As inflation is surging, it is putting pressure on mortgage rates. The Federal Reserve is likely to keep raising rates this year with the goal of containing consumer prices. While the Fed doesn’t control mortgage rates, its policies have an ancillary effect. 

Think Solar

At times like this, homeowners have to use every tool in the toolbox, and solar installation is a vital one to contain/reduce monthly costs.  Buying a home that has a solar energy system, or having one installed upon purchase is a savvy financial move that also benefits the environment.

Home appraisers, who review property for mortgage companies, understand that that the installation of solar panels and solar batteries can increase a property’s market value. In fact, a Zillow study indicated that homes with solar panels sold for 4.1% more than those without.

“The sale premium varies substantially by market,” reports Zillow.  “In Riverside, Calif., for example, homes with solar-energy systems sold for 2.7% more than comparable homes without solar power—a markup of $9,926 for the median-valued home in the metro. In the greater New York City metro, solar-powered homes have a premium that is double that of Riverside. At 5.4%, that’s an extra $23,989 in value for the typical home in New York. In three other coastal metro areas—Los Angeles, San Francisco and Orlando, Fla.—homes with solar power can fetch a premium of around 4%.”

Getting a solar system installed is like creating your very own power plant. Homeowners make energy right on their own property instead of relying completely on the utility company to do it for them. While you can’t disconnect completely from the grid, homeowners have the ability to generate their own power every time the sun comes up.

For homeowners paying $70 or more on electricity bills each month, there are programs available that could permanently lower electric bills up to 75% with no upfront costs.

Smart Solar Financing

According to the U.S. Office of Energy Efficiency And Renewable Energy, the average cost of solar PV panels has dropped nearly 70%. Markets for solar energy is economically competitive with conventional energy sources in most states.

A solar system is either leased or purchased. Whether you buy a system or lease it, the use of solar energy will significantly decrease monthly energy costs and increase the value of the home.

Increase Purchasing Power

An energy-efficient mortgage or green mortgage allows borrowers to finance energy-efficient improvements under advantageous loan terms. A green mortgage offers added funds with the mortgage purchase or refinance that can be applied to energy-efficient home upgrades. To qualify, applicants must meet the standard mortgage requirements of credit and debt-to-income ratio and an energy consultant develops a home energy rating report to estimate potential energy savings.

Tapping into a green mortgage can increase purchasing power and allow home buyers to qualify for a larger mortgage. And, for those people buying a home that already is energy efficient, the monthly bills will be lower.

Other ways to increase purchasing power are reducing debt, reviewing credit scores to see where any improvements can be made, and stash as much money away as you can for the down payment and closing costs and eliminate the need for mortgage insurance.

Explore First-Time Home Buyer Programs

For those who are buying their very first home, there are a variety of homebuyer assistance programs available at the national and local level. On the national level, there are Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans that are insured by the Federal Housing Administration, a government agency that sets standards for the construction and financing of homes in the United States. With a FICO® credit score at least 580, home buyers are required to put down a 3.5% down payment vs. the 20% that is industry standard.

Home buyers should also investigate their state and city level options for first-time home buyers. In New York City, for example, “the HomeFirst Down Payment Assistance Program provides qualified homebuyers with up to $100,000 toward the down payment or closing costs on a 1-4 family home, a condominium, or a cooperative in one of the five boroughs of New York City.”

Set a Budget

Before starting the housing hunt in earnest, it is important to understand how much house is affordable.  Generally, keeping housing costs to 30% or less of after-tax income is the recommendation. Getting pre-approved for the mortgage is recommended so that the house-hunt can proceed with confidence.

Consider that while mortgage rates today are on the rise, they are still relatively low on historical standards. In 1981, according to Fannie Mae data, the annual average interest rate was 16.63%! There are many benefits that come along with home ownership including tax deductions, financial stability, a permanent home and sense of belonging in the local community. 

The post Why Home Buyers Should ‘Think Solar’ in Post-Pandemic Climate appeared first on Grit Daily News.

There are at least one-and-one half billion internal combustion engine-powered motor vehicles used solely for land transportation globally today. The equivalent of 100’s of millions more of such vehicles sail the oceans and fly in the skies.

Can all of this be replaced by vehicles powered by electric motors using on-board battery storage?

The “laws” of nature are logical and experimentally “proven” and reaffirmed by computational rules, not just by observations of behavior by selected groups of human beings. Laws of nature can be replaced with improved computation rules that give results more closely aligned with observed data; Einstein’s gravitational theory has replaced Newton’s for that reason.

The “rule” of supply and demand is not a law of nature; it is an action guideline that takes into account how much human beings will give up of their time, possessions, and promises of future actions (aka, money) in order to obtain a physical good or a service. It is NOT a law of nature, but rather an observation of the most common reaction of human beings to shortages of goods and services, which human nature deems important.

Human desire may create a demand for, but it does not create a supply of natural resources. Technology, the engineering of science, is necessary for obtaining supplies of natural resources, but it is not sufficient.

