday, January 22nd, 2020
SPONSOR: Datametrex AI Limited
(TSX-V: DM) A revenue generating small cap A.I. company that NATO and
Canadian Defence are using to fight fake news & social media
threats. The company announced three $1M contacts in Q3-2019. Click here for more info.
Building a Lie Detector for Images
A new paper from UC Berkeley and Adobe researchers declares war on fake images
Leveraging a custom dataset and fresh evaluation metric, the research team introduces a general image forensics approach that achieves high average precision in the detection of CNN-generated imagery
By: Synced
The Internet is full of fun fake images — from flying sharks and cows
on cars to a dizzying variety of celebrity mashups. Hyperrealistic
image and video fakes generated by convolutional neural networks (CNNs)
however are no laughing matter — in fact they can be downright
dangerous. Deepfake porn reared its ugly head in 2018, fake political
speeches by world leaders have cast doubt on news sources, and during
the recent Australian bushfires manipulated images mislead people
regarding the location and size of fires. Fake images and videos are
giving AI a black eye — but how can the machine learning community fight
back?
A new paper from UC Berkeley and Adobe researchers declares war on
fake images. Leveraging a custom dataset and fresh evaluation metric,
the research team introduces a general image forensics approach that
achieves high average precision in the detection of CNN-generated
imagery
Spotting such generated images may seem to be a
relatively simple task — just train a classifier using fake images
versus real images. In fact, the challenge is far more complicated for a
number of reasons. Fake images would likely be generated from different
datasets, which would incorporate different dataset biases. Fake
features are more difficult to detect when the training dataset of the
model differs from the dataset used to generate the fake image. Also,
network architectures and loss functions can quickly evolve beyond the
abilities of a fake image detection model. Finally, images may be
pre-processed or post-processed, which increases the difficulty in
identifying common features across a set of fake images.
To
address these and other issues, the researchers built a dataset of
CNN-based generation models spanning a variety of architectures,
datasets and loss functions. Real images were then pre-processed and an
equal number of fake images generated from each model — from GANs to
deepfakes. Due to its high variety, the resulting dataset minimizes
biases from either training datasets or model architectures.
The fake image detection model was built on ProGAN, an unconditional
GAN model for random image generation with simple CNN based structure,
and trained on the new dataset. Evaluated on various CNN image
generating methods, the model’s average precision was significantly
higher than the control groups.
Data augmentation is another approach the researchers used to improve
detection of fake images that had been post-processed after generation.
The training images (fake/real) underwent several additional
augmentation variants, from Gaussian blur to JPEG compression.
Researchers found that including data augmentation in the training set
significantly increased model robustness, especially when dealing with
post-processed images.
Researchers find the “fingerprint†of CNN-generated images.
The researchers note however that even the best detector will still
have trade-offs between true detection and false-positive rates, and it
is very likely a malicious user could simply handpick a simple fake
image that passes the detection threshold. Another concern is that the
post-processing effects added to fake images may increase detection
difficulty, since the fake image fingerprints might be distorted during
the post-processing. There are also many fake images that were not
generated but rather photoshopped, and the detector won’t work on images
produced through such shallow methods
The new study does a fine job of identifying the fingerprint of
images doctored with various CNN-based image synthesis methods. The
researchers however caution that this is one battle — the war on fake
images has only just begun.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 12:23 PM on Wednesday, January 22nd, 2020
SPONSOR: BetterU Education Corp.
aims to provide access to quality education from around the world.
The company plans to bridge the prevailing gap in the education and job
industry and enhance the lives of its prospective learners by developing
an integrated ecosystem. Click here for more information.
Sequoia scores 21-fold return in Indian edtech exit
PRAMUGDHA MAMGAIN, DealStreetAsia
Investors in the world’s most valuable education technology startup Byju’s have reaped roughly $314 million in a partial selldown of the company.
Byju’s shares sold to General Atlantic, Naspers Ventures and Canada Pension Plan
NEW DELHI — Investors in the world’s most valuable education
technology startup Byju’s have reaped roughly $314 million in a partial
selldown of the company.
