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.

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.

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“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.

In fact, until recently, the company seemed to be doing well, with talks of additional funding in the realm of $1 billion floating around. However, some investors involved in the potential funding backed out due to the rate at which Gopuff was losing money. And with that funding evaporating, Gopuff has found itself forced to downsize its workforce, leading to multiple rounds of layoffs.

Moreover, aside from losing hundreds of employees, other things have started to pile up. The company entered a hiring freeze earlier in the year, put a halt on a new business opportunity, and lost key executives. The executives were meant to take the lead on modernizing Gopuff’s ecommerce software, something essential for any online business, much less one so massive.

As a result, many have started questioning whether the co-CEOs, Gola and Rafael Ilishayev, have the ability to lead a company of this size. In fact, there have been reports of employees questioning whether the two were still fit to control the company and its future due to an overall lack of business experience between them.

Of course, while others, such as the company’s head of engineering, Rekha Singh, agree that their experience might not be enough, it is not all negative. She did give them credit for hiring the right people with the necessary experience, which inspires confidence.

Additional Concerns

Gopuff’s meteoric rise suffered significantly from the problems already covered, leading to many people lacking confidence in the company’s leadership. Part of that is due to Gopuff’s pharmacy business crumbling and the fact that BevMo accounts for around half of the company’s revenue.

But those are not the only things giving employees cause to worry. The founders are also known to have a remote management style, which started with the two moving to a lavish suburb in Miami. While the city has become something of a second headquarters to the company, the action and lifestyle have brought up further concerns about leadership.

But all of that is only made worse due to the current economic climate, where a potential recession threatens to hurt the business through reduced delivery sales growth. Additionally, funding is no longer as easy to get, making the failure to secure the aforementioned $1 billion more damaging.

Essentially, the company no longer has access to the type of money that allowed it to expand so rapidly. And since the expansions into places like Europe, New York, and Los Angeles lost the company money, it begs the question of how things will go without the hefty backing received during the pandemic years.

It does not help Gopuff’s case that investors are looking for stabler options, with low costs and predictable revenue being far more appealing. All of this led to the company pulling back and delaying its initial public offering (IPO).

It should not come as a shock, though, since the company lost a significant amount of money last year. In fact, it hemorrhaged around $500 million in cash, and that is before one-time expenses. Although it managed to generate $1 billion or so in sales through its app, that is not enough when you consider the company’s business model or the fact that it saw similar losses the year before (2020).

Gopuff does not operate like its competitors, such as DoorDash. While the two are often compared, DoorDash is far healthier compared to Gopuff, with superior revenue and a nice bit of profit. However, part of that is due to the business model, which relies on purchasing inventory and leasing warehouses.

The need for warehouses and inventory on the front side of things leads to a need for significant capital, which is responsible for how much cash the company goes through. It is to the point that despite increasing the profits per order, it is still difficult to succeed. And Gopuff is not alone, with others in the same instant-delivery sphere finding it difficult to manage losses or stay open at all.

Lack of Proof

Gopuff is not the only company to use a business model centered around warehouses, with many smaller companies replicating the approach. However, those companies do not have the same additional revenue as Gopuff, which comes from BevMo and Liquor Barn. The two chains were purchased during the pandemic, and they account for nearly half of the company’s revenue.

While the added revenue is certainly not a bad thing, it is not exactly good, either. That revenue does not come from customers using the app, which has the potential to hurt the company’s valuation. For that reason, there is a need for the percentage of revenue coming from the retail chains to decrease.

The company is optimistic about the overall BevMo sales reducing in percentage over time, but the high retail revenue is not the only problem the company faces.

The heavy losses faced by the company have caused investors to turn away, evident from the potential $1 billion in funding that fell through. In fact, much of the concern from investors comes from Gopuff’s inability to prove it can succeed. After taking losses in Europe and large American cities, there is little faith that the company can succeed in major metropolitan areas.

Internal Shuffle

Gopuff’s internal problems also contribute to its troubles and the lack of confidence from employees. Initially, the company hired executives to fill key roles, including people from reputable tech firms. One example is Andy Berman, head of ad sales. Berman joined the company in 2020, coming from Facebook. However, he resigned prior to the layoffs this year, throwing the company’s advertising initiative into further disarray.

