Further to the Press Release dated April 29th, 2019, the company has been awarded a contract of approximately $20M (first year revenues), plus a net present value (using a 5% discount rate) of all subsequent year’s revenues of $35M, giving the Contract a total value of over $55M.
Peter Pascali, President and CEO of PyroGenesis joins us to discuss the contract and exactly what it means for the company.
Sit back and relax, grab a coffee, let us know what you think.
ESCONDIDO, Calif., June 10, 2019 – MARIJUANA COMPANY OF AMERICA, INC., (“MCOA†or the “Companyâ€) (OTCQB: MCOA), an innovative hemp and cannabis corporation, is pleased to announce the signing of a Letter of Intent (“LOIâ€) between Northern Lights Distribution LLC (“NLDâ€) with Alpha Private Equity & Capital LLC (“Alphaâ€) to form a joint venture (“JVâ€) called Magnolia Extracts LLC (“Magnoliaâ€) pursuant to large-scale expansion operations to begin distribution, delivery and manufacturing of its cannabis products in the city of Lynwood, California.
Marijuana Company of America announced in April 2019 that the Company had officially acquired a 20% ownership interest and signed a joint venture agreement with Natural Plant Extract of California (NPE) to establish a premier cannabis delivery company called Viva Buds. NLD, a subsidiary of NPE, has entered into this partnership and will cover costs up to $1.5 million in phased expenditures, allocated to significantly build out a new production facility and utilize the 18,000 square foot building space to create greater efficiency and capacity for its operations.
“As our portfolio of legal cannabis and industrial hemp investments and joint ventures represent a significant portion of our growth strategy, we believe this step represents a strong move forward to establishing our foothold in the market,†said Don Steinberg, Chief Executive Officer of Marijuana Company of America. “This allows us to advance into the next phase of our business plan through NPE, gaining access to over 18,000 square feet of building space. We are confident this joint venture will serve very beneficial for us as well as our investment partner, NLD.â€
Consummation of the transaction remains contingent upon satisfactory completion of due diligence by both parties and completion of, and agreement on, all final terms and conditions of the engagement. Further details on these terms of this LOI are available in the Company’s filing, which can be accessed at www.sec.gov.
About Natural Plant Extracts of California
NPE is
a fully licensed cannabis manufacturing, distribution and
non-storefront retail delivery. The Company has secured its licenses
with the state of California and city of Lynwood, CA. For more
information about the Company, please visit its website at https://nldistribution.com.
The owners and founders of NPE are marijuana industry veterans with
decades of experience in establishing retail, manufacturing and
distribution of cannabis in California, including obtaining the first
retail dispensary licenses in Los Angeles, CA.
About Marijuana Company of America, Inc.
MCOA is a corporation that participates in: (1) product research and development of legal hemp-based consumer products under the brand name hempSMART™, which targets general health and well-being; (2) an affiliate marketing program to promote and sell its legal hemp-based consumer products containing CBD; (3) leasing of real property to separate business entities engaged in the growth and sale of cannabis in those states and jurisdictions where cannabis has been legalized and properly regulated for medicinal and recreational use; and (4) the expansion of its business into ancillary areas of the legalized cannabis and hemp industry as the legalized markets and opportunities in this segment mature and develop.
About Our hempSMART Products Containing CBD
The
United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not recognized CBD
as a safe and effective drug for any indication. Our products containing
CBD derived from industrial hemp are not marketed or sold based upon
claims that their use is safe and effective treatment for any medical
condition as drugs or dietary supplements subject to the
FDA’s jurisdiction.
Forward-Looking Statements
This
news release contains “forward-looking statements†that are not purely
historical and may include any statements regarding beliefs, plans,
expectations or intentions regarding the future. Such forward-looking
statements include, among other things, the development, costs and
results of new business opportunities, and words such as “anticipate,â€
“seek,†intend,†“believe,†“estimate,†“expect,†“project,†“plan†or
similar phrases may be deemed “forward-looking statements†within the
meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual
results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking
statements due to numerous factors. Such factors include, among others,
the inherent uncertainties associated with new projects, the future U.S.
and global economies, the impact of competition and the Company’s
reliance on existing regulations regarding the use and development of
cannabis-based products. These forward-looking statements are made as of
the date of this news release, and we assume no obligation to update
the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual
results could differ from those projected in the forward-looking
statements. Although we believe that any beliefs, plans, expectations
and intentions contained in this press release are reasonable, there can
be no assurance that any such beliefs, plans, expectations or
intentions will prove to be accurate. Investors should consult all of
the information set forth herein and should also refer to the risk
factors disclosure outlined in our annual report on Form 10-K, our
quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and other periodic reports filed from
time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. For more
information, please visit www.sec.gov.
Contact:
[email protected]
888-777-4362
Corporate Communications Contact:
NetworkNewsWire (NNW)
New York, New York
www.NetworkNewsWire.com
212.418.1217 Office
[email protected]
For more information, please visit the Company’s websites at:
MarijuanaCompanyofAmerica.com
hempSMART.com
SPONSOR: Enthusiast Gaming Holdings Inc. (TSX-V: EGLX) Uniting gaming communities with 80 owned and affiliated websites, currently reaching over 75 million monthly visitors. The company exceeded 2018 target with $11.0 million in revenue. Learn More
Written by Jonathan Easton
This is according to the latest “Esports Opportunity for the Broadcast, Pro-AV and IT Industries†study by Futuresource Consulting.
