• Global adoption of electric vehicles driving demand for cobalt and lithium
• Exploration rebooted on strategic claims in Lithium Triangle
• Gold veins also discovered at San Roque Gold Property

It’s not often that you get a winning combination from a mineral exploration company like the one put together by Marifil Mines Ltd. (TSX.V: MFM) (OTCQB: MFMLF). The junior explorer, based in Vancouver, Canada, has assembled a portfolio of claims that compose properties containing lithium, cobalt, gold and other valuable elements and minerals. As the world abandons fossil fuel-powered vehicles, demand for lithium and cobalt continues to climb; the metals are an essential component in batteries for the electric vehicles that will replace them. Argentina, where the Marifil properties lie, is part of the famed lithium triangle that hosts 54 percent of the world’s lithium resources. Given the axiom that gold always glitters, Marifil’s exploration activities appear to signal a trifecta of opportunity, which has not gone unnoticed. Earlier this year, the company announced that it had completed a private placement of ordinary shares. Part of the proceeds are already being used to resume drilling at its flagship San Roque gold property (http://ibn.fm/9ocbH).

San Roque is a 42,321‐hectare (163 square miles) property that lies near the Atlantic coast in a region of well-developed infrastructure, located in the southern Argentine Province of Rio Negro. The San Roque claims contain a bulk tonnage sulfide deposit comprising minerals of gold, silver, lead, zinc and indium disseminated in tens of millions of tonnes of host volcanic rocks. There is as well a newly discovered series of gold-bearing quartz veins. Exploration of this system of veins has just begun, with a series of trenches made to expose and better sample them. These gold-bearing veins exceed a kilometer in length and are generally in the one-to-three meter range of width. Marifil’s San Roque mining rights are held by nine mineral tenures, three of which are now granted titles covering 95 patented mining claims that total 9,449 hectares (36.5 square miles).

The San Roque property is situated in relatively flat desert terrain averaging about 200 meters in elevation and so is accessible by vehicle all year round. It is jointly owned by Marifil, which has a 51 percent interest, and Novagold Resources, with 49 percent. Several deposits of significant gold-silver-indium-lead-zinc mineralization have been discovered on a four-kilometer-long zone, and drilling has yielded significant results that include an intersection of 233 meters of 0.64 grams per metric ton, plus 10.5 grams per metric ton of silver with just traces of base metals, including a run of 2.27 grams per metric ton and 42.6 grams per metric ton of silver over 35 meters starting at the drill hole collar.

Marifil is also exploring for gold and silver in Chubut Province at its Lago Fontana property. Named after the nearby Fontana Lake, the property is located in the Andean Mountain front near the Argentine-Chilean border. It is easily accessible by road and lies about 400 kilometers (249 miles) from the large city of Comodoro Rivadavia. The claims there consist of 11 patented mine rights covering 498 hectares.

Marifil’s lithium interests are strategically situated in the heart of the lithium property claims staking rush going on in Catamarca province. Marifil’s claims are in the same geologic and mining region where FMC is producing lithium at its world-renowned Hombre Muerto mine. The claims span 15,267 hectares (59 square miles) and include its recently acquired Ratones and Fraile claims, as well as two lithium mine rights covering the southern portions of the Carachi Pampa salar in the Province of Catamarca. A competitor has three drills working to the north on the same salar, and it has announced favorable drilling results with significant lithium assay runs of 250 mg/l. These aquifers of lithium rich brines don’t respect claim boundaries and are expected to run well into Marifil’s claims. The company is now reviving an exploration program, which was previously conducted in 2009. The program explored for lithium in Salta and Catamarca provinces. It staked 12 properties covering some 61,500 hectares (237 square miles) and generated a large proprietary geologic and geochemical database that is providing the basis for resumption of Marifil’s lithium exploration program.

Marifil’s interests also include its Las Aguilas property in San Luis province, which hosts a nickel-copper-cobalt deposit spanning more than four contiguous patented mining claims. The property, which is wholly owned by Marifil, is the largest known nickel/cobalt deposit in Argentina. It has been the subject of two Canadian National Instrument 43-101 reports – one by Wardrop Engineering concluding that there is about 4.6 million tonnes of combined Indicated plus Inferred resources of 0.41 percent Ni, 0.41 percent Cu and 0.03 percent Co with about 0.6 g/t Au+Pt+Pd (not compliant with US SEC Guideline 7 resource reporting). The deposit offers possibilities for expansion by drilling, and one old drill hole 3.5 kilometers north of Las Aguilas on Marifil’s parented Virorco claim hit a 90-meter intersection of sulfides containing low grade nickel and cobalt. Marifil believes that by continued drilling this could be the making of a new deposit, perhaps even larger than Las Aguilas.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.MarifilMines.com

