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NA Proactive news snapshot: Marrone Bio, Newgioco, AIM ImmunoTech, GoviEx Uranium, American Resources Corporation, Arcadia Biosciences UPDATE …

Last updated: 17:05 06 Jul 2020 EDT, First published: 10:00 06 Jul 2020 EDT

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Marrone Bio Innovations Inc (NASDAQ: MBII) announced Monday the appointment of Kevin Helash as its new chief executive officer. Helash replaces Dr Pamela Marrone, founder of Marrone Bio, who announced her intention to retire as CEO in December 2019. Dr Marrone will remain with the company as CEO until Helash’s first day of employment and will continue to serve as a non-employee director of the company. Helash, a native of Manitoba, Canada, will join the company as early as August 1, pending receipt of permanent residency status or the applicable visa, both of which are in process. Concurrent with joining the company, Helash also will be appointed as a board director. A 28-plus-year agricultural industry veteran, Helash comes to Marrone Bio from Agrinos AS, a global-scale biological crop input provider specializing in biofertilizers and biostimulant products. As CEO of Agrinos since November 2017, Helash led a major restructuring and transformation of the company to create a platform for future long-term growth. 

Newgioco Group Inc (NASDAQ:NWGI), a gaming technology company with gambling operations in Italy, reported its 2019 full-year results, revealing a modest revenue increase year-over-year thanks to a bump in betting handle. The company brought in revenue of $35.6 million, up nearly 3% from $34.6 million in 2018. Betting handle, or the amount of money in wagers accepted, grew almost 10% to $454.1 million from $413.2 million in 2018. Web-based betting handle increased by 39%, as Newgioco converted customers to online gaming.

AIM ImmunoTech Inc (NYSEAMERICAN:AIM) has reached a material transfer and research agreement with Japan’s National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID) and pharmaceutical company Shionogi & Co Ltd to test its drug Ampligen as a vaccine enhancer for the coronavirus. AIM will provide samples of Ampligen to the two parties for collaborative research projects, the preclinical and clinical results of which will remain confidential until released by NIID and Shionogi. 

GoviEx Uranium Inc (CVE:GXU) (OTCQB:GVXXF) said Monday that new gold in soil anomalies at its Falea project in Mali highlights the mineral potential of the deposit. The Vancouver-based company told shareholders that “significant” gold in soil anomalies indicate potential extensions of the Sirabaya West and Siribaya-Bambadinka gold trends and may intersect within the Falea project. The presence of the anomalies occurring along with similar structural trends as the Falea project positively signals its mineral potential, GoviEx said in a release.

American Resources Corporation (NASDAQ:AREC) said Monday that it has made progress towards starting mining operations at its Perry County Resources (PCR) mining complex in Hazard, Kentucky. Perry County, one of the infrastructure company's five operating complexes within the Central Appalachian basin was acquired in September 2019 and has been restructured to eliminate nearly $45 million in annual expenses. American Resources CEO Mark Jensen said: "We are extremely proud of our team for the coordination and efforts to prepare Perry County Resources to be brought back online under our low-cost operating model.” American Resources anticipates restarting the E4-2 mine and PCR complex within the next 45 days and plans to hire over the next 12 months.

Arcadia Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:RKDA) said Monday it has entered into a warrant-exercise agreement with an institutional investor to raise $2.5 million. Through Verdeca, a joint venture between the company and Bioceres Crop Solutions Corp (NYSEAMERICAN: BIOX), Arcadia BioSciences said it intends to use proceeds from the warrant exercise to support the launch of Verdeca's HB4 soybean, a drought-tolerant, herbicide-resistant seed solution available for soybean. Under the agreement, the institutional investor will exercise certain existing warrants to purchase up to an aggregate of 641,416 shares of common stock at a reduced price of $3.975 per share. Additionally, California-based Arcadia Biosciences said it has agreed to issue to the investor new unregistered warrants to purchase up to an aggregate of 641,416 shares of common shares at $3.85 each.

Nextleaf Solutions Ltd (CSE:OILS) (OTCMKTS:OILFF) continues to commercialize its intellectual property (IP) and is focused on scaling up its biomass processing capability, the cannabis-extraction specialist told investors in an update on Monday.The firm has also added some highly experienced staff due to the recent downsizing of Canada’s largest cannabis production firms, it added in the statement. Notably, Nextleaf Labs Ltd, which the group is set to buy, has struck a bulk supply deal with a British Columbia-based multi-licensed cannabis producer, which is focused on the distribution of adult-use cannabis products through provincial markets. As part of the agreement, Nextleaf Labs has agreed to supply 50 kilograms of THC distillate to the British Columbia-based producer, it noted.