The report claims that key events will start to attract viewing figures comparable to ‘tier 1 sporting competitions’, such as the FIFA World Cup and the Olympics. This will mean that securing exclusivity of major esports events will become strategically important for both traditional sports broadcasters and the largest esports streaming platforms.
Revenues are expected to be in excess of $900 million (€799.2m) in 2019. In addition, an 18 per cent 2019-23 CAGR is also expected.
One contributing factor is the growth of collegiate esports, with many universities heavily investing in esports as a part of the curriculum and in their own arenas. With collegiate sports being such a profitable area of sports broadcasting, particularly in the US, esports has the possibility to benefit.
The report also argues that esports growth will serve as a boon to major IT and AV suppliers, with the global education esports PC installed base including universities, colleges and K-12 schools expected to reach 117,000 units in 2020.
In addition, major vendors are looking to become sponsors of key tournaments and are aiming to get on the most popular gamers’ equipment lists.
Source: https://www.digitaltveurope.com/2019/06/06/esports-revenues-to-surpass-us1-billion-in-2020/
SPONSOR: Tartisan Nickel (TN:CSE) Kenbridge Property has a measured and indicated resource of 7.14 million tonnes at 0.62% nickel, 0.33% copper. Tartisan also has interests in Peru, including a 20 percent equity stake in Eloro Resources and 2 percent NSR in their La Victoria property. Click her for more information
AMSTERDAM — Nickel market participants should invest in production for electric vehicle (EV) batteries soon or they will eventually regret not doing so, EV sector experts said at Fastmarkets’ 7th International Nickel Conference in Amsterdam on Wednesday June 5.
Panel experts believed the risk of not investing in nickel production was greater than choosing not to take that option because of their bullish prognosis for nickel demand and the three-month price of nickel on the London Metal Exchange.
EV market penetration will reach 22-30% between 2019 and 2030, according to Ken Hoffman, of management consultant McKinsey, and Thomas Hohne-Sparborth, of specialist consultant Roskill. This will be driven by cleaner, greener European regulations affecting the automotive sector.
But this will not be confined to Europe. EV demand is growing in Asia, with 2.1 million units sold in China alone in 2018 and a projected 3 million units to be sold in 2019. This would constitute a huge increase over 2012, when fewer than 50,000 units were sold, one panelist noted.
Indeed, EV sales in the first quarter of 2019 rose by 118% year on year to 254,000 units in China alone, with 500 factories in the country supporting EV production.
The EV panel experts also believe producers are on the verge of providing batteries with better energy density and vehicles with a 1,000km range, making them more desirable for consumers.
Battery production must increase to meet this demand and panelists indicated that nickel is the EV battery metal of choice. They forecast this will likely remain the case for the next five to seven years at least, leading to an increase in nickel demand, along with the price.Â
“I am very bullish [on the price of nickel],†Hohne-Sparborth said. “Over the medium term, three to five years, you can get enough nickel units out of some active plants in Indonesia. Tsingshan [Holding’s Indonesian smelter on the island of Sulawesi] can come on-stream very quickly [and] $12,500-13,000 per tonne
[for nickel]
would be a good price incentive for such projects.â€
Tsingshan Group produces around 170,000 tonnes per year of nickel in
metal in Indonesia from its three NPI output phases, which have 20
rotary kiln electrical furnace (RKEF) lines. The group’s fourth NPI
production phase will come on stream in early 2019, taking its total NPI
output to 200,000-210,000 tpy of nickel in metal.
Despite the
potential for a short-term oversupply of nickel, pressure on Class 1
refined nickel products will arise following this projected growth in
battery demand. As a result, nickel prices are expected to move higher.
The LME’s three-month nickel contract closed the official session at
$11,800 per tonne on June 5.
“Some of the higher-cost
producers might need a slightly higher incentive price. We estimate
$17,000 per tonne,†Hohne-Sparborth said.
“In the longer term,
from 2025 onward, with all the projects that we are currently aware of
the gap in the market [caused by demand outstripping supply] could only
be filled with an incentive price in the $20,000-per-tonne range. We
think, long term, the price of nickel will be in the
mid-$20,000-[per-tonne] range,†he added.
The experts on the
panel did not believe that competing battery technologies that do not
use nickel, such as hydrogen fuels cells, were a threat.
“Even if technology changes,†Hoffman said, “there will be a shortage of nickel for batteries by 2025 whatever happens.â€
Amy Hinton
Source: https://www.amm.com/Article/3877446/Nonferrous/Invest-in-EV-sector-now-or-regret-later-nickel-mart-told.html
| SPONSOR: Betteru Education Corp. Connecting global leading educators to the mass population of India. BetterU Education has ability to reach 100 MILLION potential learners each week. Click here for more information. |
Tan Zhai Yun  Â
Technology has changed the way people learn. From massive open online courses (MOOCs) to virtual classrooms such as Blackboard and on-demand video tutors, education technology (edtech) has emerged as a rapidly growing sector, especially in Asia. It has also attracted a lot of investor interest.
