Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 3:29 PM on Thursday, July 11th, 2019
The Lomiko Metals (LMR:TSXV; LMRMF:OTCQB) flagship, high-grade graphite project (La Loutre) was already looking pretty impressive before its most recent press release, with the following attributes”
Indicated + inferred resource of 10 M Tonnes of 6% Cg at the Graphene-Battery Zone.
120 km from Montreal
53 km from the only operating graphite mine in North America (5.2M Tonnes of 7.42% Cg)
Located in the mining + green friendly Province Of Quebec
Despite this, CEO Paul Gill wanted more tonnage and higher grade to really position La Loutre as a serious supply source for the multiple battery factors set for completion throughout North America in the next couple of years. Well, it looks like he may very well have got it. On July 9, Lomiko announced results from the remaining 16 holes (of 21) from the 2019 program and the headline says it all: “Multiple 100m + Intercepts and Multiple 10% + Cg Zones At La Loutre. Next Steps: 43-101 Resource and Pre-Economic Assessment”.
The headline and next steps speak for themselves but we sat down with Paul Gill to discuss next steps even further. Specifically, positioning and timing of the Company to become a serious supplier of high-grade graphite to the North American batter market. The conversation was a great one and well worth watching, so grab a cold beverage, cool off from the hot summer heat and watch what Paul has to say.
On
May 25 2019, Quebec Premier François Legault said he has looked into
the future and it is electric. Specifically, he wants the province to
cut its oil consumption by 40% by 2030 and be replaced entirely by clean
electricity.
If you didn’t know any better, you would think that CEO, Paul Gill, wrote the speech given by Quebec Premier in which he stated “If we help our neighbours, we help the planet. It’s a win-win for Quebec and for the planet. Let’s become the green battery of North America.†Hey, for all we know, Paul Gill IS the Quebec Premier …. because the speech put Lomiko’s high-grade graphite project (La Loutre), located just 117 km’s North of Montreal, in the direct path of a very green future.
La Loutre has an indicated resource of 18.4 M Tonnes of 3.19% .. and that is just from one zone. That number is expected to rise after the Company releases the remaining 15 holes of a 20 hole drill program which has already seen great success in the first 5 holes. Gill has always stated that his high-grade graphite will be ideal for electric vehicle batteries and wants to be in a position to supply some or all of the several giga factories being built in North America. That was already a great plan, until the Quebec Premier stated: “Any new trains, tramways and buses financed by the Quebec government will have to be electric by 2030 and, for the most part, built in Quebec”
After more than 10 years of preparing for the electric future and developing La Loutre, it appears the electric future is coming directly to Lomiko.
Watch this interview to see exactly what Paul Gill has to say … and then continue your due diligence here.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 2:00 PM on Thursday, July 11th, 2019
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.
————-
‘Google Coin’ Within 2 Years as FANGs Will Go Crypto, Say Winklevoss
Speaking about Facebook Libra, the twins, who co-founded cryptocurrency trading platform Gemini, said it was only a matter of time before other tech giants followed suit.Â
Speaking about Facebook Libra, the twins, who co-founded cryptocurrency trading platform Gemini, said it was only a matter of time before other tech giants followed suit.
FANG refers to the unofficial “Big Four†of the internet: Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google.
“Our prediction is every FANG company will have some sort of
cryptocurrency project within the next two years,†Tyler told the
network.
Libra as a payment protocol has not yet launched, but regulators have voiced alarm, particularly in the United States, where several sources have demanded developers halt the project.
Concerns stem from Libra’s potential to bypass the banking system,
something cryptocurrency proponents conversely argue makes the banking establishment overly nervous about losing revenue.
On Thursday, Bitcoin (BTC) itself shed over 10% of its value after a senior U.S. lawmaker delivered fresh concerns about Libra.
For the Winklevosses, however, front-door approaches to regulators is key in getting any disruptive finance offering to market.
Though many say it is not a cryptocurrency at all, the twins even
suggested they would facilitate trading of Libra on Gemini, should it be
open and not subject to prohibitive restrictions.
“We’ll evaluate Libra in earnest, and it might actually be an asset
that is one day listed if it’s an open protocol; that’s possible,†Tyler
continued.
