NetworkNewsWire Newsroom: April 2023

Thursday, April 27, 2023

Data Breaches on Massive Annual Scale Underscore Importance of Cybersecurity Service SideChannel Inc. (SDCH) Delivers to SMBs

An estimated 30,000 website data breaches occur each day on average
Hacker targets include everyone online, ranging from small businesses to large and complex government agencies
Massachusetts-based SideChannel Inc. delivers the services of chief information security officers (“CISOs”) on a contract basis to companies that don’t have budget capacity to maintain CISOs on staff full-time but desire protection against cyber threats
SideChannel’s virtual CISOs work alongside company board officers to assess and strategically target operational risks
SideChannel announced a strategic partnership last month with automated supply chain risk management platform developer Darkbeam that will strengthen SideChannel’s service offering

Cyber threats have become a standard concern for businesses working to maintain their operational integrity, with hackers accounting for an estimated 30,000 websites that are compromised on average each day. Techjury reported that the entire cost of cyberattacks in 2022 was $6 trillion and that the figure is expected to rise to $10.5 trillion by 2025 (https://nnw.fm/wJ05H).

The recent leak of timely international intelligence-related documents classified as not available for public review by the U.S. government’s information-gathering agencies has demonstrated that even government experts in the field are vulnerable to the possibility of data breaches and costly consequences resulting from the breaches, whether cyber-based or not, emphasizing the critical importance of information security (https://nnw.fm/t8mfa).

Cybersecurity services and technology provider SideChannel (OTCQB: SDCH) is building a brand designed to help organizations protect themselves from online threats.

“The cybersecurity profession is now akin to legal, and accounting, and insurance (operational divisions),” SideChannel CEO Brian Haugli stated in a live company webcast recently (https://nnw.fm/uPAqz). “When we look inside of organizations at the enterprise level we see the CISO (chief information security officer) right there with HR (Human Resources), and GC (General Contracting), and Internal Audit and other C-suite members for a reason. Because that’s how important it is for that organization’s success to address cybersecurity as an operational risk at an enterprise level.”

SideChannel’s flagship service is providing “virtual” CISOs as hired cybersecurity guns for companies unable to maintain an experienced cybersecurity leader on staff full-time. The vCISOs can work alongside a company’s officers in the boardroom to provide information and analysis on current threats to the company’s systems.

“We can deliver an entire program and manage that for the mid-market, because that’s how the mid-market buys. That’s what they’re looking for,” Haugli said during the webcast. “They really want, not just the tools, they don’t want just the capability and then (for us to) walk away. They want a partner who can come in and manage and run that for them.”

SideChannel strengthened its offering last month when it announced a strategic partnership with London-based cyber intelligence provider Darkbeam to deliver stronger intelligence-led cyber risk management programs to businesses looking to protect their own operations as well as the provenance of their supply chains (https://nnw.fm/a8xyX).

The Darkbeam partnership also helps companies access timely direction on cyber risk management during the merger and acquisition process, and insurance underwriting regarding cyber risks, thanks to Darkbeam’s automated vulnerability assessments service as well as monitoring of the dark web for data exposure.

Darkbeam’s Watchlist feature allows Category Managers to continuously monitor suppliers over time and assess any changes to risk levels within a supplier.

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

NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to SDCH are available in the company’s newsroom at https://nnw.fm/SDCH

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Ucore Rare Metals Inc. (TSX.V: UCU) (OTCQX: UURAF) to Invest $75 Million to Establish North America’s First Modern Technology REE Separation And Purification Facility in Alexandria, Louisiana

Ucore recently announced it is investing $75 million over the next four years to set up the Louisiana Strategic Metals Complex (“LSMC”) REE separation and oxide production facility
The facility will cover a footprint of 80,800 square feet and will be located within the England Airpark Community complex in Alexandria, Louisiana
Ucore expects to produce 7,500 tons per annum of total rare earth oxide (“TREO”) throughput and create 100 family-wage paying jobs
The facility is one of three strategic metals complexes that Ucore plans to set up across North America as part of efforts to help the continent take charge of REEs and other critical elements that are necessary as the world introduces electric vehicles and electrification

