Year: 2019

Walmart and Google launch voice-activated grocery shopping feature

Posted on by The New Economy

The world’s largest retailer has teamed up with Google’s smart-home assistant, Google Home, to allow customers to order groceries using only their voices. Launched on April 2, Walmart Voice Order will add items directly to customers’ online shopping carts following the instruction: “Hey Google, talk to Walmart.”

In a statement announcing the new feature, Walmart’s Senior Vice President of Digital Operations, Online Grocery and Last Mile Delivery, Tom Ward, said that by using information from previous purchases, each customer’s preferred items would be learned over time.

“If a customer says ‘add milk to my cart’, we’ll make sure to add the specific milk the customer buys regularly,” Ward said. “Instead of saying ‘one gallon of one percent Great Value organic milk’, they’ll simply say one word: ‘Milk.’” However, USA Today has reported that the feature will only be available to customers near a Walmart that offers store pick-up or delivery services.

Walmart Voice Order will add items directly to customers’ online shopping carts following the instruction: “Hey Google, talk to Walmart.”

Walmart is currently working to build on its delivery capabilities: in January, the retailer added four companies to its delivery team to help expand its online grocery shopping network. At the time, Walmart Grocery delivery was only available in around 800 of the company’s 5,000-plus stores. Walmart aims to add delivery offerings to a further 800 stores in 2019.

Online grocery shopping has been slow to take off in the US. A survey by consulting firm Bain & Company found that just three percent of grocery spending in the US currently takes place online, while just four percent of shoppers said they had used voice assistants for grocery planning. Over the next decade, however, the report expects the US to experience a major increase in online grocery shopping, with e-commerce penetration expected to at least triple.

The partnership between Google and Walmart dates back to August 2017, when the pair first announced they would work on voice-activated grocery shopping. But earlier this year, Bloomberg reported that the company had quietly withdrawn from Google’s shopping and delivery services.

Amazon is currently miles ahead of Google in the voice-ordering e-commerce space. According to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, Amazon Echo devices accounted for 70 percent of all smart speakers installed in US homes as of December 2018. Google Home, meanwhile, accounted for less than a quarter of the market.

If Google hopes to claw back more of the growing smart speaker market, a partnership with Walmart, which remains the world’s largest retailer in spite of Amazon’s advances, will be an important step forward.

Lyft’s IPO marks the beginning of open season for unicorn debuts

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US ride-hailing firm Lyft stormed onto the NASDAQ index on March 29, with shares opening 20 percent higher than pundits had expected.

Some market experts believe that Lyft’s IPO is the beginning of a new golden era for tech stocks

Lyft had originally priced its shares at $72, but it traded in a $78.02-$88.60 band before ending the day at $78.29, an 8.7 percent increase on the issue price. A total of 6.1m shares changed hands during the day’s trading.

The company’s much-anticipated debut values it at $24bn on a fully diluted basis, including restricted shares and employee options. It was the largest US tech IPO since Snap Inc, the parent company of image sharing app Snapchat, went public in 2017, valuing itself at $29bn.

Some market experts believe that Lyft’s IPO is the beginning of a new golden era for tech stocks, after 2018 proved to be a lacklustre year for mega Silicon Valley debuts. John Jagerson wrote in a post for Investopedia: “[Lyft’s] inflated opening price confirmed that traders were both excited about the company’s prospects and starved for new stocks to invest in.”

Traders are now unlikely to go hungry for the rest of 2019, with companies including Pinterest, Airbnb and Slack expected to follow in Lyft’s footsteps in a series of blockbuster IPOs in the coming months. These ‘unicorn’ firms, so called because they are valued at more than a billion dollars, have all avoided public markets since their inception, preferring to chase private funding.

Some, such as Airbnb, had announced IPOs several years ago, but had stalled due to unfavourable market conditions. Wall Street’s sudden fall into a bear market in 2018 spooked investors and flattened interest in high-value debuts, a trend that has now been reversed with Lyft’s IPO.

The ride-hailing firm, which controls around 40 percent of its market in the US, will soon have competition in the stock market, as its biggest rival Uber is also preparing to go public. Analysts have valued the company at $120bn, with some suggesting it could make its debut as soon as next month.