Earlier this week, Tom Lee,
a serial Bitcoin advocate, delivered a similar forecast regarding tech
giants’ future involvement in the digital currency industry.
“The fact that Facebook and likely other FANG companies are going to
create their own digital currencies is validating the idea that digital
money is here to stay,†he told CNBC.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 2:00 PM on Thursday, July 11th, 2019
Over the last 10 weeks, BetterU (BTRU:TSXV) has issued a string of news releases regarding clients, partnerships, financing and personnel that strongly indicate the Company’s online education marketplace in India is on the cusp of hitting its commercialization stage. July 15, 2019 may very well turn out to be the day BTRU hit the start gun, with a massive national ad campaign set to launch along with their partner NSDC (“National Skills Development Corporation”).
NSDC is a public/private partnership under the government of India whose mandate is the creation of skills development and vocational training. With upwards of 150 million people across 38 industries requiring skill training, the task is a daunting one for NSDC who now believes “a formal partnership would enable the advancement of our collective efforts towards skilling India” (Manish Kumar, MD & CEO, NSDC).
Is this just another partnership? The size of the July 15 launch says otherwise, with $600,000 being allocated to print, radio and digital throughout India. Moreover, BTRU will be launching its App to coincide with the launch, which will allow Indian citizens to assess their skills sets and needs, then select the right courses to learn the skills necessary to fill jobs throughout India.Â
Watch BTRU CEO, Brad Loiselle, talk more about this ground breaking partnership, the technology behind it and what it could mean for BTRU. George
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 12:27 PM on Wednesday, July 10th, 2019
Preparing to mobilize to the Bonnie Claire project and initiate the 2019 exploration plan
Five drill holes averaging 90 meters (300 feet) depth will be drilled in the southern portion of the project area in an area of anomalous surface lithium values and interpreted faults
Vancouver, British Columbia–(July 10, 2019) – Iconic Minerals Ltd. (TSXV: ICM) (OTC Pink: BVTEF) (FSE: YQGB) (“Company” or “Iconic”)Â is pleased to announce that it is preparing to mobilize to the Bonnie Claire project and initiate the 2019 exploration plan (“Exploration Plan”).
Five drill holes averaging 90 meters (300 feet) depth will be drilled
in the southern portion of the project area in an area of anomalous
surface lithium values and interpreted faults. Down-hole sediment
samples will be collected continuously in 6 meter (20 feet) intervals
and sent to a geochem lab for analysis.
In Addition to the commencement of the Exploration Plan, the Company
would like to announce that it has received the draft report titled: “Bonnie Claire Metallurgical Evaluation and Process Development”,
by St. Georges Eco Mining (‘SX”), who collaborated with an independent
lab, SGS Lakefield Laboratories (“SGS”) where an elemental analysis and
crystalline analysis of Bonnie Claire’s material were performed.
Iconic’s technical team is reviewing the report in conjunction with
independent verification in accordance with 43-101 compliant standards.
The Bonnie Claire Lithium Property Characteristics:
The Property is located within Sarcobatus Valley that is
approximately 30 km (19 miles) long and 20 km (12 miles) wide.
Quartz-rich volcanic tuffs, that contain anomalous amounts of lithium,
occur within and adjacent to the valley. Geochemical analysis of the
local salt flats has yielded lithium values up to 340 ppm. The gravity
low within the valley is 20 km (12 miles) long, and the current
estimates of depth to basement rocks range from 600 to 1,200 meters
(2,000 to 4,000 feet). Four drill holes have identified an open ended,
43-101 compliant resource of 28.58 billion kilograms of lithium
carbonate equivalent. The drilling that defined the current resource
only covered an area of 3.0 km2 (1.2mi2), while previously run MT
geophysics show a potentially mineralized area of 27.3 km2 (10.5mi2).
Drilling to date has shown strong correlation between the MT results and
the lithium mineralization. The thickness of the lithium mineralization
is unknown, but drilling indicates it is greater than 600 meters (2,000
feet). The current claim block covers an area of 57.5 km2 (22.2mi2).
Further drilling has been permitted and metallurgy to determine the most
efficient recovery method is currently in progress.
Richard Kern, Certified Professional Geologist (#11494) and CEO of
Iconic is the Qualified Person who has prepared and reviewed this press
release in accordance with NI 43-101 reporting standards.