“The promise of edtech has been there for a long time. But I think in the last two years, the sector has been getting attention and it is turning into real opportunities,†says GV Ravishankar, managing director of Sequoia Capital in India, who has several investments in edtech firms in Asia.
Edtech refers to technology that is used to develop tools for the education sector. For example, it could be in the form of classroom management software that enables virtual classrooms, interactive apps that educate users on various topics or platforms that connect tutors and students virtually.
The recent boom in Asia is driven by factors such as the growing mobile penetration rate, affordable internet access, willingness by parents to pay for education and a strong demand for supplementary education materials.
One of Sequoia’s investee companies is BYJU’S, an Indian edtech that is attempting to fill the gap left by a lack of good teachers. It offers students a personalised learning journey into subjects such as maths and science via online videos, animations and illustrations in a mobile app.
Sequoia also has an investment in Edusys, which provides professional certification and test preparation courses in online, classroom and hybrid formats. “We are quite bullish on the trend because we are seeing consumers adapt to online learning models quickly. The younger generation is very comfortable learning online. So, from our perspective, we think the market is ripe [for investments],†says Ravishankar.
Jeffrey Paine, managing partner of Golden Gate Ventures (GGV), sees the edtech sector as a relatively new segment. Investors must choose carefully, depending on the country and target market, whose needs may differ widely. GGV is invested in KooBits, a Singapore-based edtech firm that teaches math online.
“China is leading the way with edtech. The US tends to have alternative high schools or universities, whereas India tends to have a bit more video-based learning and a lot of focus on K-12 [kindergarten to 12th grade] maths and science,†says Paine.
“In Southeast Asia, Vietnam is growing fast, from K-12 content and corporate training on how to use Microsoft Excel to online video-based English tutoring. In Malaysia, one example is a company called EduAdvisor, which helps inform people who are going overseas to apply for schools.â€
EduAdvisor has received venture capital funding from 500 Startups and the KK Fund, according to Pitchbook, a US-based data provider in the areas of venture capital, private equity and mergers and acquisitions.
According to a 2016 report by UK-based consultancy IBIS Capital, the edtech market is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 17% to US$252 billion in 2020 globally. While the US previously led the pack, Asia is currently experiencing the fastest growth in investments in the sector, going from 46% of the global market to 54%.
This is particularly true for China. According to a 2017 report by Pitchbook, the biggest edtech venture capital deals had been found in Greater China in the past five years. Three of the top five edtech investments since 2012 have also been in the country.
This has led to the birth of several edtech unicorns, including VIPKid and Yuanfudao. The former is an online English learning platform while the latter is a homework assistance app. Users can take a picture of their arithmetic homework, for instance, and the app will use artificial intelligence to check the answers.
India has an edtech unicorn in BYJU’S, which received Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s first investment outside of the US. Some of the big players in Indonesia and Vietnam are Ruangguru, a marketplace for private tutoring, and Topica Edtech Group, whose offerings include live English tutoring and bachelor’s degree programmes online.
Ravishankar believes that the edtech trend is being driven by the prevalence of computing and smartphones in the hands of end-consumers. “For example, a huge population in India began to have access to really affordable broadband in recent years and this is the first time they are experiencing the internet. That has allowed many companies to reach out to hundreds of millions of people and it enables consumers to experience the power of education through technology,†he says.
The other major factor driving edtech investments in Asia is the high value that parents attach to education. This results in a greater willingness to pay for education in markets such as China, India and Southeast Asia.
“Perhaps this goes back to the market structure some of these countries have. In the US, most people go to public schools, which have delivered reasonably good quality education. That is why people there are not as used to paying for education. But in China and India, people are willing to pay so their children can find jobs. In India, education is seen as a way of getting out of poverty and getting a well-paying job,†says Ravishankar.
This means the kinds of edtech companies serving Asian and Western countries are different. In the US, many edtech firms focus on selling to school districts whereas in Asia, they may target parents.
“We have seen an example in China in the form of VIPKid. It has a very interesting model of teaching English to Chinese students through teachers who are in the US. It leverages the language advantage that English-speaking countries have to teach students in China, where there is a huge demand to learn English. That is possible because high-quality internet access is widely available,†says Ravishankar.
Opportunities in edtech
Edtech companies with the most potential for growth tend to be those that serve consumers directly or provide content that supplements the school curriculum. “That is because there are so many students in that age group and younger people are more comfortable with technology,†says Ravishankar.
This is especially true for subjects such as English and maths, the mastery of which can boost the chances of a child getting a good job in the future. There are many popular edtech companies in the region targeting those who want to learn English such as the Topica Edtech Group in Vietnam and Globish Academia in Thailand.
“In Singapore and Malaysia, students learn from courses provided by edtech companies just like they would by going for offline tuition classes. You have to take your SPM, so you need to go for tuition classes where they teach you how to pass your exam,†says Paine.