Micron Waste Technologies Inc (CSE:MWM) (OTCQB:MICWF) issued a clarifying press release Friday concerning its letter of intent to acquire personal protective equipment (PPE) manufacturer Covid Technologies Inc. Micron announced the non-binding letter of intent in a statement on April 20, and said in a statement that Covid Technologies is "bringing manufacturing capacity and experience to deliver personal protective equipment." On Friday, Micron said that while Covid was acquiring the manufacturing equipment and materials to produce PPE, it did not have the capacity to do so at the time.

Ideanomics Inc (NASDAQ:IDEX) announced that Harvest Global Investments (HGI) and its affiliate Harvest Alternative Investments will advise the company. They will place an emphasis on Ideanomics’ Mobile Energy Global (MEG) division, H2FC and BEV Medici Motor Works truck and specialty vehicles business, according to a release. Ideanomics said Henry XueJun Zhao will assume the advisory position, as well as become a board member to Medici Motor Works, to assist it with maximizing shareholder value for its EV divisions. The types of advisory activities include the potential to assist with capital raising, M&A, and other types of investment banking services for MEG and Medici Motor.

Group Eleven Resources Corp (CVE:ZNG) (OTCMKTS:GRLVF) revealed it has hit the best mineralization ever found at the Carrickittle prospect at its PG West project in the Republic of Ireland. A drill hole intercepted 10.3 metres of 14.6% zinc, 5% lead (19.6% combined) and 43 grams per ton (g/t) silver starting at 56.3 metres downhole, the firm told investors in a statement on Monday. The hole also hosted a high-grade zone of massive sulphides containing 6.6 metres of 21.5% zinc and 7% lead (28.4% combined) and 59 g/t silver, starting at 60 metres downhole.

CytoDyn Inc (OTCQB:CYDY), a late-stage biotechnology company, revealed Monday that it has signed an exclusive supply agreement with American Regent Inc for the distribution of its investigational new drug, leronlimab, for the treatment of coronavirus (COVID-19) in the US. Under the terms of the agreement, CytoDyn will supply leronlimab to American Regent, a Daiichi Sankyo Group company, which is a top-10 injectable manufacturer, and receive quarterly payments based on a profit-sharing arrangement. “Having this distribution agreement in place ahead of the readout from CytoDyn’s COVID-19 clinical trials further emphasizes CytoDyn’s commitment to making leronlimab immediately available to patients based on the successful completion of its ongoing clinical trials,” CytoDyn CEO Nader Pourhassan said in a statement.

Great Bear Resources Ltd (CVE:GBR) (OTCQX:GTBAF) has reported yet more highly encouraging drill results from its flagship Dixie gold project at Red Lake in Ontario including finding that mineralization at the LP Fault gold system expands at depth. The firm is currently in the throes of a C$21 million exploration program at Dixie. At the LP fault target, the company has completed 120 of its around 300 planned drill holes. "The most recent drilling along 650 metres of strike length of the multi-kilometre LP Fault gold system has shown mineralization typically expands at depth," Chris Taylor, chief executive at Great Bear said in a statement.

XPhyto Therapeutics Corp (CSE:XPHY) (FSE:4XT) (OTCPINK:XPHYF) said Monday that its diagnostic partner, 3a-Diagnostics GmbH, has confirmed the successful working of its novel COVID-19 RNA probes and its universal coronavirus RNA probes in a prototype of a lateral flow assay (LFA) test. Prototype testing was carried out at 3a’s lab in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Vancouver-based XPhyto said that “visual confirmation of the test results” with probe activation was observed in “five to seven minutes.” XPhyto and 3a are working to develop a low-cost oral screening test to concurrently detect COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 coronaviruses.

PreveCeutical Medical Inc (CSE:PREV) (OTCQB:PRVCF) announced Monday successful results from its cannabinoid Sol-gel product development program. The Vancouver-based company said the results came from a three-month physico-chemical stability test on cannabinoid sol-gel formulations designed for nose-to-brain (NTB) delivery. PreveCeutical said it looked at the physical and chemical stability of formulations’ components, which underwent three months of cold storage (2-8ºC) as well as room temperature storage. As a result, “there was minimal indication of physical or chemical instability of the cannabinoid formulation over the study period,” the company said in a statement.