On behalf of the Board of Directors
Richard Kern, President and CEO Contact: Keturah Nathe, VP Corporate Development (604) 336-8614
For further information on ICM, please visit our website at iconicmineralsltd.com. The Company’s public documents may be accessed at www.sedar.com
Forward Statement: This news release includes
certain forward-looking statements or information. All statements other
than statements of historical fact included in this release are
forward-looking statements that involve various risks and uncertainties.
There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be
accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially
from those anticipated in such statements. Iconic expressly disclaims
any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking
statements whether as a result of new information, future events or
otherwise except as otherwise required by applicable securities
legislation.
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.
India’s Byju’s raises $150 million to expand globally
Byju’s, India’s most valuable edtech startup, has received new $150 million as it races to expand the reach of its learning app in the country and some international markets.
Byju’s, India’s most valuable edtech startup, has received new $150
million as it races to expand the reach of its learning app in the
country and some international markets.
The unnamed financing round was led by Qatar Investment Authority
(QIA), the sovereign wealth fund of the State of Qatar, and included
participation from Owl Ventures, a leading investor in education tech
startups. This is Owl Venture’s first investment in an Indian startup. A
person familiar with the matter said the new round valued Byju’s at
$5.75 billion, up from nearly $4 billion last year.
The startup, which has raised about $925 million to date, said it
would use the fresh capital to aggressively explore and expand in
international markets. The startup has previously said it plans to enter
the U.S. and UK, Australia, and New Zealand.
Byju’s helps all school-going children understand complex subjects
through its app where tutors use real life objects such as pizza and
cake. It also prepares students who are pursuing under graduate and
graduate level courses. Over the years, Byju’s has invested in tweaking
the English accents in its app and adapted to different education
systems. It has amassed more than 35 million registered users, about 2.4
million of which are paid customers.
“Investment from prominent sovereign and pension funds validates our
strong business fundamentals. Indian ed-tech firms attracting interest
from eminent investors demonstrates that India is pioneering the digital
learning space globally,†Byju Raveendran, founder and CEO of Byju’s,
said in a statement.
In India, Byju’s competes with a handful of players, including
Bangalore-based Unacademy, which is aimed at students who are preparing
for graduation-level courses. It raised $50 million last month.
India has the largest population in the world in the age bracket of 5
to 24 years. A report by KPMG and Google in 2017 estimated that the
country’s online education market would grow to $1.96 billion of sales
by 2021.
Byju’s generated around $205 million in revenue in the fiscal year
that ended in March. It plans to increase that figure to over $430
million this year. Raveendran has stated that the startup intends to go
public in the next two to three years.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 12:00 PM on Tuesday, July 9th, 2019
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.
————-
Major Improvements Are Coming To Blockchain In 2020
Everyone in the enterprise world already has a blockchain strategy.
If they don’t have one now, they risk the chance of staying behind or simply missing an opportunity.
Everyone in the enterprise world already has a blockchain strategy.
If they don’t have one now, they risk the chance of staying behind or
simply missing an opportunity. For the last few years, the benefits and
correlated risks of fully adopting blockchain technology have been
estimated, analyzed, and discussed at large. One thing is clear –
despite the potential for a big upside, embracing a newly developed
technology presents numerous risks that shouldn’t be underestimated.
Blindly introducing new technology stack into an already working
production environment means exposing that environment to potentially
dangerous security breaches, hacks and data loss.
So, where we are now? Most blockchain protocols claim some level or
maturity … but are they, in fact, sufficiently mature? Are they ready
for full on-premise deployment in large-scale enterprises? Will CIOs and
other business executives enjoy the same comfort as that of the tooling
they already have? Let’s review what it takes to move a blockchain
protocol from open source to enterprise.
It’s no surprise that the largest cloud providers are also the largest drivers of the Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) model. Let’s call them Tier 1 BaaS
providers. They have already established themselves as market leaders
with large customer bases. Offering various cloud services and expanding
to blockchain seemed to be a logical and evolutional step.