Ucore Rare Metals (TSX.V: UCU) (OTCQX: UURAF), a company engaged in the exploration for and separation and scalable production of rare earth elements (“REEs”) in Canada and the United States, recently announced it is investing $75 million in capital expenditure (“CapEx”) over the next four years to establish North America’s first modern technology REE separation and purification facility at the England Airpark Community in Alexandria, Louisiana. The investment will result in the establishment of the Louisiana Strategic Metals Complex (“LSMC”) REE separation and oxide production facility, whose construction is scheduled to begin this year. Once completed, the facility will create 100 family-wage paying jobs (by 2027).

“This project has been a year in the making from an economic development standpoint,” company Chairman and CEO Pat Ryan, P.Eng., said in his opening remarks during an in-person meeting where the company made the announcement. In fact, according to company Vice President and COO Michael Schrider, MEng, P.E., Ucore began its search for a location by looking at the wider Gulf Coast region before narrowing it down to Louisiana. Here, the company engaged numerous local economic development agencies and communities as it worked on down-selecting twenty potential brownfield facilities that expressed interest in housing the LSMC.

“We started with 20 different facilities on which we did a desktop search. We narrowed those 20 down to 10. Peter Manuel [Ucore’s Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and Corporate Secretary] and I actually came down to the state. We visited each of those facilities around the entire state, and since then, we have just been narrowing this down from ten to two, and now, this facility in Alexandria. We are very excited to be here,” Schrider explained in his portion of the presentation.

The facility Ucore finally selected covers a footprint of 80,800 square feet within the England Airpark Community complex, run by the England Authority. Per a recent press release, the selection was based on the fact that the Alexandria facility met four criteria: engineering fitness and expansion capabilities; environmental assessment and permitting; community integration; and commercial terms (https://nnw.fm/8LF61). Moreover, the facility is larger than Ucore had initially anticipated, and as a result, the company plans to revise its maximum production rate upwards from 5,000 to 7,500 tons per annum of total rare earth oxide (“TREO”) throughput. Initially, however, the company plans a phase one production rate of about 2,000 tons per year, according to Schrider.

The updated maximum production rate has been met with acclaim, with the Louisiana Economic Development (“LED”), a body responsible for strengthening the state’s business environment and creating a more vibrant Louisiana economy, for instance, preparing an amended non-binding Letter of Intent (“LOI”) committing to add a potential $0.9 million grant for infrastructure costs in consideration of the updated facility. The company received and accepted the LOI.

The LSMC is part of Ucore’s efforts to focus on the midstream section of the REE supply chain, in what is aimed at helping wean North America and the world off its dependence on China for REE processing. “Over 90% of the processing takes place in China, and China dominates the REE industry. That’s not a negative; it is just that they have done a much better job of planning their future than we have, and Ucore is trying to change that narrative by focusing on the processing of REE,” Schrider continued.

To beat China at its own game, Ucore is targeting efficiency by using an improved processing method. Presently, Schrider noted, virtually every commercial rare earth plant in the world utilizes the solvent extraction (“SX”) method of separating REEs. However, on its part, the company intends to deploy “a new and highly efficient critical metal separation technology called RapidSX(TM),” which is based on the conventional SX method. One key advantage of the new technology over the conventional method is speed. According to a YouTube video explaining the technology, “RapidSX(TM) is at least three times faster, which significantly reduces plants’ physical and environmental footprint, CapEx, and OpEx. Moreover, any metal that can be separated with SX can be separated with RapidSX(TM)” (https://nnw.fm/efLqp).

Ucore is in the process of commissioning its RapidSX(TM) Demonstration Plant located within its RapidSX(TM) Commercialization and Demonstration Facility in Kingston, Ontario. In early March, it hosted dozens of industry and government visitors for private tours and presentations in which the company demonstrated the operational advantages of the RapidSX(TM) 52-stage REE separation system (https://nnw.fm/iyLTK).