The availability of natural resources for use by the human race is a function of:

1. The logistical accessibility of deposits of those resources, i.e., can they be reached by road (or rail), or ship,
2. Are they of sufficient grade (concentration) so that available mechanical and chemical engineering technologies can SELECTIVELY extract the minerals containing them and concentrate them ECONOMICALLY enough to be AFFORDABLE for intended use,
3. Is there a downstream processing regime (group pf technologies) that can economically transform the mineral concentrates produced by mining into forms necessary for mass production of the resource into an end user product or necessary part of a product?
4. Is the above regime ECONOMICAL or AFFORDABLE (e.g., the transformation of U3O8 into enriched U-235, which is only necessary if you wish to build nuclear reactors or weapons, and which would never have been affordable other than through the driver of war allowing massive “investment” in the processing regime, and, most important of all
5. The recognition that there is a grade limit below which the resource is not available to contemporary human economically deployed technology.

ALL of the deposits of natural resources, upon which human life and leisure depend, were laid over hundreds of millions and billions of years ago. Those resources are not organic; they do not grow back in mines.

The easiest deposits to work are those of the highest grade of the desired element which also have the least “contaminants” of other related elements that must be removed to purify the desired resource into a form useful to mankind.

The only factor to be considered when planning for mass producing a consumer good that requires a specific natural resource is the cost of that resource in the form necessary for the intended use. There must be a strong indication that the capital deployed to recover and process the natural resource will be repaid by the sales of the product into the general or, in the case of the military, specific, market. Capital must be repaid through wealth creation. It cannot just be wasted in a rational society, because if it is, it will eventually run out.

Note well that subsides by government are merely a way of socializing waste of capital (aka in government as “investment”). Note also that American elites always benefit from the subsidies through the ownership of the perpetually non-going concerns the losses from which are covered by the subsidies.

There is no scheme in the green universe to repay the capital; it’s use is intended to impoverish the mass of mankind to enhance and preserve a static world (fantasy) to be enjoyed only by elites.

There is NOT sufficient lithium accessible or available, economically, to replace more than a fraction of today’s transportation fleet, much less tomorrows. Deglobalization is a necessary concomitant of less availability of cheap fossil fuels. This is already happening in the guise of protecting “democracy’ from the evil scheming of those Chinese leaders who recognized the West’s propensity for cultural suicide long ago and can think of nothing better than granting the green wishes. China now has all the lithium it needs for its domestic use of reducing urban pollution. And China uses its monopoly of the necessary critical materials to dominate the global solar panel manufacturing and wind turbine industries.

Only those transportation vehicle makers who continue to make, improve, and market internal combustion engines (ICE’s) will survive the cull as electric vehicles (EV’s) get increasingly expensive and the infrastructure to support their use with power and service fails to appear. The price for lithium itself is already too high to sustain the mass production of affordable EVs. I predict that lithium prices will come down, but, of course, that will extinguish unsubsidized low-grade production, so that an ICE/EV equilibrium production will be reached, in this decade. Oil prices will also decline as production resumes, so that the energy economy recovers it normal path.

The law of supply and demand can be applied to money, but not to wealth or value. Their creation is limited by the supply of resources, productivity, and innovation.

The post Lithium, Electric Vehicles, and the Law of Resource Availability appeared first on Grit Daily News.

The lawsuit prompted a string of unflattering press hits, which overwhelmingly highlighted the existing fashion brand’s side of the story, at Bieber’s expense. Bieber’s case highlights two principles of crisis management that we champion.

Be prepared and proactive

If you don’t tell your story, others will tell it for you ― including the good, the bad, and the ugly. We advise companies and individuals to get in front of the news cycle with a clear, compelling, and honest narrative.

Bieber could have made a strong case for calling her skin care line Rhode. It’s her middle name, after all. She had previously sought to secure the name Bieber Beauty but was rejected due to potential confusion with trademarks registered by her husband, Justin Bieber.

She was undoubtedly aware of the potential for conflict over the Rhode name, too: Bieber attempted to purchase the naming rights from the fashion brand years earlier and was turned down. By proactively telling her story ahead of the brand’s launch, Bieber could have preempted some of the public backlash in the crucial early days of her new company. 

The communications landscape is shifting 

We believe that traditional PR is dead. The media environment is rapidly changing; anyone with access to a smartphone can be a publisher, reaching millions of viewers across the globe with just a few clicks. Online forums like Twitter have diluted the ability of powerful companies and individuals to leverage their influence among major media platforms to quash threats to their business or reputation. 

Upstarts understand that there is currency in conflict, and they can leverage the public spotlight surrounding celebrities like Bieber to boost their own brands. Consultants and lawyers are more likely to join their cause, seeking the star power that now comes with taking on and defeating an established brand.

In this new environment, half-hearted PR efforts don’t cut it. Bieber appeared unprepared for the burst of attention that played out across social media platforms following the June lawsuit. The founders of the fashion startup were able to frame the dispute as a powerful celebrity swooping in and trampling on their hard-earned brand.

Bieber’s side of the story was notably absent from prominent coverage of the lawsuit, with several articles noting that her team did not respond to a request for comment.

These major missteps could have been avoided with a better understanding of the new communications landscape, in which big players can no longer appear to steamroll their smaller competitors without consequence.

The post How Rhode, Hailey Bieber’s Brand, Should Have Handled Her PR Crisis appeared first on Grit Daily News.

Copper is very much in demand now due its integral role in everything from key infrastructure to electric vehicle (EV) parts to renewable energy. As the world moves forward in the transition to clean energy, the spotlight grows on copper mining companies. The market is ripe with many inviting investing opportunities, from multinational mining conglomerates that mine for copper as well as other metals, such as BHP Group (NYSE: BHP), Vale (NYSE: VALE) and Rio Tinto Group (NYSE: RIO) or copper producer specialists such as Southern Copper Corp. (NYSE: SCCO) and Ero Copper Corp. (TSX: ERO).