Microsoft Azure
Microsoft is one of the largest players in the BaaS space. So far, it
has focused primarily on Ethereum but also offers services for running
R3’s Corda and Hyperledger Fabric networks. It has dedicated many
resources to building the Azure Blockchain Workbench and Azure Blockchain Service. Microsoft’s team is also a key founder and an active participant in the Ethereum Enterprise Alliance
(EEA) and Token Taxonomy Initiative (TTI). In addition, it has recently
joined the Hyperledger family, for which it will contribute to the code
and promise be an active member.
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
AWS and Microsoft Azure have almost equally split control of the
managed blockchain space, though your niche will determine which of
these services you use. If you are into financial services, you would
probably use Azure, but if you are into healthcare, insurance, or other
verticals, your choice is probably AWS. Recently, AWS has made publicly
available its Managed Blockchain
offering. It supports only Hyperledger Fabric for now but there are
plans to integrate Ethereum too. AWS has also invested in the
development of Amazon Quantum Ledger Database (QLDB), which is an append-only database with a cryptographically verifiable transaction log.
IBM Cloud
IBM is one of the primary maintainers of Hyperledger Fabric’s source
code and, thus, is heavily involved in providing cloud services and
product updates for it. Lately, IBM has opened its IBM Blockchain 2.0 to
be multi-cloud, which means you can run your Fabric network across
various cloud providers.
Oracle Blockchain
The Oracle blockchain platform
has based its solution only on Hyperledger Fabric, which is not ideal
but offers some neat services like enhance node provisioning, blockchain
explorer and improved security.
VMWare
VMWare clearly saw the issues that affect the current blockchain infrastructure. It is working to resolve these issues with Concord, a highly scalable and energy-efficient distributed trust infrastructure for consensus and smart contract execution.
VMWare Blockchain
VMWare
Apart from the major cloud providers, in 2018 we saw the birth of
Blockchain as a Service companies that base their products on top of
existing cloud computing platforms; let’s call them Tier 2 BaaS.
They are usually smaller, more agile startups that can push new
offerings almost every month. This makes them very good choices for a
faster go-to-market strategy. Their solutions are wide and colorful, and
they usually cover different blockchain protocols. They remain unable
to address most enterprise needs yet, but they will stay on the right
track and be an attractive option as long as the establishment doesn’t
disrupt them. The names that stand out in this category are Kaleido and Blockdaemon.
What are the enterprise needs from a blockchain perspective? Where do
we want to see improvements so that we can fully use the benefits of
decentralized ledger technology? Let’s separate the main requirements
into four categories: platform; interfaces; infrastructure and network;
and security and analytics.
Platform
Operational resilience – ability to maintain uptime and connectivity
even when some components fail, including several layers of protection
and failover strategy against data loss and corruption.
Pluggable consensus – ability to switch the consensus mechanism
depending on the requirements without rebuilding the whole network.
Broader off-chain data storage capabilities – support for encrypted data storage.
Adaptors to allow for SQL-based ledger queries, which will make the
broader developer community more comfortable working with blockchain.
Interfaces
Enterprise integrations – pre-built modules and onramps for existing enterprise systems.
Robust Oracles – ability to get real-time external data into smart contracts.Watch out for Chainlink.
Integration with GraphQL, a
Facebook-developed language that provides a powerful API to get only the
dataset you need in a single request, seamlessly combining data
sources.
Identity federation – ability to authenticate with existing identity
providers, which will facilitate faster adoption on the consortium
level.
Built-in privacy and permissioning features – for transactions, accounts, wallets, smart contracts and network participants.
Infrastructure and Network
Ability to maintain peak performance at the network level – managing
and operating hundreds of thousands of nodes while maintaining low
latency and facilitating hundreds of thousands of transactions with
guaranteed finality.
Ability to scale and reduce network size on demand – auto-scale a network by adding/removing more validators or orderers.
DevOps tools to make integration with existing IT systems easier and to make CI/CD build processes faster and seamless.
Support for cross-network interoperability and cross-blockchain atomic swaps.
Governance framework with an established and pre-determined
transparent structure, rules of participation, a funding model, and
financial incentives.
Enhanced Security and Analytics
Detailed privacy controls over data, smart contract execution, and transaction visibility.
Improved network monitoring with enhanced contextual meaning of the transactions, ability to troubleshoot on-chain events.
SLA monitoring with backward compatibility of upgrades.