Lyft and Uber have been at loggerheads for several years now, but when Uber was wracked by a series of scandals in 2017, Lyft took the opportunity to build its market share. The company is still a long way into the red though, with losses mounting to $911m in 2018.

“Lyft is underestimated in terms of how quickly I think it will go profitable,” Ben Horowitz, co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz, said. His venture capital firm was one of Lyft’s earliest investors back in 2013.

Horowitz added that his firm had chosen to back Lyft rather than Uber “because we believed in the character and the culture of the founders, in a way we didn’t in Uber”.

Horowitz’s comments indicate that today’s venture capital firms are less concerned with profitability and more interested in the DNA of a potential investment. Overspending at a company level is a relatively easy issue to fix, with the help of some savvy financial advisors and a comprehensive cost-cutting strategy. An unsavoury public image, or a series of media scandals, is a much greater, and costly, problem to fix, and may require a significant staff overhaul, as was the case with Uber.

While Lyft doesn’t have a completely clean slate – its staff were accused of spying on passengers last year– it’s in a different league than Uber when it comes to public image. The latter will be under close scrutiny between now and its stock market debut; if it slips up, this could allow Lyft to build upon its already impressive market capitalisation and steal even more of Uber’s market share.

AstraZeneca strikes $6.9bn deal with Japanese drugmaker

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AstraZeneca has signed a deal worth up to $6.9bn with Japanese drugmaker Daiichi Sankyo to develop and distribute the cancer drug trastuzumab deruxtecan.

Both companies will share worldwide development and commercialisation costs

Under the terms of the agreement, AstraZeneca will pay $1.35bn to Daiichi for the cost of the drug, with a further $5.6bn to be paid if regulatory and sales milestones are met.

The Anglo-Swiss drugmaker is planning to fund the deal using the proceeds of a $3.5bn share issue.

Both companies will share worldwide development and commercialisation costs, with Daiichi retaining exclusive distribution rights in Japan.

Daiichi’s shares soared by 16 percent to JPY 5,100 ($46) on the news. The company’s stock value has increased by 45 percent since the beginning of the year thanks to optimism surrounding the drug’s cancer-fighting capabilities.

AstraZeneca’s chief executive Pascal Soriot said in a statement that trastuzumab deruxtecan “could become a transformative new medicine for the treatment of HER2 positive breast and gastric cancers”. It could also be used to treat lung and colorectal cancers.

It is thought that Daiichi will take responsibility for sales of the drug in the US, some parts of Europe and any other markets where it already has affiliates. AstraZeneca is expected to take ownership of sales in all other markets worldwide, including China, Australia, Canada and Russia.

Daiichi is forecasting peak annual sales of $4.5bn for trastuzumab deruxtecan. The drug was classified as a “breakthrough therapy” by the US’ Food and Drug Administration in 2017, meaning it can be expedited through the organisation’s approval process.

The tie-up comes at a fortuitous moment for Daiichi and AstraZeneca, as both companies have been seeking to push further into the oncology market after patents on other lucrative drugs expired earlier this year. AstraZeneca has seen its sales decline in recent years after the patent on Crestor, its top-selling cholesterol drug, expired, while Daiichi faced a similar issue with its blood pressure remedy Benicar.

This latest partnership appears to be a wise strategic move for both AstraZeneca and Daiichi, in that it allows both to push further into the lucrative oncology drug market, as well as increasing the reach of what many believe to be a breakthrough treatment for several types of cancer.

AI developers win Turing Award for neural network progress

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A trio of computer scientists nicknamed the ‘Godfathers of Deep Learning’ have won the prestigious Turing Award for their pioneering work in the development of neural networks.

Geoffrey Hinton, an emeritus professor at the University of Toronto and senior researcher at Google Brain, Yann LeCun, a professor at New York University and chief AI scientist at Facebook, and Yoshua Bengio, a professor at the University of Montreal and co-founder of Element AI, will share the $1m prize, which is presented annually by the Association for Computer Machinery (ACM).

The trio worked both independently and collectively on the development of neural networks, which allow machines to better understand the world around them. Neural networks are part of an area of computer science known as deep learning – the process of educating machines through the construction of multi-layered networks that allow them to teach themselves to perform certain tasks.