• QMC currently upgrading historical resource on Irgon Mine Project to modern NI 43-101 standards
• Company confident that additional exploration will confirm resources in excess of 1.2 million tons graded at 1.5 percent Li2O
• Jump in North American electric vehicle sales boosts lithium’s prospects amid supply versus demand concerns

QMC Quantum Minerals Corp.’s (TSX.V: QMC) (FSE: 3LQ) (OTC: QMCQF) expectations for revitalizing and further developing a large lithium mine in Manitoba’s bountiful Cat Lake-Winnipeg River Pegmatite Field could play an important role in powering North America’s electric automobile revolution. The company’s flagship Irgon Mine Property in the province’s southeast region, in addition to the company’s two volcanic massive sulphide (“VMS”) properties known collectively as the Namew Lake District Project and located further north in Manitoba’s productive Flin Flon/Snow Lake VMS mining district, presents the potential for the quick fire-up of economically viable successes.

Although electric vehicles are only just beginning to gain a solid toe-hold in the United States, EV recharging stations are becoming more commonplace in most states — a clear indicator that the market could suddenly take off. California is pushing for five million EVs on the road by 2025, with eight other states following California’s sales target of 15.4 percent EVs by that year (http://ibn.fm/9s43p). In Canada, electric vehicle sales jumped 68 percent in 2017, with a 120 percent increase in urban Ontario (http://ibn.fm/1QKWE) as environmentally conscious individuals sought out alternatives to fossil fuel pollutants and the local government offered generous incentives, such as a C$14,000 direct rebate on some electric cars.

Lithium is one of the key metals in the low-heat, high-efficiency lithium-ion batteries that are currently the go-to power source for EVs. Bloomberg New Energy Finance anticipates that yearly electric vehicle sales will climb 30-fold to 24.4 million worldwide by 2030 (http://ibn.fm/H6ijp), and a general consensus that demand may exceed supply has driven speculation for stock tickers dealing in the rare metal during the past few years (http://ibn.fm/o0NTI).

North America’s most successful lithium mine to date, the Tantalum Mining Corporation of Canada (“TANCO”) operation, is located just 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) from the Irgon site — something that QMC hasn’t been shy about advertising as it promotes its property’s potential. Hard rock deposits of lithium-bearing spodumene are scattered throughout Manitoba, and QMC hopes to be in a similar position to that of its neighbor, TANCO (http://ibn.fm/GYUY0).

A key value for the Irgon Property is that historical exploration at the site in the 1950s, when lithium was less valuable to other industries, included underground development and the construction of a 500-ton-per-day mill (http://ibn.fm/0mQAw). Although the mill has since been dismantled, its underground complex of shaft, drifting and crosscuts still exist and should facilitate a full metallurgical assessment of the mine’s potential while initiating production at pilot scale. Infrastructure to operate the mill and provide local access is already in place or nearby.

The Irgon Property also has significant production value in that its lithium mineralization begins directly at the surface and has been explored historically through the underground development to a depth of 74 meters (and to a depth of 213 meters through drilling). This creates the potential for low-cost, open-pit ore extraction immediately on a positive production decision. Mining of a bulk sample is expected to begin quickly once the Irgon Dike’s historical resource has been updated to current NI 43-101 regulatory standards. This report is expected to be completed later this year.

“Ultimately, we think our NI 43-101 will establish much more than the 1.2 million tons of 1.5 percent lithium oxide along the strike of the dike than the old survey estimated,” the company’s website states. “The facts we have so far are very positive for economic lithium production, but when we sent out the big batch of samples in December, we asked the lab to assay our samples for 56 different elements. This is one of the big advantages that hard rock mining has over brining operations. It’s very likely that other elements can be recovered as well. The possibilities we are looking at include rare earth, beryllium, tantalum, niobium, cesium and rubidium-bearing minerals.”

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.QMCMinerals.com

• GTXO introduces two new trackers, the GPS SmartSole in size small (for big kids or adults with small feet) and the Invisabelt (for toddlers and children)
• In 2017, the FBI had files on 1.9 million missing persons in the U.S. alone, including more than 464,000 juveniles under age 18, reflecting significant need and market potential for GTXO wearable GPS technology
• GTXO participated in George Mason University study of wandering predictability, combining machine-learning with company’s tracking data and technology

GTX Corp (OTC: GTXO) has released two new GPS products to safeguard the location of children. They are the patented SmartSole® in size small and the Invisabelt for toddlers and kids (http://ibn.fm/eEOch). GTXO offers tracking devices and services in a global market, providing smart and wearable GPS tracking products for people and tracking technologies for high value assets through its IoT monitoring platform.