Warehousing transaction history data, combining them with other
off-chain data sources and making them available for BI reporting tools
and other interactive dashboards.
As discussed, the blockchain technology stack has a long way to go
before it will be mature enough for mainstream enterprise adoption. This
is a completely normal process, as software developers and business
leaders transition their mindsets from the currently siloed and
centralized infrastructure to the distributed ledger networks. Luckily,
we are at the forefront of this technological revolution and have the
chance to contribute to what, one day, will be the norm.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 4:00 PM on Monday, July 8th, 2019
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———————–
This NFL giant just got into esports, and here’s what the tipping point was
On Tuesday, Activision Blizzard revealed that the Wilf family’s WISE Ventures investment fund, founded by Vikings owners Mark and Zygi Wilf, will become part of its upcoming Call of Duty league by fielding a Minnesota-based team.
It’s just the first step in getting in on the “next evolution of entertainment.â€
That’s how Jonathan Wilf describes his family’s, and subsequently the Minnesota Vikings’, first esports play. On Tuesday, Activision Blizzard
revealed that the Wilf family’s WISE Ventures investment fund, founded
by Vikings owners Mark and Zygi Wilf, will become part of its upcoming
Call of Duty league by fielding a Minnesota-based team.
And while the Vikings owners have had their eye on the esports
industry for awhile, it was Activision Blizzard’s approach to building
the space that led them to finally get in on the hype. Just like their
Overwatch League, the gaming giant intends to run another city-based
franchise with Call of Duty as inspired by traditional sports leagues.
“Having watched closely as the ecosystem evolved and matured with the
first few years of franchised leagues, we are confident in the
long-term potential of what Activision Blizzard is building and in the
esports industry as a whole,†Wilf told CNBC.
This makes the Vikings the latest traditional sports entity to charge
into the esports industry, which research firm Newzoo projects will
generate over one billion dollars in revenue this year. That’s a
year-on-year growth of 27% with the North American market accounting for
over a third of that $1.1 billion revenue.
But the Vikings are also entering a field where a good number of
traditional sports giants have already snapped up slots in various
leagues or started their own esports branches. Take-Two’s
NBA 2K League, for example, features 21 teams that are each owned by
their respective city franchises. Activision Blizzard’s Overwatch
League, which features city-based franchise teams, also boasts a few
traditional sports entities including the owners of the New England
Patriots and the Los Angeles Rams.
These same traditional sports entities have also been wheeling and
dealing in the space. In 2017, the Houston Rockets paid $13 million for a
slot in Riot Games’ League of Legends North American league. This past
April, the Rockets sold their League of Legends team, known as Clutch
Gaming, to Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, the parent company
of the Philadelphia 76ers, the New Jersey Devils and esports team
Dignitas, for a reported $20 million.
But despite their later entry into esports, Wilf emphasizes that the
Vikings owners were waiting for what they perceived as a strong
investment that would give them a solid foothold in the space.
“For us, investing in esports was never about being first, it was
about finding the right opportunity at the right time,†said Wilf. “The
proven staying power of Call of Duty as a franchise certainly factored
into our thinking.â€
Wilf also revealed that WISE Ventures is looking to expand into other
games, and that they are exploring the possibility of building an
esports-dedicated arena in Eagan, Minnesota on the Vikings Lakes campus.
The Call of Duty league is set to launch in 2020, and its addition of
the Wilf family brings the total number of announced teams to seven.
Back in March, ESPN reported that franchise spots for the new esports
league were being sold at $25 million per slot, though Activision
Blizzard has never confirmed that number.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 11:27 AM on Monday, July 8th, 2019
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Ventures Inc (CSE: BOG) Converting irrigated farmland to
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and only provides agricultural infrastructure as a landlord for
licensed marijuana growers. Click here for more info.
BOG:CSE —————————————
Canada’s cannabis supply issues are real, despite feds’ denial, says business professor
A Canadian business professor says Bill Blair, Minister of Border Security and Organized Crime Reduction, was simply wrong when he said Canada’s cannabis supply shortage was “non-existent.â€
A Canadian business professor says Bill Blair, Minister of Border Security and Organized Crime Reduction, was simply wrong when he said Canada’s cannabis supply shortage was “non-existent.â€
On Wednesday, Rod Phillips, Ontario’s minister of finance, and Doug
Downey, Ontario’s attorney general, criticized a federal cannabis supply
shortage when announcing Ontario will be licensing 50 new cannabis retail locations across Ontario.