Junior Mining & Copper

For investors with a stronger stomach for risk and the upside potential of significantly higher rewards, the world of copper exploration and development companies awaits. These junior mining companies are focused on exploration, development and working to get the mine(s) permitted with the goal of producing upwards of 100 million lbs. per year.  Once production surpasses that, the companies move into mid-tier or major company status.

When reviewing junior mining companies, it is important to look at the management to ensure that the leaders have a strong record of transitioning from discovery to production with other companies they have led. It is also important to assess that the team has a unique skill to navigate the mining sector in the regions they are focused on, and that the companies have substantial capital market experience and broad-based shareholder and investor support. So, before making that investment in that junior copper mining company, attend and review shareholder presentations and review the team’s credentials to make an intelligent investing decision.

As the President & CEO of a company focused on the exploration and development of copper porphyry projects in the United States and Chile, I think it is also important for investors to look at the junior copper mining company’s geopolitical ramifications of its properties looking for friendly regions, particularly South America, North America and Australia, rather than China.

“If China’s dominance of rare earth element supplies is the global energy transition’s ‘elephant in the room,’ then copper is the 800-pound gorilla,” according to the Baker Institute. President Biden has invoked the Defense Production Act to expand domestic production of critical minerals, which includes copper, should facilitate ongoing efforts of mining companies to produce geopolitically friendly copper in the United States.

By investing in copper mining companies, you are investing in the future of clean energy.  Alternatively, investors can hold copper in physical form, just like gold and silver which can be done by purchasing copper bullion bars or coins which sometimes attracts the ‘Doomsday’ crowd.  Investors can also gain exposure to the value of copper through the purchase of exchange-traded funds (ETF’s), futures or by investing in companies that mine and prospect for copper.

Copper has been used for thousands of years and faces increasing global demand with the advent of new technology, while simultaneously forecasted to experience significant declines in supply. Given its attributes, copper is often used for electrical purposes such as power transmission and generation. Like its base metal sibling nickel, it has a major role in the electric vehicle (EV) revolution, with the CRU Group expecting consumption of copper to jump five-fold by 2030 due to demand from the green energy market.

Copper is the third most consumed industrial metal in the world, behind iron ore and aluminum, as per the US Geological Survey. With copper’s starring role in the electric vehicle (EV) revolution, some analysts predict copper consumption will jump five-fold by 2030 due to green energy demands.

In November 2021, CitiBank wrote that “decarbonization will drive consumption,” and “higher prices will be needed to draw in enough copper scrap to meet longer-term demand.”

President Biden is contemplating removing tariffs on some Chinese goods to ease trade tensions between US and China, which could result in upside movement for copper. The major factors contributing to copper prices are supply and demand, economic growth, inflation, and the value of the US dollar. The bullish fundamentals for copper are driven by supply shortages and low global inventories, and its starring role in green electrification, transport and infrastructure.

Copper has been a critical metal for the global economy since the Bronze Age and its importance is only set to grow in the future. A savvy investor stands to benefit from adding some exposure to this critical metal as its growing importance begins to be realized.

The post Investing in Copper Mining Companies appeared first on Grit Daily News.

With every bull market, however, there are bear prognosticators who bet on the price of lithium to decline with the market heading into balance or even over-supply.  As a battery metals veteran, my viewpoint of “hold your horses, Wall Street” is echoed by many lithium analysts and experts who believe that battery metal market fundamentals shed light on a variety of pressing reasons why a lithium surplus marketplace with dramatically reduced prices is not on the horizon.

Industry veterans are joined by a number of analysts and other experts, including Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, a leading research firm that covers green energy minerals.  Its recent report titled, “Lithium oversupply?  Not likely – five main reasons why” offers a convincing rebuttal to the flawed thesis that lithium supplies are, in fact, elastic.

How Fast Can Miners Move from Discovery to Production?

What lithium ‘bears’ do not understand is that while lithium may be present in a number of different forms globally, the processes involved in economically extracting and producing battery-grade lithium are extremely challenging. It can take up to a decade to discover a deposit, develop it, build a mine and extract and refine battery grade lithium. Even in China, where permitting is typically easier and lithium production is often fast-tracked, this is proving to be the case.

The process of turning lithium into the chemicals that power batteries is not easy.  Also, refining raw lithium into high-purity lithium carbonite, which is of sufficient quality for batteries, involves complicated metallurgical processing methods and is very time consuming.  

Ensuring Environmental Responsibility

While the production of the lightweight metal lithium is essential to technology to drive the shift to the new clean energy paradigm, certain processes associated with some forms of lithium production or refining are environmentally damaging.  In addition, with the primary sources of lithium being hard rock deposits and salar brines, lithium processing through conventional methods such as evaporation ponds are inefficient, with lithium extraction rates often less than 50%.

Pollution, significant high-water usage and land use permitting are other challenges that lithium miners face.  So, as EV makers are looking for long-term lithium suppliers, they should be mindful to ensure that their upstream suppliers are committed to environmentally sustainable mining practices. This is already happening, with some EV makers actively seeking out sustainable lithium miners.  However, with the domination of China in the global supply of refined battery products, including lithium, it’s not always possible to ensure best environmental practices are being adopted. Not only is it critically important that we develop domestic lithium supplies in North America, but also that we put sustainability and environmental best practices to the fore.