Endeavour Mining Corporation (TSE:EDV) (OTCQX:EDVMF) has revealed it is kicking off mining at the Kari Pump deposit of its Houndé mine in Burkina Faso. The West Africa-focused company has received a mining permit extension from the Burkina Faso government to cover the full Kari area, which hosts the Kari Pump, Kari West and Kari Center discoveries. Mining has now started at the high-grade Kari Pump section, where over 60,000 metres of grade control drilling took place in anticipation of permitting earlier this year. Endeavour told shareholders that the Kari Area has been permitted as an extension of the main Houndé mining permit, which allows the area to benefit from Burkina Faso’s 2003 Mining Code that includes a corporate income tax rate of 17.5%, a 10% free-carried State interest, and a royalty based on a 3% to 5% sliding scale linked to prevailing gold prices.

NetCents Technology Inc (CSE:NC) (OTCQB:NTTCF) has revealed it is establishing a German subsidiary to help its growing number of clients in the region, including to provide a white-label solution for commercial banks. The cryptocurrency payments group said the new subsidiary will support the activity it intends to operate in the European market, including merchant processing and invoicing for subscription-based businesses. It also aims to provide merchant services and its crypto-banking Stack/Solution as a white-label offering for commercial banks after the German regulator released guidelines on March 3 this year for financial institutions interested in cryptocurrency products, the group added.

District Metals Corp (CVE:DMX) has said it is gaining valuable insights on its newly-acquired Tomtebo project in Sweden as it prepares for an aggressive exploration program set to kick off in the coming weeks. The Vancouver-based exploration company said it has been analyzing historic drill data on the past-producing project and has already identified a number of highly prospective targets on the polymetallic property. The preparation work, conducted in partnership with EMX Royalty Corp (CVE:EMX), represents an important development for the Tomtebo project, which is located in the Bergslagen mining district of south-central Sweden. District and EMX also prepared the first-ever Leapfrog 3D geological model of the historic mine.

TraceSafe Inc (CSE:TSF) (OCTMKTS:UTOLF) announced Monday the introduction of its IMSafe Gateway technology for quarantine use. The IMSafe Gateway is a GPS and LTE-enabled device that can replace the need to pair mobile phones in both TraceSafe's iMSafe and AllSafe products, the company said in a statement.  TraceSafe said its products require a connection to the Internet, which was previously provided when a user's smartphone was paired to their Tracesafe wristband. But the new TraceSafe IMSafe Gateway eliminates the need for the smartphone entirely by pairing the wristband to the Gateway directly.

Steppe Gold Ltd (TSE:STGO) revealed that the production ramp-up at its ATO mine in Mongolia was moving apace and the group had achieved commercial output in the second quarter to end-June 2020. So far, the miner has sold a total of 15,389 ounces of gold and 4,978 ounces of silver in six separate deliveries, generating net cash flow, after royalty payments, of US$25.3 million, it told investors in a statement. The group said it remains on track to generate around 60,000 ounces of gold in its first year at cash costs of around US$500 per ounce, but with strong cash generation, it is now working to expand the open pit and processing facilities to increase output, targeting 150,000 ounces of gold a year.

TruTrace Technologies Inc (CSE:TTT) (OTCMKTS:TTTSF) said its chief technology officer Thomas Stephenson has acquired 17.2 million common shares in the cannabis-focused blockchain company.  In a statement Monday, TruTrace said 9.5 million shares were issued directly to Stephenson on June 26 at $0.05 cents each in settlement of outstanding debt of $475,000 owed by the company. In addition, 7.7 million shares were issued to a company controlled by Stephenson on July 3 at $0.05 each in connection with the licensing of certain technology by the company.

Namaste Technologies Inc. (CVE:N) (OTCMKTS:NXTTF), a leading platform for cannabis products, accessories, and education said its board of directors has approved the grant of an aggregate of 7,626,751 stock options to officers, directors and employees of the company, which are exercisable into common shares of Namaste at a price of $0.33 per common share. The options have a term of four years and will expire on July 2, 2024. Consistent with management's efforts to preserve cash resources and reinforce their commitment to the company, certain officers of the Company have agreed to receive their short-term incentive in options in lieu of cash. Additionally, Namaste's CEO Meni Morim's request for a pay cut in favour of long-term incentives has been granted, with the board agreeing to a 17% reduction. In addition, the board approved other option grants pursuant to agreed long term incentive plans. With this in mind, of the total number of options granted, officers of the company received in aggregate 3,737,056 options, with directors and employees receiving the remainder.