Blair shot back, saying Ontario was “making excuses†and using a
“non-existent supply shortage,†for their slow success in subverting the
illegal cannabis market in the province.
Blair pointed to Health Canada data that showed in April alone, Canada’s overall cannabis inventory was 24 times more than total sales that month.
But Michael Armstrong, a professor at the Goodman School of Business
at Brock University, said the federal government is using seemingly
impressive data to skirt around the fact that there are still
significant supply issues in Canada.
“They are wildly incorrect to say there’s no cannabis shortage and
that there’s enough legal cannabis for those who want it,†Armstrong
said in an email.
Canada’s cannabis supply
Armstrong says the majority of Canada’s cannabis inventory, more than
85 per cent of it, is unfinished — that means raw cannabis product that
has not been processed, packaged and made ready to sell.
Health Canada data shows that the majority of Canada’s cannabis supply is not ready to sell.
Health Canada
Some of that inventory may also never be ready to sell.
“Some of it, unfortunately, may not be sellable, whether that’s
contamination or microbial risk or pesticides or anything of that
nature,†said John Fowler, president of Supreme Cannabis and vice-chair of the Cannabis Council of Canada,
a cannabis business association. “The law does not allow licensed
producers to sell that product but it also doesn’t require them to
immediately destroy it.â€
Armstrong also criticized Blair and Health Canada for equating sales of legal cannabis with national demand.
“Sales isn’t the relevant measure of demand here, because legal sales
satisfy just a fraction of total consumption; most is met by black
markets,†Armstrong says.
Legal marijuana retailers are competing with illegal dealers,
Armstrong says, so to use legal sales as a benchmark for demand in
Canada is wrong.
“No one really knows how big the black market is and how much total consumption there is,†Armstrong said.
Nevertheless, he has estimated, using Health Canada data from a
report they commissioned on estimated cannabis use in the fall, overall
demand of dried cannabis, including illegal and medical sales, would
land somewhere around 56,000 kilograms a month.
Health Canada has been tracking cannabis sales since legalization on
their website. Numbers for April show dried cannabis sales reached just
below 9,000 kilograms, leaving just over 13,000 kilograms inventory
available to sell.
WATCH: Industry experts: Education on cannabis edibles needed
If Armstrong’s numbers are correct, this would leave a 43,000 kilogram gap that may have been filled by illegal sales.
“They’re looking at sales as their consumption. Businesses often do
that — they look at ‘are we keeping up with sales,’ but they’re doing
that when they have a healthy industry where sales is almost equal to
demand,†Armstrong said.
Blair’s team said Health Canada is holding up their end of the bargain when it comes to licensing producers.
As of March 31, 2019, Health Canada says federally licensed
cultivators are reporting nearly 700,000 square metres of land under
active cultivation, which can produce 1 million kilograms of cannabis
per year.
“This is roughly equivalent to estimates of the total quantity of
cannabis (legal and illegal) consumed in Canada, made by independent
market analysts, the Parliamentary Budget Officer and federal government
departments,†said Marie-Emmanuelle Cadieux, senior communications
advisor for Blair.
But Armstrong maintains that the numbers show the industry is continuing to have trouble meeting demand.
Getting cannabis on the shelves
In the past, Health Canada has acknowledged that Canada’s supply
issues don’t lie with the creation of the product, but rather with the
production process itself.
What exactly is wrong with production is a bit of a mystery,
Armstrong said. Whether it’s that producers are not growing high enough
volumes of quality cannabis that can turn into dry cannabis, or they
don’t have production facilities, or there are still issues with
shipping, Armstrong said he can only speculate.
“Big inventories are not translating into shipments going out the door,†Armstrong said.
Armstrong said that issues with federally mandated labelling could
have also slowed things down. He also guessed that certain producers
focused on getting greenhouses ready for marketing purpose rather than
setting up a production line that could handle orders coming in from
huge markets like the Ontario Cannabis Store.
John Fowler, is chalking production issues up to growing pains of a new market.