By using a neural network to analyse thousands of old phone calls, for example, a machine can learn to recognise spoken words. Without these networks, a computer scientist would have to code individual rules into the system – a far more time-consuming approach.

Without neural networks, a computer scientist would have to code individual rules into a system – a far more time-consuming approach

Hinton first proposed applying a machine-learning approach to AI in the early 1980s. Alongside LeCun and Bengio, Hinton built upon this conceptual foundation over the following 30 years with the aid of powerful graphics processing units computers and an open access to huge datasets. The model that they pioneered is used today in the development of facial-recognition software, self-driving cars and warehouse robots.

“The growth of and interest in AI is due, in no small part, to the recent advances in deep learning for which Bengio, Hinton and LeCun laid the foundation,” said Cherri Pancake, President of the ACM, in a statement. “Anyone who has a smartphone in their pocket can tangibly experience advances in natural language processing and computer vision that were not possible just 10 years ago.”

Jeff Dean, Google Senior Fellow and Senior Vice President for Google AI, added: “Deep neural networks are responsible for some of the greatest advances in modern computer science, helping make substantial progress on long-standing problems in computer vision, speech recognition and natural language understanding. At the heart of this progress are fundamental techniques developed starting more than 30 years ago by this year’s Turing Award winners.”

The Turing Award – sometimes referred to as the ‘Nobel Prize of computing’ – is named after Alan Turing, the British mathematician who formalised the concepts of algorithm and computation. He also invented the Turing machine, which was used to crack the German Enigma code during the Second World War. Turing is widely considered to be the father of theoretical computer science and AI.

“One person who strongly believed the root of intelligence was learning was Turing,” Hinton told MIT Technology Review in an interview. In the 1950s, Turing developed a test for discerning whether a machine could be classed as being ‘intelligent’ or not, and suggested that, like a human mind, a computer could be subjected to a course of education to learn about the world around it. This paved the way for the development of neural networks and deep learning.

As such, the fact that this year’s award has been given to pioneers who furthered the concept of deep learning and built upon Turing’s original concept is a particularly poignant way to honour his legacy.

Controversial copyright legislation passed by European Parliament

Posted on by The New Economy

A much-debated directive that introduces sweeping changes to copyright enforcement has been approved by European lawmakers, despite heavy opposition from technology platforms such as Google and YouTube.

It has been delayed on several occasions due to rejection of certain elements of the text from a range of EU countries

The European Copyright Directive was voted into law by 348 MEPs on March 26. 274 MEPs opposed the bill.

Copyright legislation was first introduced by the European Parliament in 2001, with the aim of protecting intellectual property and ensuring that content producers were appropriately remunerated for their work. In 2012, the European Commission concluded that the existing legislation was not satisfactory in the face of digital market changes, and sought an update to the directive.

Work began to draft a new directive in 2014, but it has been delayed on several occasions due to rejection of certain elements of the text from a range of EU countries. Articles 11 and 13 have been particular points of contention, not solely for European governments, but also for tech giants and internet freedom activists.

Article 11, known as the ‘link tax’ by opponents, compels platforms such as Google to pay licensing fees to publications whose work is aggregated by services like Google News. Many publishers and content creators support this article, claiming that it will put an end to their work being re-published for free and without consent on other sites.

Article 13, referred to as the ‘upload filter’ by critics, requires sites that host user-generated content to take steps themselves to prevent copyrighted material from being uploaded without permission. This effectively shifts much of the onus for copyright prevention from the person sharing the content, to the platform on which it is shared. Under this legislation, platforms could be held liable for users’ copyright violations.

The latter article has been the target of significant vitriol from companies such as Google and Amazon, which have condemned the measure for making their business models unworkable. Both had also threatened to shutter their European operations if the directive was passed.

In a bid to appease critics, European lawmakers made a number of small changes to the two controversial articles earlier this year, which included creating a list of exemptions to Article 13. It is not yet clear how these exceptions will be integrated into content filters on technology platforms.

Google described the tweaked legislation as “improved” but said it “will still lead to legal uncertainty and will hurt Europe’s creative and digital economies”.

In a statement, the tech giant added: “The details matter, and we look forward to working with policy makers, publishers, creators and rights holders as EU member states move to implement these new rules.”