The two newly launched products are GPS trackers for children, toddlers and adults with small feet. The SmartSole size small can be trimmed to fit most children’s shoes, sizes three and above (http://ibn.fm/flRWQ). It will also fit up to a women’s size 7.5. The Invisabelt is offered in two waist sizes, S/M and M/L, and it is available in sport grey and heather pink (http://ibn.fm/00gQQ).

In a news release, Patrick Bertagna, CEO of GTXO, said, “As we continue to partner with the autistic community and help create programs and solutions to fit their needs for small, non-invasive and non-intrusive and affordable assistance technologies, the long-awaited size small GPS SmartSole comes at a perfect time. And for those parents that want to keep track of their little ones, the company also launched Invisabelt, sized to fit as soon as a child starts to walk, until old enough to wear a pair of SmartSoles.”

Los Angeles, California-based GTXO develops and markets two-way tracking technologies for GPS mapping in real time, for locations of people or high value assets through a transceiver module, smart phone app, wireless gateway and IoT portal. They can be used to identify the location of the elderly with Alzheimer’s and dementia who are prone to wandering, kids with autism and those with traumatic brain injury. The company’s products can now be used for children, as well.

At the same time, a mid-stage clinical study by George Mason University’s College of Health and Human Services completed its Phase II machine-learning prediction research. The study, as reported by Equities.com, utilized GTXO’s SmartSole data and technology. It documents how, together, they may play a future role in predicting wandering (http://ibn.fm/DtGhC).

In the U.S. in 2017, according to the FBI, there were reports of 464,000 missing children (http://ibn.fm/kS72I) and a reported total of 1.9 million missing people overall (http://ibn.fm/SGBdd). Worldwide, the population of dementia sufferers may triple by 2050 from 50 million to 152 million, the World Health Organization predicts. Their annual treatment costs $818 billion. By 2030, that number is expected to rise to more than $2 trillion, the World Health Organization estimates (http://ibn.fm/Zc2mf). GTXO tracking helps to monitor dementia patients, and its products are sold in more than 35 countries.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.GTXCorp.com

• Customer base has grown by an average of 61 percent month-over-month as DeepMarkit onboards hundreds of new customers each month
• Global gamification market projected to reach $22 billion by 2022
• Growth exceeding expectations following launch of slide-out app “Gamify” for global e-commerce websites
• Positive customer feedback driving development of new, customized features

Less than four months after launching its slide-out app “Gamify” for e-commerce websites, DeepMarkit Inc. (TSX.V: MKT) (OTCQB: MKTDF) announced that it has achieved an average of 61 percent month-over-month growth in its merchant base. Positive customer feedback and the onboarding of hundreds of new customers each month continues to energize DeepMarkit’s development team to create new features for its popular app.

DeepMarkit is a gamification technology whose proprietary promotions platform enables businesses and agencies to create branded games that incentivize customers, which drives sales, captures data and generates leads. DeepMarkit offers marketers both free and paid solutions that are suitable for campaigns of all sizes, targeting multiple channels on the web, mobile and social media.

“Not only is our platform providing customers with an engaging, branded game for their e-commerce stores but it’s also collecting emails and delivering high conversion rates,” Carter Chalmers, director of sales and business development, said in a news release providing a company update (http://ibn.fm/F60ho). “Our team is developing additional games and enhanced product features to be released with our paid version of the app in the next few months.”

DeepMarkit is developing a gamified survey for the Gamify platform that allows customers to collect valuable consumer data while providing a fun and interactive survey experience with built-in prize capabilities. Importantly, Gamify is also General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliant to help ensure that customers in the European Union can meet the new privacy requirements when collecting data and emails from consumers.

The global gamification market is expected to grow in value from under $2 billion in 2015 to over $22 billion by 2022, a report by P&S Market Research suggests (http://ibn.fm/RZtYZ). DeepMarkit is the only publicly listed company focused solely on the monetization tool of gamification – the art of converting shoppers to buyers via incentivized gaming apps that embrace any size of business. The early success of Gamify lends proof to the company’s belief that it’s possible for any business to stand out in a crowded space.