Fortunately, two major organizations, Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance and Responsible Minerals Initiative, have established the necessary guidelines to act as a gold standard for all sustainably mined materials.

Is Low Quality Chinese Lithium a Global Supply Fix?

Some lithium ‘bears’ point to China to account for a future oversupply of lithium.  Benchmark Mineral Intelligence is emphatic that China cannot ramp-up output significantly to create an over-supply. Here’s the crux of Benchmark’s argument as stated in its lithium report. “Known domestic Chinese spodumene and other hard-rock resources are low quality, a key reason why there has been an increasing reliance by Chinese converters on Australia for supply instead. China’s deposits of lepidolite may have the potential to help bridge the deficit in coming years, but are unlikely to lead to oversupply.”

According to Benchmark, “the lithium market will start to balance over the next few years” but believes it is unlikely that “marginal, unconventional feedstock will fill the deficit” and “unlikely that demand will weaken significantly.”

Benchmark’s view on spot prices for lithium concludes that, “end-users can only absorb so much cost pass through before it has an unsustainable impact on their electric vehicle ambitions.  However, the spot market price in China does not represent the true price of lithium in the market, and is often not the true price being paid by western battery majors. In these markets we expect to see a gradual ramp up in contract deals being settled with increasingly flexible, and more frequent, pricing mechanisms.”

Upstream Investment in Mining is Vital to Meet Rising Demand

It is important to encourage upstream investment in mining; particularly as there is still not enough upstream investment to meet current and future demands for lithium.  Some financial analysts predict global demand of 1.2 million metric tons of lithium carbonite by 2025, but the reality is that even this level of demand growth is likely to be well off the mark.  To my mind, the better way to measure the true pulse of the marketplace and what packs the most punch are the announcements from major lithium producers with Albemarle and Ganfeng Lithium each expecting demand of around 1.5 to 1.6 million metric tons of lithium carbonate in the same time-frame.

As for American Lithium, we are focused on aiding the shift to the new energy paradigm through the continued development of our TLC lithium claystone project in the richly mineralized Esmeralda lithium district in Nevada, which is within three hours’ drive of the Tesla giga-factory. We are also continuing to advance our high-purity, hard-rock Falchani lithium  project in southeastern Peru. This project has demonstrated the ability to precipitate battery-grade lithium carbonate without the need for additional refining. A robust preliminary economic assessment, that was published in 2020 and is now being upgraded, also suggest the prospect of low-operating costs.

All of this speaks to the fact that American Lithium intends to be a key part of upstream lithium development in the Americas.

Lithium Whisperer is the Marketplace

It is important to listen to the market place to gauge lithium supply status.  Consider the following statistics.  First of all, global EV sales doubled in February 2022 reports Inside EVs on April 6, 2022.  Or that the spot price of one metric ton of lithium carbonate (LCE) rose from $6,750 in September 2000 to a recent high of $78,000 USD. By 2025, automakers will have spent $365 billion USD building EV and HEV production facilities, reports Bloomberg Energy Finance.

As lithium scarcity grows, BloombergNEF forecasts prices of lithium carbonate and hydroxide — the main lithium chemicals used in battery production — to continue to go skyward until 2030 due to anticipated supply deficits.

“As the market wrestles between long-term supply security to fuel the lithium-ion economy, and increasingly market-led pricing mechanisms to incentivize supply growth, the era of lithium market volatility is likely just beginning,” Benchmark surmises.

Mission Critical: Urgency for ‘Made in America’ Lithium

The quest for EV manufacturers, (as well as other industrial and military users,) to secure access to high grade lithium is intense. So, too, is the need to ensure supply chain security.  To this end, the United States and other countries are looking to untangle their clean energy supply chains from China which is currently the leading producer of lithium-ion batteries.

As such, there is an urgency to secure long-term supplies from geopolitically-safe, lithium-rich countries such as the United States, Canada, and Peru. The conflict in Ukraine is a stark reminder of what happens when the supply of energy and other critical commodities is “in the hands” of unstable or unfriendly regimes. Accordingly, the US has a heightened need to source as much sustainable, “home-made” lithium and other critical minerals as quickly as possible, particularly given the fact that lithium mining in the US is currently estimated to account for less than 1% of the lithium mined annually across the world.

The post Lithium Oversupply?  Hold Your Horses appeared first on Grit Daily News.

As reported by The Wall Street Journal, new lithium extraction technologies are attracting attention as these “methods “could help increase supplies, while attracting investors for their potential to speed up production and reduce the environmental impact compared with most current lithium-extraction methods, but none are, so far, proven at commercial scale.”

How is Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) defined?

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) states: “DLE technologies can be broadly grouped into three main categories: absorption using porous materials that enable lithium bonding, ion exchange, and solvent extraction.

Scaling up any of these techniques to full production capability remains a challenging task. For example, developing a solid material that bonds with just lithium is a huge challenge in geothermal brine that contains many minerals and metals at high temperatures and pressures. Successful DLE implementation will depend on expanding innovation and creating new technologies.”

“It’s such a game changer. There are huge opportunities,” U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told an energy conference in April 2022 about DLE.