Sequoia Capital, Times Internet, SCHF PV Mauritius, and Mark
Zuckerberg’s philanthropic organization the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
have together managed to take home about 22.3 billion rupees by partly
selling their stakes in the company in 2019, reported Entrackr, a
technology news provider focused on India.
These investors have offloaded their shares to the other backers of
Byju’s including General Atlantic, Naspers Ventures and Canada Pension
Plan, in the partial exit scheme.
Quoting the company’s filings, the report said that Sequoia received
21.13 times its initial investment while Times Internet made a
seven-times return.
SCHF PV Mauritius, via a secondary transaction, and the Chan
Zuckerberg Initiative have also managed to bag returns of around seven
times their investment.
Founders Divya Gokulnath Ravindran and Zeus Education Promoter’s continue to hold more than 30% of the company.
Byju’s, operated by Bengaluru-based Think and Learn, was recently in
the news for raising $200 million in fresh funding from New York-based
investment firm Tiger Global at an $8 billion valuation. Byju’s was
valued at $5.5 billion when it raised $150 million in a funding round
led by Qatar Investment Authority in July last year. Owl Ventures, an
education technology investor, also participated in that round.
In December 2018, Byju’s raised $540 million led by Naspers, with
participation from the likes of Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and
General Atlantic. That round had valued the company at roughly $3.6
billion. General Atlantic topped its investment with another 750 million
rupees to 800 million rupees in the company in March last year.
Until now, the company has raised about $1.2 billion across rounds.
Other investors in the Indian company include Verlinvest, Lightspeed
Venture Partners, Aarin Capital and Tencent Holdings.
The company’s net loss narrowed to 149.1 million rupees for the
financial year ended March 2019, compared with a net loss of 371.9
million a year ago. The company claimed to have turned profitable in
June 2018 after achieving $14.3 million in monthly revenues.
DealStreetAsia is a
financial news site based in Singapore focused on corporate investment
activity in Southeast Asia and India. Nikkei recently acquired a
majority stake in the company.
NEW DELHI — Investors in the world’s most valuable education
technology startup Byju’s have reaped roughly $314 million in a partial
selldown of the company.
Sequoia Capital, Times Internet, SCHF PV Mauritius, and Mark
Zuckerberg’s philanthropic organization the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
have together managed to take home about 22.3 billion rupees by partly
selling their stakes in the company in 2019, reported Entrackr, a
technology news provider focused on India.
These investors have offloaded their shares to the other backers of
Byju’s including General Atlantic, Naspers Ventures and Canada Pension
Plan, in the partial exit scheme.
Quoting the company’s filings, the report said that Sequoia received
21.13 times its initial investment while Times Internet made a
seven-times return.
SCHF PV Mauritius, via a secondary transaction, and the Chan
Zuckerberg Initiative have also managed to bag returns of around seven
times their investment.
Founders Divya Gokulnath Ravindran and Zeus Education Promoter’s continue to hold more than 30% of the company.
Byju’s, operated by Bengaluru-based Think and Learn, was recently in
the news for raising $200 million in fresh funding from New York-based
investment firm Tiger Global at an $8 billion valuation. Byju’s was
valued at $5.5 billion when it raised $150 million in a funding round
led by Qatar Investment Authority in July last year. Owl Ventures, an
education technology investor, also participated in that round.
In December 2018, Byju’s raised $540 million led by Naspers, with
participation from the likes of Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and
General Atlantic. That round had valued the company at roughly $3.6
billion. General Atlantic topped its investment with another 750 million
rupees to 800 million rupees in the company in March last year.
Until now, the company has raised about $1.2 billion across rounds.
Other investors in the Indian company include Verlinvest, Lightspeed
Venture Partners, Aarin Capital and Tencent Holdings.
The company’s net loss narrowed to 149.1 million rupees for the
financial year ended March 2019, compared with a net loss of 371.9
million a year ago. The company claimed to have turned profitable in
June 2018 after achieving $14.3 million in monthly revenues.
DealStreetAsia is a
financial news site based in Singapore focused on corporate investment
activity in Southeast Asia and India. Nikkei recently acquired a
majority stake in the company.Education Times looks at the massive tr ..