Not all campaigners were satisfied with the changes, however. MEP Julia Reda, who has been one of the most vocal critics of the legislation, described March 26 as “a dark day for internet freedom”.

The directive must be approved by the Council of the European Union before it can pass into law. A vote is expected in mid-April.

Fossil fuels are filling the gap in rising energy demand

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A surge in global energy requirements in 2018 drove carbon dioxide emissions to record high levels, according to the world’s energy watchdog.

The gap between demand and available energy was plugged predominantly by fossil fuels

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has said in a report released on March 26 that energy demand across the globe rose 2.3 percent last year, the fastest growth rate since 2010. The gap between demand and available energy was plugged predominantly by fossil fuels, which pushed carbon emissions to a landmark high of 33 billion tonnes in 2018. This figure marks a 1.7 percent increase from the previous year.

The Paris-based watchdog confirmed that demand for coal, oil and natural gas all increased last year, the burning of which subsequently contributed to increased emissions. An additional 560 million tonnes of carbon dioxide was released into the atmosphere in 2018, the same amount that is produced annually by the global aviation sector.

China, India and the US saw the largest increases in emissions, while areas such as the UK and EU saw emissions decline in 2018.

Severe fluctuations in weather patterns contributed to the rise in energy demand and emissions, as countries that experience extreme temperatures in summer and winter relied more heavily upon domestic heating and air conditioning systems.

While renewable power generation grew around seven percent last year, this was not enough of an increase to keep pace with the rise in energy demand. According to the report, growth from wind and solar in 2018 only met around 45 percent of the increased energy demand.

Globally, renewable sources such as wind, solar, hydro and biopower accounted for 26 percent of energy generation, while coal made up 38 percent of the total.

The IEA has identified coal as the “single largest source of global temperature increase,” accounting for a third of the rise in emissions last year.

“Despite major growth in renewables, global emissions are still rising, demonstrating once again that more urgent action is needed on all fronts — developing all clean energy solutions, curbing emissions, improving efficiency, and spurring investments and innovation, including in carbon capture, utilisation and storage,” said Dr Fatih Birol, the IEA’s executive director, on the organisation’s website.

Not only does the use of fossil fuels to meet additional energy needs negate progress made in the renewable energy field, but its polluting effects also take us further away from achieving climate goals set out in the Paris Agreement.

Ironically, part of the reason that energy demand has increased is to counteract the impact of climate change – scientists believe that more extreme weather patterns are a product of global warming. By burning fossil fuels to power domestic heating and cooling systems, and producing more emissions, we are exacerbating the original issue. It is therefore imperative than energy demand declines, or renewable energy output increases to make up the shortfall, lest we find ourselves entrapped in a vicious cycle of ever-increasing fossil fuel use.

Hewlett Packard brings $5bn case against Mike Lynch

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Hewlett Packard (HP) and technology entrepreneur Mike Lynch are poised to begin a $5bn court battle over the sale of Lynch’s company Autonomy to the computing giant in 2011.

Lynch blamed HP for the devaluation of Autonomy, claiming that the computing firm had mishandled the integration process

The case, which has been described as the UK tech trial of the century, will commence in London’s High Court on March 25. HP is seeking around $5bn in damages from Lynch, who stands accused of fraud and overvaluation of Autonomy.

HP acquired enterprise software business Autonomy from Lynch for $12bn in 2011 in a transaction that earned Lynch the nickname ‘Britain’s Bill Gates’. It is alleging that Lynch, together with Autonomy’s chief financial officer at the time, Sushovan Hussain, manipulated accounts and engaged in improper transactions that artificially inflated Autonomy’s revenues. This led HP, it claims, to pay an extra $5bn to acquire the company.

The following year, HP wrote $8.8bn off the value of Autonomy, which it said it was forced to do as a result of “serious accounting improprieties, disclosure failures and outright misrepresentations” of the software firm’s finances before the acquisition.

Both Lynch and Hussain deny the allegations, and Lynch is counter-suing for $150m for reputational damage. In a 326-page defence filing, Lynch blamed HP for the devaluation of Autonomy, claiming the computing firm had mishandled the integration process and had been distracted by a series of “disruptive boardroom scandals, management shake-ups and failed mergers”.

