In many respects, animal health is an under-served field. Many of the medications used to treat animal health disorders are actually human drugs, developed for human physiology, and compounded drugs that have not been proven safe or effective for animal use. Similarly, diagnostic procedures for use on animals are also under-developed.
This is the underserved market that is currently being targeted by Zomedica Pharmaceuticals Corp. The Company originally started with a focus on veterinary pharmaceuticals and has since expanded its focus.
As Zomedica began advancing its pipeline of pet pharmaceutical products, the Company’s attention was drawn to a parallel gap in animal healthcare: diagnostics. ZOM has chosen to begin its efforts in this area with the development of a pet-specific diagnostic option for the most serious of diseases: cancer.
2017 was a milestone year for Zomedica. With a market cap of $223.3 million, the Company raised approximately $6.6 million in non-brokered capital alongside a $5 million unsecured working capital loan facility and listed on the NYSE American exchange.
On January 5, 2017; Zomedica announced a research agreement with Celsee Diagnostics, Inc. Celsee is a biotech innovator of rare cell capture, characterization and retrieval products in the emerging field of liquid biopsy. On December 21, 2017; the two companies took their relationship to the next level.
A licensing and supply agreement is now in place for Zomedica to develop and market Celsee’s liquid biopsy technology for veterinary application as a cancer diagnostic. Stockhouse recently caught up with ZOM’s Chief Operations Officer and Vice President of Product Development, Stephanie Morley, DVM, and Chief Financial Officer Shameze Rampertab, CPA, CA, to learn about the clinical and economic potential of this technology.
The year 2018 has started off with a “bang” for Orefinders Resources Inc. (TSX: V.ORX, OTCQB: ORFDF, Forum) (Symbol: “ORX”). There was a huge piece of news on January 15, 2018 concerning the Company’s flagship Mirado Gold Project: a new Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA).
Right behind that were more significant developments for shareholders and investors. ORX closed on a trio of prospective, contiguous properties, consolidating this land package. The Company has dubbed this its Knight Project.
The land package hosts several past-producing mines, and includes both robust gold mineralization as well as silver-cobalt mineralization (centered around the former Mann Mine). This new acquisition has then set the stage for a further piece of news: a spin-off of assets for Orefinders’ shareholders.
Then on Jan 31 the company announced a new spin off Battery Metals company called Power Ore.
Along with all of thus, the Company has also found the time to give something back to the Community, and make an investment in the future. In partnership with IAMGold, ORX has established the Young Mining Professionals (YMP) Scholarship Fund.
Stockhouse recently caught up with the CEO of Orefinders, Stephen Stewart. He has taken time out of his busy schedule to update investors on this flurry of developments.
Sit down for a chat with Brett Richards, President and CEO of Midnight Sun Mining Corp (TSX: V.MMA, OTCQB: MDNGF, Forum), and it’s a little like talking to “the cat that ate the canary”. MMA is sitting on a very prospective copper project: the Solwezi licenses, in copper-rich Zambia, and it was the recent subject of a full-length Stockhouse feature.
But that is only a small part of the story here. The former holder of these licenses is First Quantum Minerals, the large-cap base metals producer that owns and operates the gigantic Kansanshi Copper Mine – just 15 kilometers away.
Given the robust copper intercepts that Midnight Sun has been producing in its exploration drilling, plenty of mining observers would strongly suspect that First Quantum would like to reacquire these two licenses. Fueling that speculation still further are the very significant cobalt readings that accompany many of these drilling intercepts.
As mining investors already know, cobalt has exploded onto the radar of the mining industry, for two important reasons:
- The rise of the lithium-ion battery and the electric vehicle market has been the catalyst for a huge jump in cobalt demand
- As an extremely “inelastic” metals market, it is especially difficult to increase the cobalt supply
These very bullish supply/demand fundamentals have led many mining analysts (and mining companies) to conclude that cobalt provides the strongest upward price pressure of any metals market today.
Stockhouse recently had the opportunity to catch up with CEO Richards, to get a clearer picture on Midnight Sun’s Solwezi Project and how the cobalt mineralization already identified here can impact the economics of a potential mining operation.
FULL DISCLOSURE: Midnight Sun Mining Corp. is a paid client of Stockhouse Publishing.
Stockhouse recently had the pleasure of visiting the city of Kelowna, in the beautiful BC Okanogan, and checking in with DOJA Cannabis Co. ( now Hiku Brands – HIKU.C )
On January 30, 2018, DOJA Cannabis announced the successful completion of the merger with Tokyo Smoke creating Hiku Brands Company Ltd., Canada's first premium cannabis brand house with vertically integrated operations.
In the interview with Justin Meiklem of Stockhouse, Trent Kitsch, President of HIKU, (CEO of the former DOJA entity), provides some insight into the opportunities on the horizon for the exploding Cannabis industry and how the company is differentiating itself as the only Canadian craft cannabis producer with a significant national retail footprint and a growing portfolio of premium cannabis lifestyle brands, including DOJA, Tokyo Smoke and Van Der Pop.