Other executives include the director of strategic partnerships and head of product, who came from Uber and Airbnb, respectively. Both parted with the company this year, adding to the negative atmosphere amidst the two rounds of layoffs.

The company has hired new individuals to fill the top-level executive spots, including Maria Renz. Renz’s impressive background includes time at Amazon and as a former board member at DoorDash. Her experience has led her to oversee Gopuff’s business in North America.

Early Success

Although Gopuff has been losing money in recent years, there were days when the company had a positive cash flow, starting with its beginning in Philadelphia, a metropolitan area where it still does quite well. It all began when the founders were in university, with the two of them delivering items to other students. And for the first few years, between 2013 and 2016, the company did well without entangling with venture capitalists.

But eventually, Gopuff started to expand into other areas, going beyond hungry college students and moving into cities including Boston. At that time, they already operated differently from services like Instacart, selling a pre-stocked inventory of goods that is stored in warehouses. That is the secret behind its speed, with these micro-fulfillment centers giving Gopuff an advantage in terms of delivery time.

Of course, nothing was certain, but the founders were confident in themselves and promoted themselves as the next big thing. Only, they lacked the same connections that tech startups in other areas, such as Silicon Valley, might have. That made it tough to find the right talent and backers, though they found local talent to fill the executive gaps.

The company also hired a group of developers to build its initial app, slowly growing. At that time, though, the company remained relatively small, requiring employees to work from one of two places: its headquarters in Philadelphia or an office in San Francisco. But all of that changed during the pandemic.

Rapid Growth

The start of Gopuff’s incredible growth came in 2019 when the company received an investment from SoftBank, a Japanese tech conglomerate. The conglomerate put $750 million into the company. The funding served as a launching pad, which put Gopuff in a solid position when the pandemic began.

The pandemic ended up being a period of major growth for Gopuff, starting with more investors stepping forward as they saw the opportunity for growth and success. More than anything, though, the massive demand for delivering all types of goods set the company up for success. That included groceries, snacks, and medical products.

Of course, Gopuff was not the only company to benefit from the shift in lifestyle many people faced, but its results stood out. Sales through the app soared, nearly doubling, and it maintained this pattern for quite some time. Unfortunately for Gopuff, that trend did not last, falling off in 2021 and this year.

But during the peak of its sales, the company’s founders did an impressive amount of fundraising, taking advantage of the interest in and demand for instant-delivery companies. In fact, they managed to go through three successful rounds of funding, which is what supported the ambitious expansion into major cities, including New York. They even started investing in pre-made meals and other goods specific to Gopuff.

At the same time, Gopuff started making moves to expand by pulling in talent from various companies, including the executives mentioned above from companies like Facebook and Airbnb. The plan was to expand every aspect of the company to compete with others in the space, ensuring its product development and engineering were up to the task ahead.

Partnerships

During the height of its growth in 2020, Gopuff held talks with various companies, including a potential partnership with Instacart, which eventually fell apart. While the companies disagreed over things, including how to share customer data. However, Uber proved more agreeable, and in 2021, both companies partnered to allow Uber users to share data with Gopuff.

Gopuff also acquired a few companies in 2021 to advance into Europe, offering its services in multiple cities, including London. This move comes after expansion into larger North American cities, with the founders intent on spreading Gopuff’s influence after continued growth and successful funding rounds.

The Height Before the Fall

Everything seemed to be going great for the company. Despite losing money, the expansion and recruitment of top talents set the company up for potential greatness. The founders pushed forward, clearly vying for ambitious heights. However, the founders’ dream of Gopuff becoming a $1 trillion business soon began to falter.

The founders, Gola and Ilishayev, grew the business to have around 15,000 employees. They even began to enjoy their success by purchasing their two adjacent houses in Miami. Following the purchase came a lavish lifestyle, including vehicles, a private jet, and partying. Moreover, the founders began hosting meetings in their homes, where everything was on display.

Simultaneously, Gopuff’s ventures began to stumble, particularly when it came to expansion. Several services ended, including ship-to-home services, and it ended up having to completely shelve its pharmacy operations. Suddenly, all the grand ambitions hit a block in the road, which has only worsened with the loss of people.

Now, Gopuff faces further trouble, though it is still pushing forward. The company recently launched its first restaurant brand, which is a pizza brand for delivery. Whether it will succeed or be another failed venture for the ambitious founders is unknown. Only time will tell.