Group Eleven Resources Corp (CVE:ZNG) said the TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing documentation with respect to its non-brokered private placement, announced on June 12, 2020, which will see the issue of 1 million shares at a purchase price of 5 cents per share, together with warrants to purchase 500,000 shares at an exercise price of 10 cents for a three-year period, with one placee.

The Flowr Corp (CVE:FLWR) said the TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing documentation with respect to its non-brokered private placement, announced on May 14, 2020, which will see the issue of 1,472,308 common shares at a purchase price of 52 cents per share, together with warrants to purchase 1,472,308 shares at an exercise price of 76 cents for a 36-month period with one placee. In certain circumstances the exchange may later extend the expiry date of the warrants, if they are less than the maximum permitted term.

BetterLife Pharma (OTCQB:BETRD) (CSE:BETR), an emerging clinical-stage pharmaceutical development company, said its CEO Dr Ahmad Doroudian recently discussed the use of interferon therapy for coronavirus (COVID-19) with Alex Keown of BioSpace. Highlights of the interview include Doroudian noting that the coronavirus creates a number of problems in the body, but chief among them is the virus’s ability to suppress interferon production in the lungs. Interferons are proteins produced by the body to fight viral infections by inhibiting its replication in the body. Doroudian lo said he believes that interferon therapy could potentially lower the overall hospitalization rate, minimize long term tissue damage to the lung, heart, kidney and brain and curb the number of deaths by reducing the severity of the disease. To that end, the team at BetterLife Pharma has been focusing on refining a patent-pending interferon agent that can help fight the disease. The full text of the interview can be read here: https://www.biospace.com/article/could-interferons-be-a-potent-weapon-against-covid-19-/

Fidelity Minerals Corp. (CVE:FMN) (FSE:S5GM) has released an updated corporate presentation which provides details about the significant copper and gold opportunities within its project portfolio, with a particular emphasis on the Las Brujas project, in Cajamarca, Peru, where the company believes it is at the early stages of defining a number of potentially significant epithermal gold resources. The updated Corporate Presentation can be found at: https://www.fidelityminerals.com/latest-presentation. A recent Proactive Investors interview with Fidelity Minerals CEO Ian Graham, can be found at: https://www.fidelityminerals.com/news-and-media

The Valens Company Inc. (TSX: VLNS) (OTCQX:VLNCF) a global leader in the end-to-end development and manufacturing of innovative, cannabinoid-based products, has said it will issue its second-quarter financial results, for the period ended May 31, 2020, on Wednesday, July 15, 2020, after the markets close. The company also said it will host a conference call the following day, Thursday, July 16, 2020, at 11.00am Eastern Time/8.00am Pacific Time to discuss the financial results and business outlook. Tyler Robson, the group's chief executive officer, Chris Buysen, its chief financial officer, Jeffrey Fallows, president, and Everett Knight, executive vice president of Corporate Development and Capital Markets, will be conducting a question and answer session following the prepared remarks. Participant Dial-In Numbers: Toll-Free:  1-877-407-0792; Toll / International:  1-201-689-8263; Participants should request The Valens Company Earnings Call or provide confirmation code 1370634. The call will also be available via webcast on the Valens investor page of the company website at https://thevalenscompany.com/investors/. A replay of the call will be available on the Valens investor page approximately two hours after the conference call has ended.

Ideanomics (NASDAQ:IDEX) has said it will release its 2020 second-quarter financial results on Tuesday, August 11, 2020 at approximately 4.00pm EDT, followed by a conference call at 4.30pm EDT (4.30am Wednesday, August 12, 2020 Singapore and Beijing Time). Members of the company's senior management team will give prepared remarks, followed by a short question and answer session. Ideanomics management encourages investors and analysts to email their questions in advance of the webcast/call and, time permitting, management will take further questions during the live Q&A session. Please email:  ir@ideanomics.com.  Conference call dial-in numbers are: (Toll-Free US & Canada): 877-407-3107 or 201-493-6796; for China: +86-400-120-2840. Webcast Link: At the Ideanomics corporate website: www.ideanomics.com.  A replay of the webcast will be available on the company's website after the conclusion of the event.

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