Highlights of Hiku
- Portfolio of iconic cannabis brands and retail dispensing stores:
- A tailored assortment of adult-use, premium cannabis products will be retailed under each brand across Canada
- Priority on retail expansion in provinces allowing private cannabis retail, with plans to open Dispensing Stores in 2018.
- Handcrafted cannabis, licenced ACMPR production
- Hiku's premium cannabis is grown in BC's Okanagan Valley. Hiku prides itself on taking a handcrafted artisanal approach to trimming and curing, aimed at producing the finest cannabis.
- Annual licensed production capacity of 660 kgs per year in two wholly owned production facilities in the Okanogan, BC, expected to increase organically to over 5,000 kgs per year by the end 2018
- Secured supply agreements:
- Ground-breaking supply partnerships with Aphria Inc. ("Aphria") (TSX: APH) (OTCQB: APHQF) and WeedMD Inc. (TSXV: WMD) ("WeedMD") ensure Hiku's brands will be able to scale in 2018 and beyond. These partnerships bring unparalleled experience in cannabis production and ensure secured supply for what is expected to be a supply-constrained market at the onset of legalization
- Strong financial position:
- A strategic financing of $12.5 million led by Aphria bolsters Hiku's cash position to approximately $32.6 million
With a robust pipeline of growth opportunities and a management team that has breadth and depth of expertise, with a proven track record of building and scaling businesses, Hiku will look to make strategic investments and acquisitions to grow its brand portfolio, retail footprint, and scale production capacity.
Listen to the interview now, and look forward to our Video Tour of the DOJA Production Facility – Coming Soon to Stockhouse.com!
Silver is currently unloved among metals markets and mining investors. For value investors, this spells one word “opportunity”. The fundamentals of this sector could not be more unequivocal.
- Stockpiles are gone: most of the world’s above-ground silver, mined over a span of greater than 4,000 years is gone – literally “consumed”, and now strewn across the world’s landfills
- A long term supply deficit: it has now been established that the silver market has been in continuous supply deficit for approximately 30 years, something unprecedented in the history of metals markets
- Pricing: the price of silver is near absolute extremes, both in real-dollar terms and in relation to the price of gold. For 4,000+ years, this price ratio gravitated around 15:1. Today this ratio stands at an ultra-extreme level of 80:1, despite the destruction of global silver stockpiles
Resource investors understand the best vehicles for capitalizing on an unloved/undervalued resource sector: the commodity producers. Mining companies provide natural leverage on the metals they produce. As metals prices increase, the profitability of mining companies generally rises in multiples of the increase in commodity price.
For mining investors looking to capitalize on this most-undervalued metal, First Majestic Silver Corp. (TSX: FR, NYSE: AG, FWB: FMV, BMV: AG, Forum) is a great place to start. Typically as a mining sector emerges from a trough, it is the larger cap producers who lead the way higher.
FM is a profitable mid-tier silver producer, with six operational silver mines, all located in Mexico – the global capital for silver production. Despite this operational success, the Company’s share price has been punished.
First Majestic was recently in the news as it added a seventh mine to its operations, another silver/gold producer in Mexico. Stockhouse once again had the opportunity to sit down with the CEO of First Majestic, Keith Neumeyer, to delve deeper into this acquisition – and the silver market in general.
Cannabis is an exciting, emerging sector, with enormous growth and investment potential for decades to come.
Blockchain is a red-hot tech trend. Its proponents insist that this is revolutionary technology, with virtually limitless potential for future applications.
Given these market realities, a number of junior corporations have cynically been looking for ways that they can attach the word “cannabis” or “blockchain” to their operations, whether or not there is actually a significant cannabis or blockchain component to their company.
India Globalization Capital, Inc. (NYSE American: IGC, Forum)is a U.S.-based junior corporation that has recently been talking about cannabis and blockchain in its most recent news. Is this just more corporate window-dressing? No.
ICG is a cannabis biopharma corporation. While the Company continues some legacy operations relating to commodity trading, equipment leasing, and property management, since 2013 its principal focus has been on pioneering opportunities in the large-and-growing cannabis biopharma space.
Adding “blockchain” to this business model is a much more recent development, but it’s hardly window-dressing. On December 26, 2017; the Company announced a new initiative to immediately incorporate blockchain innovations into its cannabis biopharma business model.
Stockhouse recently had the opportunity to ask IGC’s CEO, Ram Mukunda, to connect the dots on India Globalization Capital, cannabis, and blockchain.
Success for a tech company is ultimately a fairly straightforward equation: create some unique IP that satisfies some important need, and then find and develop large markets to commercialize the tech breakthrough. That is the formula being pursued by CVR Medical Corp. (TSX. V.CVM, OTCQB: CRRVF, Forum) (symbol “CVM”). Throw in a deep management team with decades of industry experience, and investors are presented with a very attractive opportunity.
Specifically, CVM has pioneered a highly innovative biotech device, to help to combat one of humanity’s most devastating medical problems: stroke. Globally, stroke is the single leading cause of permanent disability, with an equally devastating economic cost: $71.6 billion per year.