A spokesperson for Lynch said: “Mike Lynch is pleased to finally have the opportunity to respond in court to HP’s accusations. There was no fraud at Autonomy.”

He added: “The real story is that HP, after a history of failed acquisitions, botched the purchase of Autonomy and destroyed the company, seeking to blame others. [Lynch] will not be a scapegoat for their failures.”

On the eve of the London trial, fresh criminal charges have also been filed against Lynch by US federal prosecutors over the HP acquisition. Following a new indictment filed in a San Francisco court on March 22, Lynch now stands accused of securities fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy, in addition to 14 charges lodged in November 2018 by the US Department of Justice (DoJ).

If convicted in the US, Lynch could face up to 25 years in prison. Hussain has already been convicted of 16 counts of wire and securities fraud by the DoJ, but his sentencing has been postponed. He is appealing the verdict.

Lynch vigorously denied the new US charges, while his spokesman described them as “baseless and egregious”. A trial is expected to take place in 2020, in which the DoJ will seek to confiscate $804m from Lynch, which it says was obtained fraudulently.

The cases will be watched closely by the US and UK technology sectors, as Lynch is heavily integrated into both. Until November 2018, he was a director of Darktrace, a cybersecurity company valued at $1.65bn. He remains a director of Luminance Technologies, a software firm that uses AI to decipher legal documents, and Invoke Capital, a technology investment firm.

If Lynch is found to be liable in UK court, this will have far-reaching financial and reputational ramifications for him and most likely for the above-mentioned businesses. However, the US charges are far more severe, in that they are of a criminal, not civil, nature, and could result in jail time for Lynch. Both cases could lead to more widespread investigations if fraudulent practices are suspected at any of the companies Lynch is, or has been, associated with.

Garuda Indonesia attempts to cancel multibillion-dollar Boeing order

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On March 22, Indonesian national airline Garuda Indonesia confirmed that it had sent a letter to aircraft manufacturer Boeing requesting to cancel its order of 49 737 Max 8 jets, a deal thought to be worth in the region of $4.9bn. The airline said that its passengers had lost confidence in the model – which has been grounded in dozens of countries – after two high-profile crashes in the past five months.

In total, 346 people have died following accidents involving fellow Indonesian airline Lion Air and Ethiopia’s flagship carrier, Ethiopian Airlines. While this is the first recorded order cancellation for the aircraft, several other airlines have reportedly threatened to withdraw their purchases – putting Boeing’s reservation list, worth over $600bn, in jeopardy.

In total, 346 people have died following accidents involving Indonesian airline Lion Air and Ethiopia’s flagship carrier, Ethiopian Airlines

Reports indicate that Garuda may seek to exchange its 737 Max 8 order for another type of Boeing plane, likely a wide-body craft suited to longer international routes. One of the 49 planes has already been delivered to the Indonesian airline – it is as yet unclear whether Garuda plans to utilise the jet.

“[Passengers] always ask when they make a reservation if it is a [Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft] or not,” Garuda spokesperson Ikhsan Rosan told the Financial Times. “If it is, we need to book [them] on another flight. Because of the low confidence in the Max by our passengers, we need to inform Boeing we have to cancel our order.”

A Boeing spokesperson, meanwhile, said they were “unable to comment on customer discussions”.

During both of the recent accidents, the jets crashed shortly after take-off. While investigations are ongoing and, at present, no conclusive evidence has linked the disasters, the data recorder on the Ethiopian Airlines flight has suggested “clear similarities” between the two.

At the heart of the investigation is Boeing’s new ‘anti-stall’ feature, the manoeuvring characteristics augmentation system, which is widely believed to have played a role in the crashes. In a bid to address concerns regarding the plane’s safety, Boeing has assured airlines that a software update is forthcoming.

It appears, however, that the changes may have come too late. The company’s shares have dropped by more than 11 percent in the wake of the accident in Ethiopia, and many have raised questions over the reliability of the latest version of Boeing’s best-selling aircraft. Airbus’ A320 family has consistently outsold the 737 since its introduction and recent incidents look to have given the firm a further leg-up on its long-standing rival.