In March 2022, One World Lithium announced the signing a licensing agreement with the US Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory division for a patent developed by the NETL for selectively recovering lithium from solutions of mixed metallic ions.

The DOE patent is an advanced direct lithium extraction (DLE) process for the extraction of lithium from natural brines, rapidly generating a pure lithium carbonate. The method uses unique carbon dioxide injection mixing techniques to quantitatively precipitate lithium carbonate from brines. This process requires no solvent, electrodes, membranes, or sorbents, but only uses carbon dioxide which can be sourced from industrial sources, waste or exhaust gas streams or, even, ambient air. It significantly reduces capital and operating costs, process time, energy requirements, and, paradoxically, overall carbon dioxide emissions.

The process can be fully deployable and operational at the brine source, eliminating the need to evaporate the brines and/or transport brine concentrates to a chemical processing facility to form and purify lithium carbonate. Deployment of this technology will reduce dependence on foreign lithium sources.

Many DLE Technologies Tap Significant Water Supplies

A major automobile manufacturer is relying on DLE technology to supply a lithium from the Salton Sea region of California. which purportedly “uses 10 tonnes of water for every tonne of lithium produced.”

By way of background,most of thelithium extraction processes use a lot of water —approximately 500,000 gallons per metric ton of lithium produced. Mining can consume the majority of a region’s fresh water, which negatively impacts the community and reduces the number of locations that are feasible. Lithium extraction technologies also have the potential for toxic chemicals to leak from the evaporation pools, or membrane filters, into the water supply. This includes hydrochloric acid, which may be created in the processing of lithium, and waste products that are filtered out of the brine.

While current extraction methods yield about 40% to 50% of the lithium present in a mined or brine resource, processes using DLE can extract 75% to 90%.

As The Wall Street Journal reported “many DLE technologies that work well in the laboratory often run into trouble in the field. Many of the technologies would likely still require large amounts of water and power to run the devices on a large scale.”

One World Lithium Inc.’s license agreement with the US Department of Energy and its National Energy Technology Laboratories (NETL) is focused on profitably separating high-purity lithium carbonate from a brine. The DOE patent is an advanced direct lithium extraction (DLE) process for the extraction of lithium from natural brines, rapidly generating a pure lithium carbonate. The method uses a unique multi-step high pressure/temperature application of carbon dioxide injection-mixing to ultimately directly and selectively precipitate lithium carbonate from brines. One World’s DLE technology competes favorably vs. competitors as:

• The process requires no solvent, electrodes, membrane, or sorbents and only uses carbon dioxide which can be sourced commercially or from industrial waste streams or ambient air.

• It significantly reduces capital and operation costs, process time, energy requirements, and, paradoxically, overall carbon dioxide emissions.

• The process can be fully operational at the brine source, eliminating transportation of brine derived solids to a chemical processing facility to form pure lithium carbonate. Deployment of this technology will reduce dependence on foreign lithium sources.

The stakes are high for DLE to be successful. The US Energy Department reports that at least 70% of U.S. lithium deposits are held in brine reserves. DLE could produce lithium in areas where open-pit mines face strong opposition. If a successful DLE technology is created, miners will increase global lithium production with a footprint significantly smaller than evaporation ponds or open-pit mines.

The post Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) Crucial as ‘Driving’ Force for Electric Vehicles appeared first on Grit Daily News.

“The failure rate of Alzheimer’s disease drug development has remained unchanged for decades — with 99 percent of trials showing no difference between the drug and placebo. This figure is especially high, considering the ever-growing number of drug candidates in the pipeline,” reports Being Patient.

The last year has been riddled with disappointments in AD drug development with Biogen reporting a fraction of estimated sales for its FDA-approved AD treatment, Aduhelm.

Aduhelm did not manage to garner the support of most physicians that treat Alzheimer’s patients who report that the monoclonal antibody fails to appreciably slow cognitive decline. Medicare, after much debate, released a national policy in April 2022 “for coverage of aducanumab (brand name Aduhelm) and any future monoclonal antibodies directed against amyloid approved by the FDA with an indication for use in treating Alzheimer’s disease.”

Hypotheses Abound for AD Treatment

A main stumbling block to finding a treatment for Alzheimer’s is that researchers have been unable to determine why Alzheimer’s occurs in the first place. There remain countless hypotheses about what causes neurodegeneration in the brain leading to AD.  Most of the initiatives are focused on a single approach which has produced little, if any convincing results.

The theory that has gained the most attention from Big Pharma over the past 15 years attributes the build-up of a protein, called amyloid-β, in the brain as the cause of neurodegeneration. This is the hypothesis behind Biogen’s recently approved Aduhelm. But clinical trials have not meaningfully demonstrated that these therapeutics slow memory loss or cognitive decline and the product has been a commercial failure. Other pharmaceutical companies in the amyloid-β camp include Eli Lilly with donanemab and Biogen/Eisai with lecanemab.

Another completely different approach revolved around a large study that linked gum disease (gingivitis) to dementia/Alzheimer’s. Dr. Doug Brown, Director of Research and Development at Alzheimer’s Society, said, “It’s unclear, however, whether this is cause or effect – if the gum disease is triggering the faster decline of dementia, or vice versa.” Unfortunately for Alzheimer’s patients, the recent clinical trial was not successful, and it seems unlikely there will be any further studies in the area.