“The services provided by these companies may be homework-driven. It could be that I am stuck doing my homework and I need a social network to teach me how to solve problems. It could be a live video tutoring session or online curriculum.â€
GGV invested in KooBits because of its track record over the years. The latter is now used by students in countries such as the Philippines and Indonesia. The reputation of the Singaporean maths curriculum — which has been ranked the best in the world by some international agencies — has increased the attractiveness of the company in the eyes of its potential customers.
There are also opportunities in the working adults segment, a group that could comprise more serious learners with a greater willingness to pay for these services. Sequoia invested in India-based Eruditus, which partners Ivy League Schools in the US and top universities in the UK to offer online courses for professionals.
“It [Eruditus] puts some of its undergraduate education programmes online. This is for professionals who want to learn things such as data science or the new generation of technology tools that are impacting management today,†says Ravishankar.
While this idea is not new — it was popularised through MOOCs run by those like Coursera and Khan Academy — a new set of players, such as Eruditus, have changed the game for this sub-segment of providers, says Ravishankar. Users learn online together in a virtual class, listening to the same teacher in the same time period. They have projects, group work and online discussion sessions.
“It is an online application of the offline student environment. I think they have created models that allow for substantially higher completion rates compared with MOOCs because this creates familiarity among the cohort. These companies came up in the last few years and we are pretty optimistic about what that means for edtech and higher education,†says Ravishankar.
Edtech companies in Asia face a few common challenges. One of them is gaining the trust of users. Second, the cost of acquiring customers can be quite high because of the online competition for users.
The business-to-consumer market is where the future of edtech is, in Ravishankar’s view. That is because business-to-business edtech companies face challenges in selling their solutions. “That model has been traditionally hard to scale because you have school networks that are highly disorganised. Selling to them and collecting money from them have been tough,†he says.
Source: https://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/edtech-investing-education-technology
MONTREAL, June 06, 2019 – HPQ Silicon Resources Inc. – (www.HPQSilicon.com) (TSX-V: HPQ), (OTCPink: URAGF), (FWB: UGE) is pleased to announce that PyroGenesis Canada Inc (“PyroGenesisâ€) (TSX-V: PYR) has started, on June 4th, the construction required for the HPQ dedicated section of it’s facility, where the Gen3 PUREVAP™ will be operated.
PILOT PLANT ASSEMBLY ENTERING FINAL STAGE
The need to reinforce the concrete floor underneath the pilot plant combined with final design improvements done to the Gen3 PUREVAP™ pilot plant design changed our original timeline, but assembly work is now currently underway. Final assembly of the pilot plant at its permanent location in the PyroGenesis facility should be completed in Q3. The Gen3 PUREVAP™ pilot plant testing program, including plant commissioning, will start in Q4.
Mr. Bernard Tourillon, President and CEO of HPQ Silicon Resources Inc stated: “We are now very close to the start of the most exciting and potentially rewarding phase of the project: validating commercial scalability. Our pre-commercialization work leading up to this point has allowed us to identify additional segments beyond solar energy applications where the PUREVAPTM QRR process is game changing. The idea now is to use to produce material with our Gen2 for samples for various clients in multiple industries. We expect that we will be able to fulfill orders from production at the pilot plant and begin to generate revenue in the months following the start of the pilot plant.â€
IMAGES BEFORE AND AFTER START OF CONSTRUCTION WORK AT PYROGENESIS PLANT:
This News Release is available on the company’s CEO Verified Discussion Forum, a moderated social media platform that enables civilized discussion and Q&A between Management and Shareholders.
About HPQ Silicon
HPQ Silicon Resources Inc. is a TSX-V listed resource company focuses on becoming a vertically integrated and diversified High Purity, Solar Grade Silicon Metal (SoG Si) producer and a manufacturer of multi and monocrystalline solar cells of the P and N types, required for production of high performance photovoltaic conversion.
HPQ’s goal is to develop, in collaboration with industry leaders, PyroGenesis (TSX-V: PYR) and Apollon Solar, that are experts in their fields of interest, the innovative PUREVAPTM “Quartz Reduction Reactors (QRR)â€, a truly 2.0 Carbothermic process (patent pending), which will permit the transformation and purification of quartz (SiO2) into high purity silicon metal (Si) in one step and reduce by a factor of at least two-thirds (2/3) the costs associated with the transformation of quartz (SiO2) into SoG Si. The pilot plant equipment that will validate the commercial potential of the process is on schedule to start in 2019.
Disclaimers:
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements containing the words “may”, “plan”, “will”, “estimate”, “continue”, “anticipate”, “intend”, “expect”, “in the process” and other similar expressions which constitute “forward-looking information” within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements reflect the Company’s current expectation and assumptions, and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to, our expectations regarding the acceptance of our products by the market, our strategy to develop new products and enhance the capabilities of existing products, our strategy with respect to research and development, the impact of competitive products and pricing, new product development, and uncertainties related to the regulatory approval process. Such statements reflect the current views of the Company with respect to future events and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties and other risks detailed from time-to-time in the Company’s on-going filings with the securities regulatory authorities, which filings can be found at www.sedar.com. Actual results, events, and performance may differ materially. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements either as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws.