Neo Lithium posts positive PFS results for its 3Q Project in Argentina

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Neo Lithium, a growing name in the lithium brine market, has unveiled impressive results for its pre-feasibility study (PFS) into an exploration project in Argentina. The work, known as the 3Q Project, was carried out in the Catamarca Province, the largest lithium producing area in the country.

In recent months, Neo Lithium has rapidly advanced its 3Q Project, a unique high-grade lithium brine lake and salar complex located in what is known as Latin America’s ‘lithium triangle’. The project’s technical team characterises this unique salar complex as one of the largest lithium brine resources in the world.

“With the discovery of a high-grade core, we optimised the 3Q Project development plan with respect to our preliminary economic assessment,” said Waldo Perez, President and CEO of Neo Lithium. “The new [capital expenditures] and [operating expenses], together with the long life of [the] mine and high-grade brine, allow us to present a superior [internal rate of return] of 50 percent.

“Furthermore, we are currently continuing to drill the high-grade core and we are now able to validate that the 3Q Project still has further significant high-grade resource upside potential.”

The PFS represents a comprehensive study of the technical and economic viability of the 3Q Project. It has now advanced to a stage where a preferred processing method has been established and an effective method of mineral processing has been determined.

Project highlights
“We are delighted with the results of the PFS,” said Carlos Vicens, CFO of Neo Lithium. “We have improved the [post economic assessment] results on all fronts, requiring a smaller capital investment for a similar net present value. The 3Q Project is now easier to build, easier to finance, and its larger size allows us to think in terms of potential phased expansions. The final value of this project will be realised over time.”

The strategy to maximise the value of the 3Q Project was achieved by first extracting the high-grade core brine via five wells strategically located in the middle of the high-grade component of the measured and indicated resource. Early extraction of high-grade brine allows minimal sizing of early stage ponds. The grade, meanwhile, is expected to decrease over time, as progressively lower grade brine is extracted. Consequently, the total pond area is set to increase in the coming years.

In recent months, Neo Lithium has rapidly advanced its 3Q Project, a unique high-grade lithium brine lake and salar complex located in Argentina

A numerical groundwater model was developed to support the reserve estimate and the development of Neo Lithium’s 35-year mining plan. The model predicts the brine grade will decrease over time, and simulates additional brine recovery to maintain production at around 20,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) over the lifetime of the mine. The model also projects long-term brine recovery, based on the rigorous assembly of groundwater flow and solute transport parameters.

In the initial 10 years of the plan, five wells will each produce high-grade brine at a rate of 51 litres per second (l/s). During the following 10 years, the same wells will produce 64l/s. From 20 years onwards, a total of 11 wells will be in operation, with individual production rates between 23 and 49l/s. These variable brine recovery rates are designed to maintain a relatively constant production rate of approximately 20,000 tonnes of LCE.

The required yields are reasonable within the known parameters of the brine aquifer. However, ample space exists for additional production wells, if required. The company has already installed one production well capable of a sustained production of 84l/s from the high-grade zone.

Proposed operation and processing
The PFS identifies the preferred development option as being a conventional evaporation pond operation, followed by the purification and precipitation of lithium carbonate.

“We have been working towards a mining plan and a process facility that maximises the competitive advantages of the 3Q Project, which is [of a] high grade, with low impurities and a large size of resource,” said Gabriel Pindar, Director and COO of Neo Lithium. “The PFS has been tailor made to the 3Q Project, [and uses] proven technologies that have been utilised by major companies in the region to minimise operational and construction risks.”

The process begins by extracting brine from the pumping wells and transferring it into solar evaporation pre-concentration ponds. After a period of around 120 days, approximately 90 percent of the sodium chloride and other salts will have crystallised from the brine. The potash is harvested in a subsequent pond, with no requirement for reagents. Later, the brine is transferred to calcium chloride precipitation ponds and thickeners are used to extract most of the calcium, which precipitates as antarcticite.

Minor amounts of hydrochloric acid are then required for pH control, as well as to crystallise boric acid out of the brine. Residence time in the calcium chloride ponds is approximately 105 days. When the brine achieves a lithium concentration of 3.5 percent, it is transported to the brine processing plant. The total time taken to get to this stage is approximately 225 days, while the rate of lithium recovery in the ponds is approximately 60 percent.