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 11:21 AM on Wednesday, January 22nd, 2020
SPONSOR:ThreeD Capital Inc. (IDK:CSE)
Led by legendary financier, Sheldon Inwentash, ThreeD is a
Canadian-based venture capital firm that only invests in best of breed
small-cap companies which are both defensible and mass scalable. More
than just lip service, Inwentash has financed many of Canada’s biggest
small-cap exits. Click Here For More Information.
Square’s Crypto Division Finally Releases Details of First Bitcoin Product
Last year, Jack Dorsey — the chief executive of both Square and Twitter — began to openly shill Bitcoin in a number of public channels.
Naturally, his love for Bitcoin extended into his companies, with Square announcing a new division called Square Crypto in 2019.
For instance, on the Joe Rogan Podcast, he revealed that he thinks
the cryptocurrency will become a native currency of the Internet, and
during an official earnings call for his fintech company Square, he took
some time to tout his love for Bitcoin.
Naturally, his love for Bitcoin extended into his companies, with Square announcing a new division called Square Crypto in 2019.
Dorsey’s premise was that someone told him the most important thing
he could do for Bitcoin is to “make the broader crypto ecosystem
better,†hence the creation of this new division to do “what’s best for
the crypto community and individual economic empowerment.â€
#BitcoinTwitter and #CryptoTwitter!
Square is hiring 3-4 crypto engineers and 1 designer to work full-time
on open source contributions to the bitcoin/crypto ecosystem. Work from
anywhere, report directly to me, and we can even pay you in bitcoin!
Introducing @SqCrypto. Why?
The team leader, a former senior employee at Google, did mention
products meant to improve the usability of Bitcoin as a day-to-day form
of money but was slow to elucidate any ventures it was eyeing.
But today, we got our answer.
Square Crypto Unveils First Product, a Bitcoin Lightning Network Developer Kit
This is kind of like a traditional software development kit (SDK) but
focused on the Lightning Network, a second-layer scaling solution that
effectively migrates some transactions off the main chain to allow for
lightning-fast, effectively free, and cross-chain transfers.
We’ve got the team. We’ve got the mission. We’ve got hit or miss
tweets. And now it’s time to talk about what we’re building: Introducing
the Lightning Development Kit, or LDK. https://t.co/o73cJy7Cur
The LDK, the post indicates, will allow wallet developers to create
“custom†integrations of the Network in an “easy, safe, and configurable
way†through an API, demo apps, and other technical tools.
As to what exactly the LDK can be used for, at least from a top-down perspective, Square Crypto gave three examples:
1) Adding Lightning capabilities to existing bitcoin wallets — no
need to create a separate wallet just for Lightning. 2) Supporting
multi-device, multi-application access to a single wallet. 3) Allowing
wallets to make UX/security/privacy tradeoffs such as external
transaction signing and customizing their state backup to a cloud
service.
Essentially, it should make the integration of the Lightning Network
into existing or up-and-coming cryptocurrency software much easier than
it is, and should, therefore, increase the adoption of the scaling
solution with ample time.
It’s kind of like a shoehorn, but with the shoe being Bitcoin software and the foot being the Lightning Network…
Very Good Timing
The release of the LDK comes at a very good time, with the Lightning
Network once again entering the minds of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency
enthusiasts.
Per previous reports from Blockonomi, Bitcoin proponent Hodlonaut has started what is known as the Lightning Network Trust Chain for the second time.
Last time, this challenge, which sees individuals use the Lightning
Network and large BTC transactions to create a link between Twitter
accounts, gained much steam. Dorsey and LinkedIn and Microsoft board
member Reid Hoffman participated in the Chain, amongst other prominent
members of the community.
And as a result, the Lightning Network saw a flurry of growth, with
the capacity of the Network nearly doubling in value during the time the
chain was being formed.
With the arrival of the second Trust Chain and Square Crypto’s new
Lightning Network kit, this Bitcoin scaling solution could see a
micro-renaissance, so to say.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 5:07 PM on Tuesday, January 21st, 2020
SPONSOR: New Age Metals Inc.