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.
For further information contact
Bernard J. Tourillon, Chairman, President and CEO Tel (514) 907-1011
Patrick Levasseur, Vice-President and COO Tel: (514) 262-9239
www.HPQSilicon.com
Source: GlobeNewswire (June 6, 2019 – 9:00 AM EDT)
News by QuoteMedia
www.quotemedia.com
BIRKIRKARA, Malta, June 06, 2019 — via OTC PR WIRE – Esports Entertainment Group, Inc. (OTCQB: GMBL) (or the “Company”), a licensed online gambling company with a specific focus on esports wagering and 18+ gaming, is pleased to announce that it has applied to list its common shares on the NASDAQ Capital Market. The listing of the Company’s common shares on the NASDAQ remains subject to the approval of NASDAQ and the satisfaction of all applicable listing and regulatory requirements. The Company will continue to maintain the listing of its common shares on the OTCQB under the symbol “GMBL”.
This application to list on NASDAQ follows the Company’s announcement on May 3, 2019 of the filing of a registration statement on Form S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission relating to a proposed offering of its securities. Though the number and type of securities to be offered and the price range for the offering have not yet been determined, the proposed maximum aggregate offering is $11,500,000. Investors can review details and the full press release at http://esportsentertainmentgroup.com/back-esports-entertainment-group-announces-filing-of-s-1-registration-statement/
Grant Johnson, CEO of Esports Entertainment Group stated “Given the tremendous progress of our esports betting platform, including partnering with more than 190 esports teams from around the world, we believe the Company is now well positioned to pursue additional growth opportunities. A NASDAQ listing, if successful, will broaden our access to a larger and international group of investors as we seek to become a truly global company.â€
This press release is available on our Online Investor Relations Community for shareholders and potential shareholders to ask questions, receive answers and collaborate with management in a fully moderated forum at https://agoracom.com/ir/EsportsEntertainmentGroup
Redchip investor relations Esports Entertainment Group Investor Page: http://www.gmblinfo.com
About Esports Entertainment Group
Esports Entertainment Group, Inc. is a licensed online gambling
company with a specific focus on esports wagering and 18+ gaming.
Esports Entertainment offers bet exchange style wagering on esports
events in a licensed, regulated and secure platform to the global
esports audience at vie.gg.
In addition, Esports Entertainment intends to offer users from around
the world the ability to participate in multi-player mobile and PC video
game tournaments for cash prizes. Esports Entertainment is led by a
team of industry professionals and technical experts from the online
gambling and the video game industries, and esports. The Company holds
licenses to conduct online gambling and 18+ gaming on a global basis in
Curacao, Kingdom of the Netherlands. The Company maintains offices in
Malta, Curacao and Warsaw, Poland. Esports Entertainment common stock is
listed on the OTCQB under the symbol GMBL. For more information visit www.esportsentertainmentgroup.com
.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
The
information contained herein includes forward-looking statements. These
statements relate to future events or to our future financial
performance, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and
other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity,
performance, or achievements to be materially different from any future
results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or
implied by these forward-looking statements. You should not place undue
reliance on forward-looking statements since they involve known and
unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which are, in some cases,
beyond our control and which could, and likely will, materially affect
actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Any
forward-looking statement reflects our current views with respect to
future events and is subject to these and other risks, uncertainties and
assumptions relating to our operations, results of operations, growth
strategy and liquidity. We assume no obligation to publicly update or
revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, or to update the
reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated
in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes
available in the future. The safe harbor for forward-looking statements
contained in the Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 protects
companies from liability for their forward-looking statements if they
comply with the requirements of the Act.
Contact:
Corporate Finance
+356-2757-7000 (Malta)
[email protected]
Media & Investor Relations Inquiries
AGORACOM
[email protected]
http://agoracom.com/ir/eSportsEntertainmentGroup
U.S. Investor Relations
RedChip
Dave Gentry
407-491-4498
[email protected]
SPONSOR: New Age Metals Inc. The company’s new Lithium Division has already made significant acquisitions in Canada and the USA. The company also 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 in the Inferred. Learn More.
June 5, 2019 Bloomberg
The race by Tesla Inc., Samsung SDI Co. and other technology giants to secure supplies of lithium — a key ingredient in batteries for electric vehicles and smartphones — is creating a unique chance for two global mining superpowers to reap more value from their natural resources.
Australia and Chile are looking to lithium to help them escape a cycle that for decades has had the two nations digging out minerals such as iron ore and copper, only to see them refined and turned into valuable products abroad.
Almost three-quarters of the world’s lithium raw materials come from mines in Australia or briny lakes in Chile, giving them leverage with customers scrambling to tie-up supplies. The mining nations hope to bring refining and manufacturing plants that could help kickstart domestic technology industries.
The first moves in that plan are beginning to take shape.