“DeepMarkit’s gamification platform gives customers that way to stand out and it’s a way that they can afford,” DeepMarkit CEO Darold Parken stated in an investor’s video (http://ibn.fm/LmPXo). “That’s the strength of our platform. For a relatively small amount of money, any business can create a very powerful, high quality customer engagement using gamification.”

Gamify is now available as a specific app in four global e-commerce platform stores, including Shopify, WordPress, Big Commerce and Weebly. The Gamify slide-out app is also easily installed on any website directly from DeepMarkit.

An additional important development occurred earlier when, in June 2017, the company’s proprietary promotions platform “Gamify” attracted a $1.5 million investment from Allstate International LLC in Hong Kong. The investment gives Allstate a 10 percent stake in DeepMarkit and an opportunity to bring the Gamify platform into the growing Asian gaming market.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.DeepMarkit.com

• PreveCeutical is continuing its extensive research work on the Sol-gel CBD-based delivery system
• An expansion to Australia has enabled the company to run simultaneous tests on cannabis strains and delivery systems
• The scientific work is in line with a growing demand for cannabidiol and medicinal cannabis products

Over the past few months, PreveCeutical Medical Inc. (CSE: PREV) (OTCQB: PRVCF) (FSE: 18H) has been working on the advancement of its innovative Sol-gel drug delivery research program. The focus of the research is to apply Sol-gel technology to develop cannabinoid-based therapies for the relief of symptoms associated with pain, inflammation, seizures and neurological disorders.

The company’s Sol-gel delivery system is unique in that the formulations gel rapidly with nasal mucosal tissue to facilitate direct nose-to-brain delivery of cannabinoids. The gel substantially improves bioavailability and provides controlled cannabinoid release, staying in the nasal passages for up to seven days.

Two major developments occurred in May as part of the company’s advancing Sol-gel research and development.

On May 7, 2018, PreveCeutical signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with a globally-recognized manufacturer of drug delivery systems. Under the NDA, PreveCeutical will enter negotiations for the supply of spray devices that will be used in the Sol-gel research program.

On May 14, a second shipment of cannabis materials arrived to the Pharmacy Australia Centre of Excellence at the University of Queensland to help the PreveCeutical research on the development of the Sol-gel program. In March 2018, PreveCeutical incorporated its first subsidiary in Australia – an expansion aimed at making the best of the strong clinical research principles in the country and the commitment of the Australian government to support innovation.

Currently, the company’s research is focused on testing various cannabis strains for the purpose of formulating potent and effective Sol-gels. PreveCeutical Chief Research Officer Dr. Harendra Parekh is leading the program.

In addition, various spray devices have already been tested. According to PreveCeutical CEO and President Stephen Van Deventer, a focus on safety regulations and a tamper-proof delivery system will be of paramount importance. While the Sol-gel program is still in its early phases, the evaluation of delivery systems alongside the cannabis strain testing demonstrates a strong commitment to having a working innovative treatment product on the market.

Research has shown that cannabidiol (CBD) has significant anti-inflammatory, anti-anxiety and anti-emetic properties (http://ibn.fm/apebX). The CBD market is growing exponentially, with the Hemp Business Journal estimating that this cannabis industry sector will grow to $2.1 billion by 2020 (http://ibn.fm/Chtxe). For comparison, the CBD market last year was valued at $202 million.

CBD market growth is in line with the overall expansion of the medical cannabis market. Grand View Research predicts that the medical cannabis industry will reach $55.8 billion by 2025 (http://ibn.fm/Vgck1). The growing prevalence of medical conditions that have chronic pain as a symptom is one of the factors that will drive the demand for such treatments, alongside cannabis legalization initiatives across the U.S., which will also play a role. In 2017, chronic pain accounted for the largest medical cannabis segment – nearly 39 percent of all therapeutic applications.

PreveCeutical is well positioned to capitalize on this market growth. In addition to the Sol-gel delivery platform, the company is developing solutions based on peptides derived from Caribbean blue scorpion venom for pain management, cardiovascular conditions, cancer, metabolic disorders and infectious diseases.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.PreveCeutical.com

• Automotive applications set to double lithium demand by 2027
• Even though lithium is a ‘critical mineral’, North American output is negligible
• Tests underway to confirm reported 1.2 million tons grading 1.51 percent lithium oxide

Good tidings continue to grace the lithium industry, the latest being the 2018 report from British minerals analyst Roskill. After a recent market analysis, the British consultancy estimated that lithium demand from automotive applications, which reached over 34,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) in 2017, will more than double by the end of the decade. Some of that demand could be satisfied by QMC Quantum Minerals Corp. (OTC: QMCQF) (TSX.V: QMC) (FSE: 3LQ). The junior exploration company, based in Vancouver, British Columbia, is mining for lithium at Cat Lake, a property that hosts several rare-element granitic pegmatite occurrences, including the one on which the historic Irgon Lithium Mine was developed.