The post Gopuff’s Future Seems Uncertain In the Face of Financial Losses and Shaky Leadership appeared first on Grit Daily News.

While the U.S. Congress funds billions in grants to chipmakers including Goliaths such as Micron and Samsung, many emerging alternative energy companies – who don’t have billions in the bank like the chipmakers – beg for their supper.

It’s time for Congress to back a ‘Renewables for America Act’ to provide upstart alternative energy companies the support they need to survive.  Biden’s White House has set a goal to reach 100 percent carbon pollution-free electricity by 2035. This can only be achieved by investing in the companies that are actively producing the technology to produce meaningful emissions reductions in this decade.

Renewable energy companies are looking to Biden’s leadership to open up new doors for government research grants. Around the world, countries look to America as a model to emulate to produce and deploy clean technologies to build a sustainable future.  By bolstering domestic supply chains and manufacturing American-made, clean energy products to sell nationally and internationally, we will reach our goals of carbon neutrality.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) reports that “clean energy spending earmarked by governments in response to the Covid-19 crisis has risen by 50% over the past five months and now stands at over USD 710 billion worldwide, though there are troubling imbalances between regions, according to the latest update of the IEA’s Sustainable Recovery Tracker. ”The IEA believes that  global investment in energy projects needs to more than double from its current level to $5 trillion a year by 2030 to meet net-zero emission goals by mid-century.  

Until significant environmental legislation is able to move forward on the federal level, the United States’ adoption of green policies will be a state-by-state affair, and NEPA could be a model to follow. The National Environmental Act (NEPA) is a federal law that requires all federal agencies to submit environmental impact statements for all activity that could affect the environment. 

New York State is seen as a global leader in energy storage technology, including applications in grid storage, transportation and power electronics. New York State is securing commercially ready technologies that will help grow a clean energy economy and improve the reliability, efficiency and overall performance of the state’s electric power delivery system.

On April 9^th, Governor Hochul announced investments in clean energy infrastructure, climate resiliency and preservation. Hochul’s budget authorizes an additional $1.2 billion, for a total of $4.2 billion, for the landmark “Clean Water, Clean Air, and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act.” Earlier this year, Hochul called for New York to double its energy storage target to at least 6 GW by 2030 to help integrate significant new volumes of variable renewable energy resources.

If approved by the voters, New York’s Clean Water act would be the first such act since 1996. Investments from previous bond acts have yielded benefits for every corner of New York.  Governor Hochul is an advocate of the energy storage sector, realizing its important role in reducing costs, protecting the environment and improving the resilience and strength of the state’s infrastructure in the face of natural disasters and other emergencies. 

“Fueling” Alternative Energy Companies Sustains America

Alternative energy companies look to the states and country they serve to continue to invest in new battery technologies and energy storage systems. Alternative energy companies are developing working prototypes that demonstrate the ability of these advanced energy systems to harden the state’s electric grid and diversify transportation fuels. Without the support of State and/or Federal grants, many of these companies will not survive.

Our collective future requires clean air and our pathway to that environmentally-sound planet demands a global support of economically sound alternative energy plans. A ‘bet’ on clean energy through investments in renewable energy and energy storage is a wager that will deliver a cleaner planet that will thrive for current and future generations.

The post Federal Support of Alternative Energy Companies Crucial for Renewable Sector appeared first on Grit Daily News.

As a Marine Corps veteran, he told war stories that would make Michael Bay blush, recounting the savage battles he fought all over the world, including being shot in the chest and blown up by an IED, during his career in special operations. His stories about life in the civilian world were just as dramatic, where he talked about stacking win after win until he had amassed fifty four companies generating nearly sixty million dollars in annual revenue in just a few years. He even boasted of prestigious clients like Nike, Black Rifle Coffee, and Grunt Style. 

Except it was all a lie. Including his real name, which is not Patch Baker. It’s Jefferson Scott Baker. But since most people know him as Patch, we’ll stick with that in this article.