“I think, overall, things have been working pretty well,†said
Fowler. “Perhaps there was a lack of understanding of the complexity,
not just regulatory complexity of license approvals, but just building
the businesses and the supply chains to go from a market that literally
didn’t exist on October 17th.â€
Fowler said at this point, every part of the industry is being
stretched. It’s taking time to get licenses for smaller growers, as well
as licenses to expand growing spaces, and packaging and equipment
manufacturers are also being weighed down by a huge surge in demand.
“It’s one of those things it’s not one issue that’s holding the industry back from meeting its growth objectives.â€
When it comes to whether it’s a smart strategy to limit the amount of
cannabis stores in Ontario because of a production issue, Armstrong
says Ontario may be shooting themselves in the foot, considering
provinces like Alberta and British Columbia will have booming markets
with retailers ready to receive the inventory when it’s ready to sell.
But he says, they aren’t wrong in their reasoning for doing so.
“When they say that there’s not enough supply and there’s massive shortages, absolutely, that is correct.â€
In the end, Fowler doesn’t believe these delays, whether to overall
supply or to Ontario’s cannabis stores, will mean much to an industry
that’s meant to last.
“I think cannabis stores hopefully are going to be here for the next
100 years in this province. So a little bit of a six-month delay in
launch to be better for the next ninety-nine-and-a-half years. You know,
I don’t think it is a bad decision.â€
The Minister of Finance did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 10:24 AM on Monday, July 8th, 2019
SPONSOR: Tartisan Nickel (TN:CSE)
Kenbridge Property has a measured and indicated resource of 7.14
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Automakers to trading houses from North America to Europe are
becoming more concerned about future supply shortages of key materials
needed for electric vehicle batteries as spending on new production
soars, according to the developer of a $1.5 billion project in
Australia.
More than a dozen parties have now expressed interest in taking up as much as a 50% stake in Clean TeQ Holdings Ltd.’s
Sunrise nickel-cobalt-scandium project, Chief Executive Officer Sam
Riggall said Monday in an interview. They include companies in regions
that until recently had shown less impetus to tie up raw material
supplies.
“It’s dawning on North America and Europe that there’s a raw
materials issue that needs to be addressed here,†Riggall said by phone.
“For the previous two years, I’ve been wearing out a lot of shoe
leather and banging on a lot of doors trying to get interest in Europe
and North America with very little success. In the last six months
things have changed quite dramatically.â€
Volkswagen AG in May picked Sweden’s Northvolt AB as a partner to start production
of battery cells for electric cars, while the German and French
governments have pledged funding and political support for efforts to
spur a European battery manufacturing industry. In the U.S., the number
of battery electric models available to consumers is forecast to double
by the end of 2021, according to BloombergNEF.
Melbourne-based Clean TeQ, which said last month
it had appointed Macquarie Group Ltd. to run a process to identify a
partner, is seeking final offers for a stake in the Sunrise project by
the end of September, and will aim to complete any sale by the end of
the year, according to Riggall.
China’s grip on lithium-ion battery cell manufacturing is forecast to
loosen through 2025, as new capacity is added close to demand centers
in the U.S. and Europe, BNEF said in a May report.
Battery Shift
New plants will boost lithium-ion battery cell manufacturing in Europe
Source: BloombergNEF
The scale of planned investments in electric lineups means both
automakers and related industries in Europe and North America are
focusing on how to secure future supplies of battery-grade nickel — and
also on ensuring there’s sufficient cobalt after the market tightens
from about 2021 to 2022, Riggall said. “Their minds are being forced to
turn to raw materials,†he said. “They are seeing significant risks on
that side of the business.â€
There’s a looming shortage of nickel sulfate, the material used for
battery products, with demand forecast to outstrip planned new capacity,
BNEF said in a July 2 report. Cobalt demand may also top global supply
from about 2025, according to the note.
Cobalt prices have tumbled since early 2018 on new supply from
incumbent producers in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and as some
battery makers seek to reduce the amount of the metal in their packs.
Nickel has declined about 11% on the London Metal Exchange in the past
year.
Clean TeQ is targeting commerical production at the Sunrise project,
with a forecast mine life of more than 40 years, from 2022, Riggall
said.