Today’s treatments for AD are limited and unsatisfactory. They simply address symptoms to temporarily improve cognition in some patients. But these treatments, including Aduhelm, only provide minor, temporary benefit at best.

Market Potential High for Effective AD Treatment

Quite simply, there is a substantial need for a drug that either stops progression of this debilitating disease or repairs the damage that it wreaks on the nervous system.

The 6,000,000 AD patients in the United States, with 900,000 new patients each year, represent a market potential of over $300 billion. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, AD and other dementias cost $355 billion in 2021, and potentially could reach $1.1 trillion in 2050.

Sky High Market Value for Hope

After the Aducanumab was approved by the FDA, Biogen’s stock price increased 38.3% on the day, adding $16.5 billion to the company’s market value. Eli Lilly saw its stock add $18.6 billion in market cap as it had a similar amyloid-β ‘buster’ drug candidate. Clinical-stage biotech Cassava Sciences’ stock price soared in 2021 upon releasing strong results in clinical studies for its Alzheimer’s drug, Simufilam.

While these stocks did not remain in the stratosphere, mainly because they were unable to fulfill their promise, it is clear that investors, and the general public – many of whom have Alzheimer’s in their family – are seeking both a much-needed treatment as well as likely the most valuable drug in history.

First-in-Class Neuroreparative Drug

While everyone knows that the nervous system is a complex system that controls thought, movement, senses, etc., everyone believes that the nervous system cannot repair itself. But what if that belief is completely wrong?

Now there is promise of a drug development effort that is taking a completely different approach – not trying to cure the disease but actually repair the damage.

Originally developed to treat spinal cord injury, NVG-291 was invented by Dr. Jerry Silver, Professor of Neurosciences at Case Western Reserve University’s School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio. However, it soon became apparent that NV-291 was actually healing nervous system damage at a biologically fundamental level. Dr. Silver’s drug discovery is now well into its Phase I clinical trial and is on the cusp of Phase II clinical trials for repairing spinal cord injury as well as neurodegenerative conditions including multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease.

What differentiates NVG-291 from other drugs in development is that it leverages multiple innate mechanisms for repairing damage to the nervous system, while similar efforts focus on a single approach. As Alzheimer’s disease is a complex condition, likely caused by multiple factors; a systemic approach to treating the disease is an important distinction.

I joined NervGen in November 2019 with over 30 years of commercial and development experience in biotech and pharma, and have worked on the development of over 10 products that are now FDA or EMA approved. In all that time I have never had quite the same “come to Jesus” moment as when I first met with Dr. Silver to review his animal model data (you can see highlights on this video), it was truly amazing and inspirational listening to Dr. Silver explain the data in an exciting and enthusiastic way.

Remarkably, in one of a number of positive preclinical studies, over 50% of the animals recovered almost fully from a very severe spinal cord injury. When NervGen exclusively licensed the technology from Case Western Reserve University, it was clear that the technology was truly revolutionary. If the results observed in the animal studies translated to humans, it would redefine therapy for nervous system damage and have broad and far-reaching implications.

NervGen’s drug is able to achieve this approach by enabling the body’s own repair mechanisms to promote nervous system repair. Injury or disease to the central nervous system results in multifaceted cellular and molecular responses. One such response, the glial scar, is a structural formation of reactive glia (cells) around an area of severe tissue damage. The purpose of the scar is to encapsulate the site of the injury to prevent further damage and begin the healing process, but it ultimately inhibits the body’s reparative mechanisms. Dr. Silver discovered that a constituent of these scars, a glycoprotein called chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan (“CSPG”), is a major inhibitor of the body’s natural ability to regrow and regenerate the central nervous system.

NervGen’s drug simply counteracts this inhibition. Multiple studies with animal models for several diseases and medical conditions have shown that treatment with NVG-291 resulted in the repair of damaged nerves and improvement in function. These studies demonstrated that NVG-291 promoted multiple repair mechanisms including enhanced plasticity, (where surviving nerves take on additional function), axon regeneration and remyelination (the repair of the protective coating of the nerves) and enhanced recovery of functions such as walking, bladder control, vision, learning and memory.

“There are two additional mechanisms that we have seen in our studies with NVG-291 that could be very important in the treatment of Alzheimer’s,” says Dr. Jerry Silver. “First, there is the reduction of inflammation in the immune cells of the brain. Second, there is the promotion of autophagy, which is a cellular cleaning mechanism that is necessary for healthy neurons.”

“Except for the aforementioned Aduhelm, which has marginal efficacy, the currently approved Alzheimer’s drugs merely address symptoms, whereas NVG-291 acts at a more fundamental level to allow the normal repair mechanisms to kick into gear to create a favourable environment for nerves to grow and create entirely new nerve connections,” says Dr. Silver.

Furthermore, by promoting these natural repair mechanisms, NVG-291 will possibly treat both acute nervous system damage (spinal cord injury, peripheral nerve injury, traumatic brain injury, and stroke) and neurodegenerative diseases (multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and Parkinson’s).

As there are currently no therapies approved that enable nervous system repair, NVG-291 has the potential to be truly disruptive. So, the stakes are especially high for NervGen in our bid to create a breakthrough blockbuster drug.

The post Alzheimer’s Breakthrough: A Disruptive Systemic Approach Is Poised To Demonstrate Value appeared first on Grit Daily News.