With the pre-feasibility study defining the major economic parameters of the 3Q Project, Neo Lithium now has a strong foundation to discuss various financial options to move the project forward

The influent lithium brine grade is predicted to change over the lifespan of the mine, shrinking from 1,177 milligram litres in year one to 670 milligram litres in year 35. Consequently, pre-concentration ponds must be expanded over time to keep production constant. In the initial phase, 406 hectares of pre-concentration ponds will be utilised. This will be followed by two expansions of 102 hectares in year 10 and year 20. Fortunately, calcium chloride ponds and thickeners remain constant throughout. The average production of LCE has been estimated at 20,000 tonnes per year, but the need for capital at the beginning of the project is minimised by mining the high-grade material first.

Processing the concentrated brine is achieved through four stages, which take place at plants in Fiambalá and Recreo. In Fiambalá, solvent extraction is used to remove the remaining boron. Sulphatation, which removes the remaining calcium by adding a saturated solution of sodium sulphate, follows shortly after. In Recreo, the solvent extraction is then mixed with mother liquor and minor soda ash in order to remove traces of calcium and magnesium. The addition of soda ash and heat to precipitate the lithium carbonate also takes place in Recreo, followed by drying and packaging.

Recovery in the sulphatation plant is 92 percent, while recovery in the carbonation plant is 85 percent. The company is now operating a 1:500 scale pilot plant in Fiambalá to fine-tune this standard method. The general approach has proven effective when attaining battery-grade lithium carbonate in the past.

Initial capital costs are estimated at approximately $319m. The life-of-mine deferred and sustaining capital costs are estimated at approximately $207m, while closure costs are estimated at $26m.

Future developments
Neo Lithium intends to complete a full feasibility study to further validate and detail the elements outlined in the PFS. At reserve level, it has recommended to extend drilling to a depth below the already drilled 100 metres. The definition of additional high-grade resources could have a significant impact on pond requirements, presenting the possibility of increasing production with fewer ponds. This programme is already underway and the first drilling results are expected soon.

Additional long-term pumping tests in the high-grade zone are also recommended to test the aquifer in production scale pumping scenarios. Currently, the company is carrying out a 20-day pumping test that is almost complete. The pilot plant operation, which is currently in the commissioning and testing phase, is critical to completing the feasibility study and proof of concept relating to the plant’s ability to yield battery-grade lithium carbonate. Further, the final feasibility study must consider the economics of by-products including potash, calcium chloride and boric acid, which are all readily available with minor additional investment. The recommended feasibility study is expected to be completed in the first half of 2020.

With the PFS defining the major economic parameters of the 3Q Project, the company now has a strong foundation to discuss various financial options to move the project forward. “The robust project economics generated from the PFS further validates our view that the 3Q Project is an exceptional project, particularly when our industry faces unprecedented growth and it needs predictable, long-term, low-cost producers,” said Constantine Karayannopoulos, Chairman of Neo Lithium. “We are not short of options, and the next step is a careful analysis of how to maximise value for our shareholders.”

Google hit with another fine for anti-competitive behaviour

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On March 20, the EU issued Google with a €1.49bn ($1.7bn) fine – the company’s third such penalty in just two years – after accusing the tech giant of blocking rival online search advertisers.

An EU probe found that the firm had used its resources to block other advertisers between 2006 and 2016

An EU probe found that the industry-leading online firm had used its resources to block other advertisers between 2006 and 2016. The tactic appears to have been successful, with Google enjoying an average market share during the decade in question of roughly 85 percent across the European Economic Area, which includes Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway in addition to the 28 EU nations.

“Google has cemented its dominance in online search adverts and shielded itself from competitive pressure by imposing anti-competitive contractual restrictions on third-party websites,” said EC commissioner Margrethe Vestager. “This is illegal under EU anti-trust rules.” The Commission added that Google’s practices had stifled innovation.

In June 2017, after it was revealed that Google had abused its power by elevating its shopping comparison service to the top of its search results, the EU fined the firm €2.4bn ($2.7bn). Furthermore, last summer, the EU competition authority slapped Google with a record €4.34bn ($4.94bn) fine for using its Android mobile operating system to bolster the dominance of its search engine. Collectively, the tech giant now owes the EU €8.2bn ($9.34bn).