According to information gathered during an extensive investigation, Patch Baker did serve in the Marine Corps, but his claims of deploying nineteen times over the course of fifteen years were pure fantasy. Not only did Baker not serve fifteen years—he only served four, but he also never deployed. And his stories of combat, while colorful and exciting, were also completely fabricated. In stark contrast to the image of a battle hardened warrior that he liked to present, Baker actually served in an administrative role. He was what infantry Marines refer to as a POG, which is an acronym for Person Other than Grunt. Basically, he stood around handing out backpacks in North Carolina for four years. 

Stolen valor—lying about military service—is a controversial topic for many. Especially for veterans. 

Technically, lying about military service is protected by the First Amendment. But, when false claims about military service are used for financial gain, it can become a federal crime thanks to the Stolen Valor Act, which was signed into law in 2005 by President George W. Bush. 

And that’s exactly what Baker did. He used these made up stories to build trust with other entrepreneurs and investors, and then reel them into his elaborate schemes to defraud them of their hard earned money.

In some cases, he preyed on entrepreneurs’ ambitions by promising to leverage his relationships and capital to catapult their businesses to massive success. Especially veteran-owned companies. He would then “partner” with them, making bold promises about all the amazing things he was going to do for their business, but those promises never materialized. Instead, he simply drained their bank accounts, borrowed money against their companies, and then ghosted them, according to many of Baker’s victims.

In other cases, he persuaded investors to put their money into what he called a Merchant Cash Advance fund, which he claimed was completely safe while promising outrageous returns. He told investors that he had invested millions of his own money into the fund, and managed to get dozens of them to hand over hundreds of thousands of dollars each. In fact, some investors put in over a million dollars. Based on information from investors, it appears that his Ponzi scheme raked in over ten million dollars. 

Eventually though, as all scams do, Patch Baker’s scams began to unravel. 

People began talking about his unfulfilled promises. At first, he was able to rebut the rumors by claiming the entrepreneurs he partnered with didn’t deliver on their end. He claimed he was propping them up and that without him, they would have already gone out of business. 

“Bro, who are you going to believe? A guy like me who’s making sixty million a year or someone I’m keeping on life support?” he would ask with a deep southern drawl and a smile. But as his list of detractors grew, the truth became more obvious. 

It seems odd that someone supposedly making sixty million dollars a year would have been evicted because his fairly modest house was in foreclosure, forcing him to move into a tiny apartment, but that’s just another detail the investigation uncovered.

The same thing happened with his so-called Merchant Cash Advance fund. When some investors began trying to withdraw the money they had put into it, they were given nothing but excuses. One of the more outrageous excuses was that his bank, Wells Fargo, had frozen his accounts because they were trying to reverse engineer his business model. Baker claimed that Wells Fargo executives told him they had never seen someone make so much money and wanted to figure out how he was doing it so they could do the same. Any rational person can see that with over eighty billion in revenue and surging profit margins, it’s clear that Wells Fargo didn’t need help from Patch Baker to figure out how to make money. But he doubled down on this ludicrous claim anyway. 

After Baker failed to meet multiple deadlines to return money to investors, they organized to publicly share their experiences in an effort to prevent him from conning anyone else. They launched the website, Patch Baker Fraud, began sharing their stories on social media, and prepared a lawsuit. Since then, the Office of the Inspector General has also opened an investigation into Baker’s false claims about his military service.

The whole situation is a classic example of “fake it ‘till you make it” except Baker never “made” it. He just took it—from countless hard working entrepreneurs. And in the process, he desecrated the graves of the service members who died doing what he pretended he did. As a Marine veteran who actually did serve in the infantry with multiple deployments, I find his behavior appalling. 

In the end, he will face justice as the veteran community has ostracized him, investors are lining up to sue him, and various government agencies are preparing to prosecute him for his crimes. 

For Patch Baker, as we used to say in the Marine Corps, it’s all over except for the crying.

The post Patch Baker: The Military Con Artist Behind an Elaborate Ponzi Scheme appeared first on Grit Daily News.

As S&P Global reports, as stricter sanctions with Russian trade continue, global markets could be squeezed, with mining companies in geopolitically friendly countries getting a bump in price as industrial metal prices affected by the Ukrainian conflict, such as copper, push higher. Industrial metals include copper, zinc nickel and aluminum, and are used in a variety of commercial and industrial applications crucial to our green economy transition.