The demonstration plant can process about 80 tons per year of TREO throughput if it is run around the clock, according to Schrider, who added that the plant will act as a copy-and-paste template for what the company plans to set up in Louisiana. Except the Louisiana facility will be slightly larger. The LSMC will, for instance, feature larger equipment, such as 24-inch contactor-separator columns, compared to the 4-inch columns used in the demonstration plant (refer to the March 16 press release for pictorial reference). Once production commences, each large column will be capable of producing a higher annual TREO throughput, with Schrider putting the figure at about 1,750 tons.

Ucore plans to build three SMCs strategically located across North America. “And with that, we are trying to make sure that North America has the ability to take charge of REEs and other critical elements that are necessary as the world introduces electric vehicles and electrification alongside the use of fossil fuels,” Schrider continued. The company intends to manufacture REE oxides from mixed earth concentrates received from US-friendly sources all over the world.

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

NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to UURAF are available in the company’s newsroom at https://nnw.fm/UURAF

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Cepton, Inc. (NASDAQ: CPTN) Continues to Forge Innovative Partnerships to Expand Lidar Applications Across Sectors and Geographies

As a lidar developer engaged with all Top 10 global automotive OEMs, Cepton is established in the automotive space; but as a technology that allows examination of natural and manmade environments with accuracy and precision, lidar can offer much more
In addition to its work with leading automotive OEMs, Cepton has been also committed to forging partnerships beyond the automotive sector to improve infrastructure efficiency and safety around the world
Cepton’s low-cost, high-resolution perception devices that enable scanning of environments have been deployed in projects around the world to transform spaces into smart infrastructure

Often coined as one of the most useful and versatile technologies of our time, lidar use cases go beyond merely enabling driver assistance functions in vehicles – although this is the application the technology is widely known for. As an optical technology that uses infrared light to measure distances, localize objects, or create maps of various areas with accuracy and precision, it can be used in practically any industry, from autonomous driving and logistics to robotics, construction, security, and agriculture, enhancing safety and productivity across a variety of end markets. As a provider of smart 3D-sensing lidar solutions, Cepton (NASDAQ: CPTN) has been collaborating with a number of global partners over the years to bring unique and accurate 3D imaging capabilities of this powerful technology beyond automotive applications to transform spaces into intelligent infrastructure.

Some of the collaborative projects include high-fidelity mapping and smart analytics on the fly for applications such as 3D modeling for building information modeling, historical site mapping, terrain modeling, volumetric mining calculations, power line inspection and forestry mapping (https://nnw.fm/18UME). Another notable partnership includes security applications in surveillance and facility management, a project where Cepton’s smart lidar was deployed seamlessly with the client’s other sensors to provide a complete image of the monitored space, enabling high-resolution visual capture of the environment and activities within it (https://nnw.fm/T50XK). In South Africa, Cepton teamed up with partners to enable smart transportation infrastructure in Cape Town by developing vehicle detection solutions deployed across the city (https://nnw.fm/GfWTo).

Vehicle and road safety is at the forefront of modern automotive design, and here, Cepton seeks to take it up a notch again. Instead of just giving drivers an accurate picture of the surrounding environment, Cepton aims to push the current limits to provide an extended field of view for drivers and communicate additional information about road conditions and unseen hazards in real time. Joining forces with its partners committed to building the future of transportation, the company co-developed a system that – true to its name, Periscope – was able to “look around the corner” and warn the driver about five seconds before a pedestrian became visible, providing more time for drivers to react to potentially hazardous situations (https://nnw.fm/LLBgV).