Automotive applications are driving lithium demand. They devoured over 34,000 metric tons in 2017 and accounted for 43 percent of total lithium utilized. That share of LCE output is set to climb to 83 percent; auto industry lithium demand is forecast to more than double by the end of the decade (http://ibn.fm/fQy9T). Supply is lagging far behind, and shortages are looming on the horizon, which has prompted the U.S. Geological Survey to include lithium on its “critical minerals” list, a declaration that undoubtedly places a premium on North American sources of the metal, like those owned by QMC (http://ibn.fm/GHNlJ).

Its Irgon Lithium Mine Project, located immediately north of Cat Lake, Manitoba, is home to several pegmatite dikes rich in lithium (Li), plus accessory cesium (Cs) and tantalum (Ta) mineralization. The former owner of the property, the Lithium Corporation of Canada Limited, carried out substantial underground developmental work, estimating the deposit to contain more than 1.2 million tons of spodumene-bearing pegmatite which graded at 1.51 percent lithium oxide. Overall, the Irgon Lithium Mine Property, covers 6,538 acres and comprises the Irgon occurrence and several other known pegmatite dikes on 13 adjoining mineral claims. Serendipitously, it is just 20 kilometers from Tantalum Mining Corporation of Canada’s TANCO Mine, North America’s most successful lithium mine to date.

QMC’s portfolio also includes two volcanic massive sulphide (VMS) properties – the Rocky Lake and Rocky-Namew, known collectively as the Namew Lake District Project – which potentially contain base metal-rich mineral deposits. These claims extend over approximately 23,000 hectares (~57,000 acres) in one of Canada’s most productive mining regions: the Flin Flon/Snow Lake VMS mining district of Manitoba, Canada.

Recently, QMC hired SGS Canada Inc. (SGS) to provide technical support and consulting services for the company’s 2018 field exploration and drilling program at the Irgon Lithium Mine Property. SGS will provide an experienced team of engineers and geoscientists with significant technical expertise in lithium pegmatite exploration and development that will review existing documents and geological modeling of the historical data in order to provide guidance to QMC on its upcoming 2018 field program and drilling campaign.

Moreover, the data acquired through the 2018 exploration program recommended by SGS will be used by SGS to compile a NI43-101 compliant technical report, which is expected to confirm and potentially increase the non-NI43-101 compliant historical reported resource of 1.2 million tons of 1.51 percent lithium oxide within the Irgon Dike.  The technical report will also provide an estimate on the size of the other spodumene-bearing pegmatite dikes currently identified on the Irgon Lithium Mine Property, such as the Mapetre and the Central pegmatite dikes.

QMC announced in June 2018 that it had signed a non-disclosure agreement with an Asian-based manufacturing company which will allow the latter to test the company’s lithium mineralization identified by recent channel sampling of the Irgon Pegmatite Dike to see if it meets end-use requirements of the manufacturer’s customers.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.QMCMinerals.com

• United States concerns about other countries “stealing” its technologies are at heart of political rift with China
• China processes 80 percent of the world’s cobalt; First Cobalt owns only permitted cobalt refinery in North America
• First Cobalt drilling program in Idaho is exploring promising mineral strike for important tech-friendly metal

 The United States’ efforts to prevent foreign investors from “stealing” U.S. technology and intellectual properties could bolster the prospects of domestic mineral exploration companies such as First Cobalt Corp. (TSX.V: FCC) (OTCQX: FTSSF) (ASX: FCC). First Cobalt has been focusing its recent exploration efforts on a mineralized strike in Idaho’s prolific Cobalt Belt that could have national security implications as well as an impact on the production of in-demand modern tech items ranging from smartphones to electric vehicles.

Discovering and developing North American cobalt supply sources has already been a priority among some mining companies, as concerns over changing tax laws and the human rights violations reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo — the world’s largest producer of the metal on an incomparable scale (http://ibn.fm/zoP3E) — have spawned efforts to create a conflict-free supply chain. The United States government’s concerns about losing significant entrepreneurial innovations to foreign investors as they seek to boost their own competitiveness is adding fuel to the fire.