Stroke is also a deadly killer. Closer to home, stroke is the 4th leading cause of death in the United States. Clearly, the need for better stroke-prevention technology is one of healthcare’s most important priorities.
CVR Medical’s “Carotid Stenotic Scan”, or CSS for short, is a major improvement from existing diagnostic technology. It is:
- Non-invasive (no blood-draw is required)
- Fast (only requiring roughly 2 minutes)
- Repeatable (meaning it is totally safe for use)
- Cost-effective versus existing diagnostics
CVR Medical has the right IP, that addresses an enormous medical need. What about markets? Last week, the Company announced a Letter of Intent (LOI) aimed at penetrating the largest healthcare market of them all: China. Stockhouse asked CVM’s COO and Executive Vice President, Tony Robinson, to help connect the dots for investors on the economic potential associated with this development.
Creating a state-of-the-art technology platform is not easy. It requires investments of tremendous amounts of time and energy, with (inevitably) considerable expense. One way to expedite this development curve is through key acquisitions. A case in point is Universal mCloud Corp.
The Stockhouse audience is rapidly becoming familiar with MCLD, first in a Stockhouse news feature, and then in a full-length feature article. The center of the MCLD business model is IoT, the “Internet of Things”, touted by leading industry icons as nothing less than “the third wave of the internet”.
More specifically, the Company uses an IoT cloud-based platform to take hi-tech Asset Care™ to the next level. As our infrastructure becomes increasingly sophisticated, maintenance of such advanced (and expensive) infrastructure requires cutting-edge technology. This is MCLD’s mission.
This is a market so enormous that management has made a strategic decision to focus on three general categories of asset classes:
- HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, Air-conditioning)
- Wind turbine diagnostics
- Electrical transformer diagnostics
What these asset classes share in common are two important characteristics: requiring round-the-clock analytics and diagnostics, and performance optimization is of particular importance. These are asset classes (and client bases) that foster maximum revenues, and thus margins.
More recently, this mandate has been broadened by two strategic acquisitions. The January 4, 2018 acquisition of nGrain Inc. has already been covered in the previous news feature. On January 10, 2018; MCLD announced its second strategic acquisition: CSA Inc.
Stockhouse recently had the opportunity to chat with MCLD’s President and CEO, Russ McMeekin. The Company’s CEO is here today to explain the importance of this acquisition, and connect the dots on MCLD’s business model.
FULL DISCLOSURE: Universal mCloud Inc. is a paid client of Stockhouse Publishing.
What is up with the gold market? Gold mine production is now falling. Mine reserves for the gold mining industry are at a 30-year low. Yet the price of gold is languishing below the minimum price level necessary to sustain the industry.
Large-cap gold mining companies like to point to a statistic they call the “all-in sustainable costs” of their gold production. But those are fantasy numbers. They don’t take into account the price level necessary to support the junior gold mining companies who find almost all of the gold that is mined by these senior mining companies.
What price level is really required to sustain the gold mining industry, and thus the gold market itself? There is no precise answer to that question. But it became nearly impossible for these junior miners to continue to fund their operations as soon as the price of gold descended below $1,500/oz (USD).
While capital-raising became a little easier for these companies in 2016, depressing conditions persist throughout most of the gold mining industry. Where is the price of gold headed in 2018? What price level is necessary to sustain the gold mining industry, and replenish depleted reserves?
Stockhouse recently had the opportunity to “talk gold” with Byron King, an honours graduate in geology from Harvard University, and editor of the Gold Speculator. Byron will be talking to us today about his top pick for investors and why you should be excited to take advantage of it.
FULL DISCLOSURE: GoldMining Inc is a paid client of Stockhouse Publishing.
Momentum continues to build for Greenfields Petroleum Corporation (TSX: V.GNF, OTCQB: GEEPF, Forum). In 2010; the Company became a minority partner in the redevelopment of the huge Gum Deniz Oil Field and Bahar Gas Field located in the shallow waters of the Caspian Sea in Azerbaijan. By 2016; the opportunity arose for GNZ to take control of these projects as the majority operator.
These are major producing fields. Gum Deniz has produced over 212 million barrels of oil in the six decades the field has been in production. Bahar has yielded 4.3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas since 1969.
Even more recently, management’s attention turned toward solidifying Greenfield’s balance sheet. On October 31, 2017; the Company announced a significant agreement to restructure its senior secured debt. One of the primary aspects of this restructuring is to extend the maturity date of this secured debt from March 31, 2018 to January 15, 2020. In addition all outstanding common share purchase warrants held by the senior lenders were terminated.
In doing this, this makes more capital available to the Company to expedite the redevelopment of these world-class fields. This week, Greenfields announced an MOU with its minority partner, SOCAR, to engage in new development drilling of some especially prospective natural gas targets.
Stockhouse recently had the chance to sit down with Greenfield’s CEO, John Harkins so he could explain the new restructuring and expand upon the new opportunity with respect to the upcoming drilling.
FULL DISCLOSURE: Greenfields Petroleum Corp is a paid client of Stockhouse Publishing.