“Heightened volatility on the escalation of the conflict shows markets had not fully priced in the likelihood of deeper conflict,” said Mark Haefele, chief investment officer, UBS Global Wealth Management, on markets’ reaction to the invasion. “We expect continued volatility in the near term as leaders calibrate and announce their response to this escalation.”

Reuters reports that “mining companies with ties to Russian businesses are scrambling to sever them in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”

The United States has banned Russian oil and gas, but as Washington, DC looks to expand sanctions, industrial metals that are vital to America’s green revolution including copper and nickel, may soon be blacklisted as legislators are seeking to revoke Russia’s most-favored nation status, which would significantly increase duties on imports from Russia which includes many industrial metal products.

We all hope for a swift resolution to conflict in Ukraine; we must also realize that it is unlikely to return to “business as usual” for some time, if ever.  Sanctions will create lingering investment risk that will dissuade future investment for years or decades to come.

Today, Russia is the second largest exporter of refined copper in the world. While sanctions are not affecting copper exports directly right now and may not in the future, the broader question must be asked and answered; will companies be comfortable risking capital in the Russian market?  If not, how will mining operations continue and critical future developments be funded?  These questions are not easy to answer, and may lead to sustained supply gaps in key commodities.  For the copper sector, we are fortunate that this is a gap that is easily addressed as development is being pushed all around the world including many geopolitically friendly countries.

Navigating the Industrial Metals Geopolitical Landscape

So, with international mining companies operating in Russia severing ties, and super power countries including the United States seeking to reduce or eliminate their mineral ties, what countries are rich with industrial metals and geopolitically friendly?

Chile, is a stable and mining-friendly country, is the top copper producer in world with 28 percent of global copper production and the world’s second largest producer of lithium with a 22 percent share of world production. Peru produced about 2.2 million metric tons in 2020, and China, stands as the world’s third-largest copper producer.

Outside of Russia, major producers for zinc, vital to rechargeable batteries and electronic circuitry, are Indonesia the Philippines, and New Caledonia.

Aluminum plays a critical role in automobile energy efficiency with China the world’s leading exporter.  However, India, Canada and the United Arab Emirates are significant producers.

Industrial Metals Vital to Renewable Energy Sector

With the United States, Europe and China committed to the renewable energy transition and over 190 countries committed to the Paris agreement, there will be an immense global demand for industrial metals for decades. Nearly every renewable energy system including electric vehicles, solar panels, grid level batteries, and carbon capture system, uses significant quantities of industrial metals. The events in Ukraine are having an immediate global impact and forcing a reorganization of the World’s economic ties and trade flows. Governments and investors alike must begin investigating and pursuing geopolitically friendly options to source  critical industrial metals required to enable our transition to a greener planet and future.

The post With Severed Ties to Russia, Newer Markets for Industrial Metals Rise appeared first on Grit Daily News.

The class action states that the ransomware-type malware attack began on July 20, 2021. However, it only came to the company’s attention on August 1, 2021. The cause of the discovery was the malware preventing access to some of the files in the company’s system. Additionally, the attack led to the unauthorized access of some files.

The breach potentially exposed 521,046 individuals, including employees and former employees. Those affected also include the company’s various clients, including Fortune 500 and Global 100 companies.

There have been claims that Morley stored the information in a reckless manner, causing the breach to be more severe than it should have been. Another complaint is that the company did not promptly inform people potentially affected by the breach.

The company claims that they engaged independent cybersecurity experts when the event occurred, which is when they discovered that additional information had been obtained.

However, Morley only collected the needed contact information for potentially impacted individuals in early 2022. Then, on February 1, 2022, the company notified those individuals about the incident and their subsequent actions.

The company also stated that it was not aware of the misuse of information obtained during the attack. Despite that, Morley is offering those involved complimentary credit monitoring and identity theft protection services. The company also stated that it has altered its cyber environment to prevent such situations in the future.

Impacted Information

The breach resulted in the exposure of personal and protected health information. The basic information exposed includes each individual’s name, date of birth, and address. Additionally, the breach led to the compromise of Social Security numbers and client identification numbers.

Because of the information obtained, the attorney general of Michigan, Dana Nessel, warned people about fraudulent emails, phone calls, and text messages. Morley also outlined some things for those affected to be wary about.

Other information included in the breach includes sensitive medical information, such as diagnostic and treatment information, and health insurance information.

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