“We have the greatest technology in the world. People copy it and they steal it, but we have the great scientists, we have the great brains, and we have to protect that, and we’re going to protect it,” President Donald Trump said in a June 26 meeting of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) (http://ibn.fm/6zZ25). “We have to protect these companies. We can’t let people steal that technology.”

The government had considered declaring China’s investment in U.S. companies involved in technologies, such as new-energy vehicles, robotics and aerospace, a threat to economic and national security (http://ibn.fm/sZPzP), but it ultimately announced on June 27 that it would forgo such a portentous declaration in favor of strengthening the mandate of the CFIUS to investigate the potential of foreign investments and acquisitions of U.S. companies and to block them if they are considered contrary to national interests (http://ibn.fm/ciAwv). On a parallel course, the U.S. Treasury Department recently unveiled restrictions that specifically target Chinese investors as a result of its investigation earlier this year into the country’s intellectual property practices where “industrially significant technology” is concerned (http://ibn.fm/NQQ17). The investment concerns are part of a larger diplomatic battle over U.S.-China trade issues that have led to tariffs on $34 billion worth of Chinese goods that will take effect on July 6, with an additional $16 billion in tariffs anticipated later (http://ibn.fm/TEbGl).

China plays a significant role in the cobalt market as well; its refineries process 80 percent of the world’s supply (http://ibn.fm/M9rm9). Continued escalation in trade war politics between the U.S. and China has the potential to impact a variety of market sectors, including this precious metal’s.

First Cobalt’s development has proven prescient in this regard as well, however. In addition to the Idaho strike, the mineral exploration company owns 50 historic mining operation sites situated on nearly 25,000 acres in Canada’s famed Cobalt Camp of Ontario, as well as a nearby mill and the only permitted cobalt extraction refinery in North America — currently shuttered, but capable of production of battery-grade material as First Cobalt deems proper. Its Idaho site has the potential to produce a mineral supply that would not have to be imported amid a tariff war. The company is working to bring a historic estimate of 1.3 million tons grading 0.59 percent cobalt and 0.3 percent copper up to modern NI 43-101 reporting standards (http://ibn.fm/tse0r), however recent drill results indicate potential to expand beyond this historic estimate (http://ibn.fm/QsqG1).

Cobalt’s role in modern high-tech-friendly batteries is its current cachet. It is one of the critical and hard-to-find metals used in the low-heat batteries that modern computer-reliant technology prefers. Smartphones, with their cobalt-needy lithium-ion batteries, have become a practical necessity across the planet, but they only use about eight grams of refined cobalt. Electric vehicles, which are gaining a state-sponsored respect as nations seek ways to reduce the pollution produced by fossil fuel-powered automobile emissions, have batteries that use more than 1,000 times that of the cell phones. Cobalt also enjoys a national security status because of its use in some military resources, such as rocket and jet engines.

Regardless of the political developments between the United States and China, First Cobalt’s exploration efforts appear to be positioning it to take advantage of whatever the rare metals market may bring in the months ahead.

For more information, visit the company’s website at http://ibn.fm/FTSSF

• Sunniva acquires 126-acre property for cannabis production in British Columbia
• Construction at sibling cultivation site in California continues
• Company hosts VIP event at International Cannabis Business Conference, joins M&A panel discussion

Sunniva Inc. (CSE: SNN) (OTCQX: SNNVF), a rising cannabis producer that is gaining a solid foothold in the consumer-populated markets of California and Canada, has announced the close of its 126-acre site in British Columbia’s rural Okanagan Falls-Similkameen district located 45 kilometers (28 miles) north of the U.S.-Canada border.

The 126-acre industrial-zoned property will be the site for a 740,000-square-foot state-of-the-art greenhouse capable of producing an estimated 100,000 kilograms of dried cannabis per year (http://ibn.fm/SFcwh). Sunniva CEO Dr. Anthony Holler noted that the campus allows the company the option to expand with the construction of an additional facility once market demand has been established.

“This facility will produce pharmaceutical-grade cannabis products. And when I say products, it’s not just dry products — it’s all the different things, like oils, capsules, tinctures, patches, lotions,” Holler told Canada’s Global News in a June 4 interview (http://ibn.fm/pmVha). “Because it’s a (Good Manufacturing Practice regulations compliant) facility, it can be shipped domestically and internationally. … The European Union is starting to import large quantities of cannabis from Canada with the proviso that that cannabis, whether it’s a dry product or an oil, that product has to be produced and be compliant with good manufacturing practices. So there’s obviously a bigger market than Canada out there for these products from this facility.”