1. An invoice got him into crypto 

Stefan fell into crypto in 2012 when a developer for his company Exicon asked to be paid in Bitcoin. This prompted an OTC purchase via eBay and PayPal whose speed left the CEO agape, particularly in comparison to the sweaty walk he had just taken to cash a cheque in Hong Kong.

2. He helped bring mobile to China

Back in the 1990s, Stefan was instrumental in bringing mobile technology to China when he set up four mobile networks in the country. He sold these to China Unicom in 1999 when they needed the assets to go public, paving the way for a new wave of technological innovation.

3. When he grew up, he wanted to be a cowboy 

As a young boy, Stefan’s ultimate dream was to be a cowboy, or a fireman: something on the “frontier.” This is why, he says, he got into crypto, whose wild, uncharted territory and ability to open up finance to the masses attracted the renegade entrepreneur.  

4. Sir Robert Black GCMG OBE was his grandfather 

Stefan’s grandfather was Sir Robert Black, who was the Governor of Singapore and then Governor of Hong Kong between 1955 and 1964. During his tenure, he ensured Hong Kong didn’t go dry by brokering a deal with China for water during the historic drought of 1962-64.

5. Android has a lot to thank him for 

Stefan Rust was involved in instrumental acquisitions and investments during the lead up to launching a Java-based iPhone competitor, which his firm announced at JavaONE. This ultimately opened the door to Android and a whole new world of mobile possibilities.

6. He’s a world-class swimmer  

Perhaps fitting for the CEO of “Laguna”, Stefan is a keen swimmer. In-fact, he is a world masters swimmer, claiming the title of fourth fastest in the world for 50 metre free style and sixth fastest in the world for 50 metre backstroke at the Budapest World Masters Championship.

7. He learned when to let go the hard way

Among Stefan’s key life lessons, he says knowing when to call it quits is the most important. After moving heaven, earth, and a lot of capital to keep a business venture alive that just wasn’t working, he recommends not following the “keep at it” mantra if you really shouldn’t. 

8. With Laguna, he’s finally going to crack the crypto nut

Stefan is a true crypto believer, but he’s frustrated with how slow the industry has been to found the next Google or Facebook: a company that can transform the world based on new technology. With Laguna, though, he thinks he can. 

9. Cookies & Cream is his favorite ice cream 

When he can’t get his hands on some Hong Kong-style bubble tea, Stefan’s guilty pleasure is ice cream. And when he can’t get his hands on Molten Malteser Vanilla Fluff Flavor, he’ll settle for old fashioned Cookies & Cream.

10. He wants to liberate the world through crypto 

Like a true cowboy, Stefan is not the biggest fan of lawmakers – particularly ones that are ramping-up inflation. With Truflation and Nuon, Stefan hopes to finally give the average Joanne an opportunity to preserve her wealth and build a stable financial future.

Looking to catch Stefan Rust during Consensus Festival-Austin? He’ll be at DCentral and then on stage at Grit Daily House-Consensus, especially June 10, along with Robin Guyard and Cameron Lee from Laguna. Joining them will be Rachel Wolfson (CoinTelegraph), Doug Horn (Telos), Blake Commagere (Vault12), Chad Steelberg (Veritone), James Wo (JSquare), Caitlin Long (Custodia Bank), Miles Paschini (FV Bank), Jenn Sanasie (CoinDesk) and Laila Maidan and Katie Canales from Business Insider, among others.

Alongside some of the best content during Consensus, Grit Daily House will boast Cookies & Cream ice cream, too. 

The post 10 Things You Didn’t Know about Stefan Rust appeared first on Grit Daily News.

In a recent interview, Joe Lowry, a mining consultant and podcaster known as Mr. Lithium, told Bloomberg that there will be a heightened gap between supply and demand over the next two years.

During Tesla Motor’s last earning call, CEO Elon Musk even urged entrepreneurs to get into the mining business, saying that “the lithium margins right now are practically software margins. I think this there’s a, correct me if I’m wrong, but I think we’re seeing cases where the spot lithium price is 10 times higher than the cost of extraction. So not like we’re talking 90% margins here. Can more people please get into the lithium business? Do you like minting money? Well, lithium business is for you.”

Mining & Producing Lithium: Not for Feint-Hearted

Speaking geologically, lithium is relatively common but the process of exploration and extraction takes years and has many risks. One major source of lithium is from salt-encrusted depressions, usually the basin of an ancient evaporated lake, which are called ‘salars.’ These salars are targeted for geological exploration, as many have lithium concentrated in dissolved salts that have accumulated over millions of into underground brine pools.  Traditional methods to extract this lithium is to pump the brines to the surface and then evaporate the water and leave the salts behind, including lithium.

However, drawing on Elon Musk’s comment, patience is not a virtue for software entrepreneurs (who are more akin to the people at EV producers). Their patience might by challenged by the lengthy process of moving lithium projects from discovery to production. As Mr. Lithium sagely notes, “You can build a battery factory in two years, but it takes up to a decade to bring a lithium project on-line. It’s not a commodity; it’s a specialty chemical. Lithium is often compared with iron ore or other major commodities, and it behaves nothing like that. The auto industry is just finally figuring that out. Lithium qualification for an auto company can take over a year.”