Scraping a shovel into a patch of dirt near the Australian port city of Bunbury in March, an executive for U.S.-based lithium leader Albemarle Corp. heralded a A$1bn ($690m) plan to build the world’s biggest processing plant of its type. Meanwhile, in Mejillones, northern Chile, South Korea’s Samsung SDI and Posco are planning to jointly develop a facility to make chemical components used in batteries.
“Chile and Australia have the advantage,†said Daniela Desormeaux, chief executive officer at Santiago-based consulting firm SignumBOX. They have the lithium and “at the same time state incentives, so companies transforming the raw material can set up shop there.”
Mining rock and exporting it is a familiar story for Australia and Chile. Australia, the world’s biggest producer of iron ore, has shipped billions of tons of the steelmaking raw material to mills in Japan and China since the 1960s. Chile, the world’s largest source of copper, exports over half of its shipments as semi-refined concentrate.
“It’s an interesting economic model,†Peter Klinken, chief scientist of Western Australia and an adviser to the state’s government, told a February conference in Perth. “Take a big rock, make a little rock, put it on a ship, and then buy something really expensive back in return.â€
The supply of lithium-ion batteries will need to jump more than 10-fold by 2030, BloombergNEF forecasts, with electric vehicles to account for more than 70 percent of that demand. That’s prompting end users to act, and Volkswagen AG and Volvo Cars have both struck long-term supply deals since April.
Where’s the Value?
The first step on the lithium value ladder is refining the raw material, something that’s currently done mostly in China. Ore from mines or lithium-rich saline solution from underground lakes in South America is concentrated into a silvery-gray powder that is sent to be purified and refined into lithium hydroxide and lithium carbonate. Those chemicals in turn are processed with materials such as nickel or cobalt to produce battery electrodes, or with solvents to make electrolytes, the key parts of the cells that are assembled into batteries.
Each step up the ladder affords more opportunity for profit. By 2025, the market for mined lithium raw material may be worth $20bn, compared with $43bn for refined products and $424bn for battery cells, according to a base case scenario outlined in a 2018 study published by the Australia-based Association of Mining and Exploration Companies.
Two major lithium miners operating in Chile, Sociedad Quimica & Minera de Chile SA, or SQM, and Albemarle were only allowed to expand production on condition that they sell a quarter of their output at the lowest market price to companies that will develop the materials within the country. SQM, which already carries out some processing in Chile, is expanding its domestic capacity.
The strategy is “a golden key†to build a higher-value lithium industry in Chile, said Sebastian Sichel, executive vice president of government development agency Corfo, which owns the lithium concessions in the Atacama desert and issues licenses to miners.
Three separate groups — Chile’s Molibdenos y Metales SA, or Molymet, China’s Sichuan Fulin Industrial Group Co., and a consortium of Samsung SDI and Posco — last year pledged to invest a total of about $754m to build lithium-cathode and lithium-cell factories in Chile to win access to Albemarle’s material. A second auction in April offered similar access to SQM’s product, with winners expected to be announced early next year.
New refining and chemical production capacity will offer Chile additional revenue, while earnings from lithium exports are also forecast to rise. The commodity has the potential to become one of the country’s largest exports after copper, salmon and wine, Sichel said.
Australia could generate more than A$50bn ($35bn) in annual revenue and support about 100,000 jobs by developing a battery materials sector, according to a 2018 study for a regional development agency. That compares with about A$1bn currently in annual lithium exports. Australia’s government in April pledged A$25m to support a five-year research program to expand its battery supply chain.
China’s Tianqi Lithium Corp. will later this year begin selling lithium hydroxide from a new processing facility in Kwinana, south of Perth. Tesla, battery maker LG Chem Ltd. and Mitsui & Co. have agreed to supply deals for output from a rival plant nearby that’s being built by Chile’s SQM and an Australian partner.
Efforts by Australia and Chile to wrest more control over refining from China are being helped by trade tensions. “They could definitely challenge China†in the next-step processing of lithium, said James Jeary, an analyst at CRU Group in London. Lithium producers will increasingly integrate mining and refining capacity, he said.
“We are hearing more and more that diversity of supply is critical,†said Phil Thick, Tianqi’s general manager in Australia. The producer’s Kwinana plant will mainly supply customers in North America and Europe, or carmakers in those regions via their suppliers in South Korea and Japan, he said.
China’s in Charge
The producers plan to do more than just first-stage refining. Western Australia has developed a “Lithium Valley†strategy to span the supply chain. Chile also hopes to manufacture battery cells.
But there are major hurdles. Neither country has a major car industry, and the auto sector typically prefers component suppliers to be close to manufacturing hubs. The technical challenge of producing battery components may require imported expertise. Costs and environmental concerns are also factors.
A dispute between Corfo and Albemarle has already delayed progress for Molymet, the Samsung SDI and Posco consortium, and Sichuan Fulin in Chile, prompting concern the groups could opt to invest in battery projects elsewhere. In Australia, lithium producer Neometals Ltd. has delayed a plan to build a refinery, citing higher-than-expected costs. There may only be a brief window for Chile or Australia to get a foothold in the battery industry as rival mining nations join the fray.