The purchase, executed by the company’s Sunniva Medical Inc. (“SMI”) subsidiary, involved $3.5 million in cash plus an additional $3.5 million in vendor take back mortgage financing (“VTBMF”). The VTBMF is for a one-year term with five percent interest rate annually. The company has received the necessary development permits from the local authority and site grading is near completion.

Construction is expected to take about eight months, with production potentially beginning during the first quarter of 2019 and full-scale operations achievable another eight-to-nine months after that (http://ibn.fm/T2Ffo). Sunniva previously reported that licensed producer Canopy Growth Corp. (TSX: WEED) (OTC: TWMJF) has contracted to buy 45,000 kilograms of product per year from SMI’s Canadian campus for an initial two-year term (http://ibn.fm/ogWMc).

In the meantime, construction has been racing ahead at Sunniva’s California facility. Holler told Public Entrepreneur that the operation at its 500,000-square-foot high-technology campus in Cathedral City is expected to begin production later this year, meaning that it could potentially deliver its first crop in Q1 2019 and join the Canada site at full-scale production later that year (http://ibn.fm/n8tax).

On June 25, Holler addressed the recent trend toward mergers and acquisitions in the cannabis space at the International Cannabis Business Conference, Canada’s first cannabis conference since the country’s government passed a bill (http://ibn.fm/rKcnx) that eliminated the final hurdle for full legalization of the cannabis plant’s products. Holler’s comments about the company’s subsidiary strategy (http://ibn.fm/zmpXq) were part of a panel discussion hosted by the ICBC, and Sunniva hosted the conference’s kickoff VIP gathering on June 24, featuring an opportunity for attendees to mingle with keynote speaker Henry Rollins (http://ibn.fm/Arqm9), a musician and radio-TV personality known for his activism.

Sunniva began trading on the Canadian Securities Exchange in January and the U.S. OTCQX Market in February after a successful 2017 in which the company reported C$16.1 million in revenues, most of which came from its acquisition of Canadian cannabis clinic network Natural Health Services, which has more than 95,000 registered active patients.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.sunniva.com

• Joint Venture MIDS technology doubles detection capability in second testing round
• MIDS Technology aims to provide ambulance personnel, ERs with a fast, easy, low-cost and powerful device to diagnose potential cardiac symptoms
• Chest pain diagnosis is one of the most common challenges for outpatient medical providers to assess

When first responders provide treatment to patients complaining of chest pain, they face the critical task of determining what medical intervention is necessary with as much immediacy as possible.

Although such diagnoses can be difficult, particularly away from a clinical laboratory setting, Zenosense Inc. (OTC: ZENO), through a joint-venture ownership in MIDS Medical Ltd., is developing a cost-effective, hand-held, rapid cardiac diagnostic device, MIDS Cardiac™. The technology is aimed at first responders and clinicians for use at the point of care, to save money and lives through prompt evaluation of the patient’s condition.

More than 28 million adults in the United States alone are living with a diagnosis of coronary artery disease (CAD), the cholesterol-clogged affliction of the arteries that spurs heart attacks (acute myocardial infarctions, or AMIs) as the leading cause of death each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (http://ibn.fm/bJqno). Assessing chest pain complaints in these patients, without an existing diagnosis, is a common challenge in medical settings.

“Chest discomfort is one of the most commonly-encountered complaints in outpatient medicine, and represents a major diagnostic challenge as patients often present with a broad range of non-specific symptoms or signs,” Dr. James Januzzi Jr. of Massachusetts General Hospital wrote in the American College of Cardiology’s Cardiovascular Imaging publication earlier this year as part of his introduction to a study that he helped author on heart-related diagnoses (http://ibn.fm/iuNGk).

Examining the levels of troponin protein released by damaged heart muscle in a patient’s blood has become the go-to biomarker to establish if a patient has experienced an AMI. Januzzi’s team also found that the ability to detect relatively low levels of troponin by a high sensitivity test may also provide clinicians with the ability to identify CAD in “stable” patients perhaps at risk of AMI who might not otherwise expect emergency care (http://ibn.fm/eWORD).

Zenosense’s MIDS Cardiac technology is being developed as a revolutionary hand-held diagnostic device for cardiac emergency triage that aims to provide a true high sensitivity single troponin I or troponin T test within three minutes, and a three-panel assay of additional cardiac biomarkers within eight minutes, in order to grant first responders in the field and the emergency room a triage ability that is not only rapid but that utilizes a device costing a fraction of a central laboratory analyzer.