The process of turning lithium into the chemicals that power batteries is not easy and it is not fast. Even after the long development steps to produce lithium from a salar, refining lithium involves chemical processes that cause water and soil pollution without proper controls. As such, it can take many years for a new lithium-mining operation to produce battery-grade materials.

As lithium scarcity grows, the price continues its upswing. BloombergNEF forecasts anticipated supply deficits of lithium carbonate and hydroxide — the main lithium chemicals used in battery production — will drive prices steadily skyward until 2030.

Securing Lithium in Geopolitically Friendly Regions

The quest for access to high grade lithium among EV manufacturers is heated. The United States and other countries disentangling their clean energy supply chains from China, currently the leading lithium producer, are urgently searching for new sources in geopolitically safe lithium-rich countries, particularly Chile.

Chile, Argentina and Bolivia comprise the lithium “golden triangle”. The Atacama Salar in Chile accounts for 35% of the world’s lithium production and is also the site of the lion’s share of new lithium projects globally. Atacama is also the world’s highest-grade lithium brine source. This translates into large volumes of lithium material and low-cost production, given how rich the resource is there.

Lithium Companies in Chile

The two biggest companies extracting lithium today in Chile are Albemarle, a U.S.-based company that also controls the largest lithium operations in Australia, and Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile (SQM), Chile’s largest lithium mining company. Current exploration for lithium in Chile has been concentrated in the Atacama Salar and the Maricunga Salar. The leading junior mining companies operating in the Chilean lithium mining market are Calgary based Lithium Chile and my company, Vancouver, BC-based Wealth Minerals.

Lithium Extraction Technology Gains Buzz

As the demand for lithium has increased dramatically in the recent past, so has scrutiny of lithium business operations. Current production technology involves using solar evaporation as a first step to extract lithium from a resource. Basically, it means evaporating water off into the open air to recover dissolved lithium salts. While it is a cheap and easy process, it is an anathema in the driest area of the world.

New lithium extraction technologies have begun to attract attention with Direct Lithium Extraction (“DLE”) gaining the most headlines and investment. “While traditional methods yield about 40% to 50% of the lithium present in a mined resource, processes using DLE can extract 75% to 90%, companies behind the technologies say,” reports The Wall Street Journal. “The question is whether DLE is ready to make a major difference. Many DLE technologies that work well in a laboratory often run into trouble in the field, experts say. Many of the technologies would likely still require large amounts of water and power to run the devices on a large scale.”

“Right now, it’s still very theoretical,” says Chris Berry, founder of House Mountain Partners LLC, an adviser to battery-metals companies and investors. However, despite the technological challenges of DLE, it seems certain that traditional solar evaporation is coming to an end, as social pressure to end the practice is increasingly being felt at the level of government regulators across the industry.

The quest to develop more lithium asset and production technologies is notably is heating up in the United States, with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) investing $2.91B “to boost production of the advanced batteries that are critical to rapidly growing clean energy industries of the future, including electric vehicles and energy storage.”  This step, and similar ones being taken by governments and industry worldwide, point to a future of more lithium consumption and better technology to use lithium to get the most benefit from its energy-storage capabilities.

To date, the lithium industry has a poor track record of delivering supply to the market, as demonstrated by multiple projects announced earlier this decade not being built, and multiple expansion plans of existing operations not being realized. However, those companies that have the access to capital and, most importantly, access to top tier specialists, have been able to perform quite well. I believe that Wealth Minerals is well placed to join the ranks of these top tier performers.

The post EV Manufacturers Face a Lithium Shortage Expected to Last for Years appeared first on Grit Daily News.

The good news is that even if Mother’s Day has slipped your mind until this very minute, you can still have an amazing present delivered to Mom in time for the holiday. In that spirit, let’s look at a few options that you may want to consider.

If you want something out of the ordinary that mom (and her neighbors) are going to remember for years to come, try sending a singing telegram. There are barbershop quartets for hire throughout North America that can show up and give your mother a day that she probably won’t be expecting.

If an in-person musical act isn’t in the cards, you can send a customized e-card that will definitely get noticed. This isn’t just an email: it’s a multimedia presentation tailored just for mom. There are a number of online tools that allow people to create unbelievably funny videos that will definitely give mom a smile.

Most gifts last only a few days: flowers wilt, balloons deflate, and cookies get eaten. If you want to create something that will last for a long time, order custom stickers and decals that mom can put on her fridge or share with her friends. After all, what mother isn’t going to want to show off pictures of her grandkids or her cats for weeks (or months) after Mother’s Day has passed?

If your mom is a bit more adventurous, take her out. But don’t just settle for a trip to the mall: take her geocaching. It’s a hobby that millions of people around the world have taken up, and it’s an amazing way to let mom explore her community and have fun with the entire family. Think of it as a digital treasure hunt that’s perfect for people who love puzzles and riddles.

You don’t have to go to Africa to enjoy a safari because there are literally hundreds of animal adventures right here at home. It’s an outing that is definitely out of the norm, which is why it’s so perfect for a Mother’s Day surprise. So if you want to take mom to see moose in Maine, bison in  Montana, or giraffes in the suburbs of Washington, DC, you’re in luck.

Every mom is different, and there’s no single “best gift that families can give them. What matters is that mothers know that they are appreciate, cherished, and honored on their special day.

The post These 5 Tech Startups Have Awesome Mother’s Day Gift Ideas appeared first on Grit Daily News.