Argentina and Bolivia have saline deposits near the border with Chile. Countries from Serbia to Mali are keen to extract deposits in their territory, and Russia, which has been producing lithium products for more than 60 years for its nuclear industry, is already trying to attract higher-value investment by setting up one of the world’s largest lithium-ion battery plants in Novosibirsk with Chinese partner Thunder Sky Group.
Persuading battery makers to set up operations in Australia or Chile will require state incentives, said Vivas Kumar, a principal consultant at industry adviser Benchmark Mineral Intelligence and previously a member of Tesla’s battery supply chain team.
Lowering the cost of battery cells “continues to be the most important focus area across all major companies,†Kumar said. Automakers “are increasingly becoming involved with their cell manufacturing partners’ supply chains in recognition of this.â€
Sichel at Corfo believes lithium offers Chile a chance to escape the so-called resources curse, where mineral booms suck in investment at the expense of manufacturing.
If we don’t do this, “there is a gigantic risk that our growth keeps depending on the next hot commodity,†he said. “We remain stuck, unable to make the jump to developed-nation status.â€
Source: https://www.supplychainbrain.com/articles/29802-these-mining-superpowers-supply-the-worlds-lithium-now-they-want-to-make-batteries-too
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Betting is the single biggest opportunity in esports. It has uncapped upside and is one of the least encumbered by the video game publisher…but it’s also one of the least talked about. The recent investment wave in esports has been primarily focused on the most visible assets in the space being esports organizations, influencer agencies, and content/competition assets. I believe it’s important people understand that verticals like betting are a huge part of the potential of esports now that interest in the space has skyrocketed.
As one of the fastest growing categories in online gambling, esports betting is on pace to reach up to $8 billion USD in total wagers this year, equating to $560 million in revenue at an industry average margin of 7%. Growth estimates point to more than $16 billion in annual wagers in coming years. This compares to an estimated $1 billion in revenue to be earned in 2019 for the rest of esports, however, when adjusting for publisher owned/operated assets revenue, I believe the number is closer to half that. This adjustment nets out game publisher fees, merch and ticketing at major publisher run events, a proportion of media rights, and a percentage of sponsorship and advertising.
We make this adjustment as the investable esports ecosystem, everything making headlines lately, is non-publisher assets, companies building around the IP of publishers. Unlike these categories, betting is IP-agnostic as it requires no franchise or licensing fees paid to the publisher, which is seen in categories such as esports teams or tournament organizers. It is also game-agnostic, not being exposed to game cyclicality, which is the mark of the video game industry and esports.
Gamers are fickle and it’s impossible to predict the longevity of a new title. Betting is a platform that can easily offer whatever is being watched. Lastly, it is API-agnostic, seeing no reliance on publisher logins or other third-party API’s such as Twitch which can be found in other verticals. This is why I believe the magnitude of the opportunity in betting exceeds every other vertical in esports and will continue to do so long-term.
How did it begin? The first major wave came with the use of virtual in-game aesthetics as unregulated casino chips back in 2013/2014. Valve games, Counter Strike: Global Offensive and Dota 2, the second and third most popular esports (behind League of Legends), have highly liquid real money economies using in-game aesthetics termed skins, which fans began to use for gambling on esports.
Nearly all the skins gambling sites were operating illegally, rarely doing any requisite Know Your Customer (KYC) compliance to ensure the customer is in a legal jurisdiction and over 18, had little to no Anti-Money Laundering (AML) controls, and certainly no gambling license. Unfortunately, this meant many underage kids often from illegal markets gambled, and the skins betting market quickly swelled to $5 billion in total wagers. After multiple scams and a class action lawsuit, Valve sent cease & desist notices to all major skins gambling sites toward the end of 2016, resulting in a material reduction in skins betting.
Although the illegal skins sites did not directly make the transition to regulated esports betting, they were a key step in the process. The advantage of those sites is they were totally unregulated. You could build one and get it up and running in 30 days. A regulated gambling site takes a year if you move quick. As a consequence, we saw effectively nobody switch. However, the companies making regulated esports specific betting products took product and marketing cues from those sites as they serve the same customer base.
That unregulated market kicked off regulated wagering on esports. At one point, before it was shut down, the skins betting market was an estimated ten times bigger than the regulated esports betting market. Without the skins betting market its unlikely esports betting would have taken off as quickly, and then when it eventually got shut down by regulators it created a big wave into regulated esports betting. This created much of the opportunity we are discussing in this article. Like a lot of new tech, it starts off in the unregulated side before it matures.
Now in 2019 esports betting is one of the most exciting categories in the regulated gambling industry. Even more so when combined with a U.S. sports betting market opening up state by state. With the nature of esports being video games, it creates unlimited possibilities for unique bets such as round-by-round betting in first person shooters, or hyper-contextual bets like first Baron kill (provides a team buff) in the world’s most popular esport game, League of Legends. With new game titles constantly being released, and an ever-increasing population of esports fans, the trend is clear.