The company owns one of North America’s largest primary platinum
group metals deposit in Sudbury, Canada. Updated NI 43-101 Mineral
Resource Estimate 2,867,000 PdEq Measured and Indicated Ounces, with an
additional 1,059,000 PdEq Ounces Inferred. Learn More.
More precious than gold: Why the metal palladium is soaring
The price of the precious metal palladium has soared on the global commodities markets.
It has jumped by more than 25% in the last two weeks alone, and almost doubled in value over the last year.
At about $2,500 (£1,922) an ounce of palladium is more expensive than
gold, and the pressures forcing its price up are unlikely to ease
anytime soon.
But what is palladium, what is it used for, and why is its price rising?
What is palladium?
It is a shiny white metal in the same group as platinum, along with ruthenium, rhodium, osmium, and iridium.
The majority of the world’s palladium comes from Russia and South
Africa. Most of it is extracted as a byproduct in the mining of other
metals, usually platinum and nickel.
What is it used for?
Its key commercial use is as a critical component in catalytic
converters – a part of a car’s exhaust system that controls emissions –
found mainly in petrol and hybrid vehicles.
The vast majority of palladium, more than 80%, is used in these
devices that turn toxic gases, such as carbon monoxide, and nitrogen
dioxide, into less harmful nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and water vapour.
Image copyright Getty Images
Image caption Catalytic converters are relatively easy to remove from vehicles
It is also used, to a far lesser extent, in electronics, dentistry, and jewellery.
London’s Metropolitan police said the number of thefts in the first
six months of 2019 were more than 70% higher than the whole of the
previous year.
Why is its price rising?
In short, it is because demand for palladium outstrips supply, and it has done for some time.
The amount of the metal produced in 2019 is forecast to be below global demand for the eighth year in a row.
As a secondary product of platinum and nickel extraction, miners have
less flexibility to increase palladium output in response to rising
prices.
And that shortfall looks set to continue, with South Africa, which
produces around 40% of the world’s supply, last week saying its output
of platinum group metals, including palladium, fell by 13.5% in November
compared to a year earlier.
Meanwhile, demand for palladium from car makers has increased sharply for a number of reasons.
Around the world governments, notably China, are tightening
regulations as they attempt to tackle air pollution from petrol
vehicles.
At the same time the diesel emissions scandal in Europe
has also had an impact. Consumers there have been shifting away from
diesel cars, which mostly use platinum in their catalytic converters,
and are instead buying petrol-driven vehicles, which use palladium.
The US-China trade deal,
which was signed earlier this month, has also boosted prices. Traders
expect the agreement to help ease downward pressure on global economic
growth and slow the decline in Chinese car sales.
Proprietary technology platforms including Electronic Health Records portal and e-Commerce for CBD product distribution
Recently launched CBD extraction facility
First extraction system capacity = 6,000 Kg per year.
CBD based products are poised to be a $20B global industry by 2022
Medical cannabis is poised to be a $100B global industry by 2025
Global pot execs descend on Davos for cannabis conference
Cannabis executives will be touching down in Davos, Switzerland for the second year in a row as the industry looks to influence some of the participants of this year’s World Economic Forum.
Bloomberg News reports that one of the sponsors of the Davos “Cannabis House†aims at having a more formal and professional presence at the event than last year. Some of the topics that will be discussed include sustainability, climate change, social equity and impact investing. Speakers from Israel, Switzerland and Asia will also be present, ensuring that the two-day conference isn’t rife with commentary from executives in North America, which has so far been the epicentre of the legal cannabis space.
Physician Groups Order The Heartcheck(TM) Cardibeat For In-Home Arrhythmia And Atrial Fibrillation Monitoring
Confirms market traction with orders being placed by physician
groups for the newly launched HeartCheck™ CardiBeat Handheld ECG monitor
and GEMS™ Mobile Smartphone app for prescribed in-home arrhythmia
monitoring.
Partners in Advanced Cardiac Evaluation, the largest arrhythmia
practice in Ontario (Canada) placed a first order of the HeartCheck™
CardiBeat Handheld ECG monitors and is recommending its patients to use
the devices for one year of in-home, self-monitoring with an emphasis on
detecting a recurrence of Atrial Fibrillation following cardiac
ablation treatment for AF.