The aim is to ease, accelerate and improve diagnosis of chest pain, giving first responders a vital early indication if a patient may or may not need significant and costly cardiac intervention. In 2017, the first next generation troponin assay for the early diagnosis of heart attack was approved for use in the U.S. by the FDA. High sensitivity troponin assays have been in use in other parts of the world for over seven years, including Europe, Canada and Australia. There are no point-of-care devices that can compare with high-sensitivity central lab assays for cardiac biomarkers.

The MIDS technology uses magnetic sensors to detect very low numbers of assay beads, which is expected to support a rapid test using a pin prick of blood for a single assay carried out on an easy-to-use, disposable microfluidic test strip, whereas current point of care devices rely on less sensitive optical technology.

In the new testing, the joint venture aimed to magnetically detect assay beads below the 200,000 level in order to support a finding that the technology could be effective in a high-sensitivity troponin test. Previously, the technology had detected down to around 100,000 beads; the new testing brings this down to around the 50,000-bead level, indicating that it is well within the necessary level of detection required for a high-sensitivity assay (http://ibn.fm/lyDmX). The new testing used extensively improved core sensor electronics to deliver the near-doubling of the previously obtained sensitivity level.

“MIDS is a hugely challenging development,” the venture’s Managing Director and Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Nasser Djennati stated in a news release. “The results of this second round of testing are quite extraordinary, as magnetic detection at this level for this application is unheard of. We can now move forward and apply the MIDS detection to established assay techniques used in conventional analyzers as we seek to deliver state-of-the-art laboratory standard, high sensitivity cardiac troponin testing at the Point of Care.”

The company is now planning to test microfluidic detection using the revised electronics platform and to embody a high-sensitivity assay on a test strip for the next key phase of development. It is confident that the new round of testing will deliver a material reduction in the level of bead detection when the Hall effect sensors are used in an unpackaged format in a production “lab-on-chip” test strip.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.Zenosense.com

• Net Element is enhancing its payments-as-a-service transactional platform to address the needs of small and medium-sized businesses in the U.S., as well as in select emerging markets
• An innovative events industry extension was launched in May to tap into the rapidly growing field
• Net Element has also announced a Netevia platform extension in the form of a smart vendor payment solution for B2B companies

Over the past couple months, Net Element, Inc. (NASDAQ: NETE) has increased its portfolio of payment solutions aimed at both huge markets and underrepresented market segments. The global technology and value-added solutions provider focuses on electronic payment acceptance in multi-channel environments.

On May 23, Net Element announced the launch of a unified payment solution for the events industry. The new solution enhances existing payment options through intelligent point-of-sale integration, as well as self-order kiosks and multi-channel payment acceptance.

The new solution will greatly benefit the rapidly growing events market. According to the Event Industry Council, this niche has generated more than $330 billion in direct spending in 2016, an increase of 18 percent since 2012 (http://ibn.fm/NYrWD). The industry has a massive impact on the U.S. economy, as it creates 5.9 million jobs and generates over $845 billion in business sales.

On June 12, Net Element announced yet another new development – a smart vendor payment solution for business-to-business (B2B) companies. The solution comes in the form of a Netevia platform extension. It enables secure vendor payments and also reduces the cost of payment processing. Payments are delivered electronically and can be processed solely by the designated vendor. Added controls increase the security and flexibility of transactions.

By enabling these additional functionalities, Netevia is becoming an efficient market platform for small and medium-sized companies looking for modern card-payment oriented solutions, according to the president of integrated payments for Net Element, Vlad Sadovskiy.

B2B ecommerce is another area currently undergoing rapid expansion. According to a Forrester report (http://ibn.fm/I3wY8), B2B ecommerce transactions in the U.S. are set to hit a volume of $1.2 trillion by 2021, accounting for 13 percent of all B2B sales in the U.S., with a compound annual growth rate of 7.4 percent over the next three to four years.

Reports also suggest that half of the B2B buyers today are millennials (http://ibn.fm/MuHCu). This demographic is recognized for its specific purchasing preferences: millennials no longer tolerate cumbersome purchasing processes and are interested in reducing human interactions and digitalizing parts of the process as much as possible. Self-service capabilities and 24/7 ecommerce options will be seen as determining for the success of B2B vendors in the years to come.

This is where Net Element solutions can prove to be extremely beneficial. The company’s payments-as-a-service platform primarily targets small and medium-sized companies in the U.S. and a number of emerging markets. Additionally, blockchain technologies and other innovative solutions are constantly being explored for the purpose of growing transactional revenue and offering added value to customers.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.NetElement.com