While Google has filed appeals against the two previous EU rulings, it is unclear whether it will contest the latest fine. The penalty brings an end to the third EU investigation into the company, just as Vestager is due to stand down as competition commissioner. Her successor is set to take over in November.

Following the fines, Google has revamped its Android service by offering users a choice of browsers and search apps on their phones. It has also modified the way it arranges search results in Europe. The changes made by Google were labelled a “positive development” by Vestager, who will no doubt be pleased to see that she has helped, somewhat, to level the playing field before her departure.

Google unveils video game streaming platform Stadia

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On March 19, Google showcased Stadia, a gaming platform that will bypass the need for a dedicated console, at the 2019 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. The service will allow users to stream games directly to their computers, televisions and mobile devices from Google’s servers. Google also unveiled the accompanying Stadia controller at the event.

Google, which already has a significant indirect impact on the gaming industry through its video-sharing platform, YouTube, has determined that cloud-based services will represent the future of the market, which is worth approximately $135bn a year.

Previous video game streaming services have failed to catch on – largely due to issues with latency, an exasperating problem for gamers who rely on super-fast reactions to gain an edge on their competitors. Google, however, believes it can overcome this issue: by connecting directly to the internet and communicating with Google’s servers independently, the service should avoid problems with lag.

By connecting directly to the internet and communicating with Google’s servers independently, Stadia should avoid problems with lag

“We learned that we could bring a AAA game to any device with a Chrome browser and an internet connection,” said Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Pichai confirmed that Google will release Stadia later this year in the US, Canada, the UK and most of Europe.

The threat posed to traditional gaming manufacturers is already being recognised: shares in Japanese console makers Sony and Nintendo fell by three percent as Google unveiled Stadia. Analysts, however, have suggested this drop was a knee-jerk reaction.

At present, the lack of games means there is still some way for Stadia to go before its formal launch on the market. Google also failed to disclose a price during the launch event, leaving question marks over its mass-market appeal.

As Google makes its debut in the gaming market, two other companies are likely to follow suit: Amazon and Tencent. The two tech firms also provide cloud-computing solutions, while their existing investments in the gaming industry should provide them with a platform to challenge Google’s offering. Cloud computing has already made its impact felt within a variety of sectors; now, it looks set to shake up the gaming market as well.

Lyft seeks $23bn IPO valuation

Posted on by The New Economy

On March 18, ride-hailing app Lyft put its initial public offering (IPO) in motion, signalling its intention to raise up to $2.1bn – a figure that would value the company at almost $23bn. The IPO looks set to be one of the largest listings from a US technology firm in recent years and is expected to rival that of Snap, which went public in 2017.

The benchmark has now been set for other tech companies preparing to go public this year. Pinterest, Postmates and Slack are all pushing for IPOs in 2019, providing a timely reminder of the strength of Silicon Valley’s start-up ecosystem, which has recently begun to stall in the face of increased competition from other tech hubs in Toronto and Tel Aviv, among others.

Lyft’s IPO looks set to be one of the largest listings from a US technology firm in recent years and is expected to rival that of Snap

Lyft’s competition with main rival Uber, however, is likely to be of the most interest to the ride-hailing firm. Uber is expected to draft its own IPO disclosure next month, with analysts predicting that its listing will be significantly bigger than Lyft’s, potentially reaching as high as $120bn.

Lyft’s stock, which will be listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market, has a proposed share price of between $62 and $68. If the latter is achieved, it would see the stakes of Lyft’s two co-founders, Logan Green and John Zimmer, surge to around $569m and $393m respectively, despite the business making a net loss of $911.3m since its founding in 2012.

But just as Lyft officially revealed its IPO, the business experienced a setback in a New York court, as a judge denied the company’s motion for an injunction that would have blocked the city’s recently approved minimum wage pay floor for app-based drivers.

Since their founding, both Lyft and Uber have been blighted by legal disputes with drivers who are unhappy with their wages and employment rights. Recently, Uber was forced to settle a $20m lawsuit with drivers in California and Massachusetts, and further litigation is expected to follow. The judge overseeing Lyft’s New York City dispute is expected to deliver a written statement within the next 30 days; an unfavourable ruling could potentially harm Lyft’s ambitious stock price.