Cepton has also been busy forging partnerships with other leading players across multiple regions – from North America to Europe, Africa and more. For example, Ford has been partnering with Cepton practically since the company’s inception in 2016, both for R&D collaboration and small-scale deployments, where Cepton’s lidars were used in some of Ford’s smart city projects (https://nnw.fm/TkXec). In the UK, Cepton was part of an innovative project that aimed to help build safer, greener and smarter cities by transforming buses into mobile road inspection tools by equipping them with the tech to create a detailed map of the urban environment (https://nnw.fm/gQYAI). Cepton’s most recent partnership lies within America’s tolling infrastructure, as the company scored a contract with one of the largest U.S. tolling system operators. Using Cepton’s Sora lidars, systems are beginning to roll out with high 3D imagery for all vehicles at top speeds in order to provide profiling for traffic congestion and toll leakage (https://nnw.fm/CAYzu).

The current and future growth in lidar remains exciting, as this technology has the potential to disrupt many traditional industries, leading to higher productivity, safety, and convenience for all end consumers. As lidar deployment continues to advance rapidly, innovators like Cepton will keep forging onwards with new, disruptive applications.

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

NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to CPTN are available in the company’s newsroom at https://nnw.fm/CPTN

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Battery Mineral Resources Corp. (TSX.V: BMR) (OTCQB: BTRMF) Working to Be ‘Premier, Responsible’ Supplier in Burgeoning EV Battery Sector

EV sales in worldwide and nationwide forecast for “strong acceleration”
U.S. EV market projected to reach more than $61B this year with an annual growth rate of 22.79% through 2027
Battery Mineral’s mission is the discovery, acquisition and development of battery metals

In what a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (“BLS”) article is calling “one of the fastest-growing manufacturing industries in the economy” (https://nnw.fm/ft4xN), the electrical equipment and manufacturing industry is largely driven by growth in the electric vehicle (“EV”) sector. A growing player in that space, Battery Mineral Resources (TSX.V: BMR) (OTCQB: BTRMF) is positioning itself to benefit from what some experts project to be double-digit CAGR through 2027 (https://nnw.fm/KvZqy).

“Although forecasts for the rate of EV adoption over the next decade vary widely given rapid changes in both government policies and the auto manufacturing industry in recent years, many forecasts expect a strong acceleration in EV adoption,” reports the BLS article. “S&P Global Mobility forecasts electric vehicle sales in the United States could reach 40% of total passenger car sales by 2030, and more optimistic projections foresee electric vehicle sales surpassing 50 percent by 2030.”

The article, titled “Charging into the Future, the Transition to Electric Vehicles,” notes that “employment in the electrical equipment and component manufacturing industry, which includes the production of electric vehicle batteries and battery chargers, is projected to increase 17% over the 2021−31 decade, making it one of the fastest-growing manufacturing industries in the economy.”

Statista projects revenue in the U.S. EV market to reach more than $61 billion this year alone, with an annual growth rate of 22.79%, resulting in a projected market volume of $139.10 billion by 2027. The leading provider of market and consumer data goes on to report that U.S. EV market unit sales are expected to reach 2.13 million vehicles that same year. Globally, Goldman Sachs Research projects that EVs will make up about half of new-car sales by 2035 (https://nnw.fm/VGzW9).

All of this bodes well for Battery Minerals, a company working to provide shareholders with exposure to the global megatrend of electrification while focusing on growth through cash flow, exploration and acquisitions in favorable mining jurisdictions. Battery Mineral’s mission is the discovery, acquisition and development of battery metals (namely cobalt, lithium, graphite, and copper) in North America, South America and South Korea, and the company is committed to becoming a premier, responsible supplier of battery minerals to the electrification marketplace.

BMR is currently working to resume operations of the Punitaqui Mining Complex, a past copper-gold producer in the Coquimbo region of Chile. The company is also the largest mineral claim holder in the historic Gowganda Cobalt-Silver Camp in Ontario, Canada, and continues to pursue a focused program to build on the recently announced, 1-million-pound-plus high-grade cobalt resource at McAra. In addition, Battery Mineral owns 100% of ESI Energy Services Inc., a profitable mainline pipeline and renewable energy equipment rental and sales company with operations in Alberta, Canada, and Arizona.

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

NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to BTRMF are available in the company’s newsroom at https://nnw.fm/BTRMF

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