The current options available for esports fans to bet with is varied. You have legacy sportsbooks with an esports offering, purist esports sportsbooks sites, crypto betting offerings, and still some illegal skins betting sites. The challenge and opportunity as I see it is not attracting the gambler to bet on esports, but rather attracting and onboarding the esports fan. What appeals to a 23-year-old esports fan that has less experience with betting is different from what is currently being offered to a 35-year-old football fan.
Similar to any traditional service being offered to a new generation requiring a major user experience overhaul (as financial tech has). I believe it isn’t enough to just display the odds. Sportsbooks need to offer more contextual betting, team/match data, content/community offerings, deep partnership engagements and more. The exciting thing is that the code has not been cracked, and the room for innovation is vast.
Online gambling has spent more than 20 years focused on traditional sports. Creating and curating the optimal offering, marketing schemes, and bonus/reward programs. Converting brick and mortar bettors to online ones. Over that period gambling regulation has evolved, sports fans have aged, and the market has become relatively saturated with operators.
The emergence of esports as a sport, and consequently, a betting market, represents the first instance in a long time of a new generation entering the fold. This is unprecedented and the interest from the traditional gambling world is immense. For the first time they are facing a generation born and bred on the internet. Solving for that when you have spent so long solving for the inverse is challenging. It means a window of opportunity is open for new operators, new investors, new strategies, new ideas, and it’s incredibly exciting. All that said, it’s a thrilling time to be in esports, betting, and the development of sports and media for the next generation. This is just the beginning.
Kevin Wimer was a professional gamer in the early 2000’s, and is currently Chief Marketing Officer at esports sportsbook Rivalry.
Source: https://venturebeat.com/2019/06/03/betting-is-esports-biggest-and-most-underappreciated-opportunity/
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Behind the AI and data analytics boom, lies the story of a massive talent gap as workforce struggles to remain employable. The skills’ shelf life has shortened, with technology changing exponentially over the last decade, skills that were relevant at the beginning of the career have become obsolete. In order to remain employable, the workforce needs to reskill to take advantage of new opportunities. The rise of edtech companies in India is not surprising, given the huge clamour for continuous learning that has taken root in the professional sphere. This is backed by the rise of emerging technologies — artificial intelligence, its subset machine learning and data science which has spawned a booming job market revolving around new technologies that has substantially transformed India’s IT labour market.
The changing job economy has resulted in new opportunities for the Indian workforce. As estimated by a consulting major, AI has the potential to add US$957 billion, or 15 percent of India’s current gross value in 2035. The booming economy, fuelled by AI and advanced analytics requires more Indians to enter the workforce with a different skill-set. As per our estimate, close to 97,000 AI positions lie vacant in India. But, the challenges are also increasing multifold — on the one hand India Inc is struggling with disruptions like automation that are redefining jobs and secondly, it is grappling with finding the right talent with the right skillset for AI/ML and data science teams. Meanwhile, the upcoming generation that will enter the workforce soon is fed on an outdated curriculum that hasn’t kept up with the industry’s demands.In our report, we dig into the educational stakeholder landscape to see how they are transforming the skills market by developing training courses and certification programmes that correspond to in-demand skills required today. We look at the type of educational institutions offering data and analytics programs; how the educational landscape is changing in response to the heightened demand for analytics skills and what needs to be done to fill the skill gap.
The second half of the report looks at our last three years ranking data to find out the winning attributes that have helped analytics institutes rank on top consistently and how other training institutes have fared over the last three years.Key Highlights
In order to capitalise on these opportunities, IT companies, educators and policymakers need to develop a deeper understanding of the existing workforce, the skill-set required in the future, and the gaps that will need to be addressed. This implies that these three key players need to align the broader economic developer agenda with the shifting job market and work towards building a strong talent that has the baseline and digital skills required for current landscape. At the Government level, policy makers will have to assess secondary and postsecondary education and align it with the skills that are required for tomorrow. Many leading Indian IT majors have undertaken employer-training initiatives, pre-employment training and have also provided their own courseware. Collectively, the key stakeholders can foster a workforce development ecosystem and provide domain specific training with a job-first approach. Given this scenario — educational stakeholders have made a very strong business case for reskilling the workforce and have actively partnered with renowned educational institutions to launch technical certifications and degree programmes tailored to fill the skill gap. Analytics Education Landscape
The nature of analytics education has evolved over the last few years and a mix of models have emerged in the online and offline space to accommodate the changing requirements of students. Learners seek a career-focused analytics education augmented by classroom setting that prepare them for job functions in data analytics space.
• In cases where learning is delivered purely online, participants look for realtime learning in a format that allows learners to pursue it at their own pace
• Candidates look for course content created by top instructors, with industry and university collaboration to provide a well-rounded analytics education
• Executive programs are also in high demand as these are intended for senior professionals who want to renew their skillset and understand how data can be helpful in managerial decision making
• In case of executive analytics courses, technical skills such as data management are augmented by soft skills such as business understanding and communication
• Analytics education providers in India mostly offer Business Analytics (BA) and Business Intelligence (BI) programs that combine analytical number crunching, reporting and visualization techniques
The learning formats can be broadly put under 4 categories:
Source: https://www.analyticsindiamag.com/addressing-indias-reskilling-challenge-a-report-by-aim/