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SONA Rapid Response COVID-19 Test

Is Getting Rapid Response From Multiple Parties 

Just a day after another G-20 country committed to the purchase of 2 million test kits, Canada’s federal government got hugely behind Sona Nanotech’s (SONA, CSE) Rapid Response Lateral Flow Test for COVID-19 today.

SONA received a $4.1 million grant from NGen, Canada’s advanced manufacturing supercluster, to develop and commercialize this unique test which will work anywhere without a technician (one of its major selling points, in addition to its accuracy and delivery of near-instant results).  This non-repayable grant will be used to immediately accelerate the development of the prototype, in its final stages of optimization, and scale manufacturing capabilities.

“NGen is excited to support Sona Nanotech’s efforts to get a point-of-care test for COVID-19 in the hands of Canadian medical authorities as soon as possible,” stated Jay Myers, CEO of NGen.  He added, “Sona’s proprietary and unique Gold nanorod technology enables a rapid-response antigen test that has the potential to significantly reduce the time to results for COVID-19 diagnosis and, ultimately, save lives.”  

With $4.1 million going toward SONA from the feds as part of the government’s overall response to the pandemic crisis, and Myers’ comment about getting the test “in the hands of Canadian medical authorities as soon as possible,” the company now has 2 G-20 countries lined up for major orders with more on the way.

Advanced discussions continue with multiple procurement departments of government health agencies around the world.  Meanwhile, SONA is also nailing down more manufacturing contracts (after the first one announced yesterday) as part of its multi-pronged global sales and delivery strategy (GE is helping with this).  SONA is targeting manufacturers with the capability to push out multi-million units per month, and those manufacturers have some big ideas themselves.

“Your Ticket To Entry”

SONA is looking at a massive market, well beyond what company officials even envisioned just weeks ago.

Check out, for example, today’s news from one of our favourite Copper mining companies, Ero Copper (ERO, TSX).

Ero, which has not yet experienced any disruptions at its operations in Brazil, says it has ordered 3,000 COVID-19 test kits to monitor employees, while it will also be donating some of those kits to local municipalities to facilitate rapid testing.

This pandemic has changed the world in so many respects.  Even when life returns to some semblance of normalcy, screening for COVID-19 or other viruses could easily become part of everyday life in certain settings including of course the workplace.

Click on the arrow to listen to the 2nd part of Jon’s interview with SONA director Jim Megann:

Jim Megann, SONA Director and Managing Director of Numus Financial.

Note:  John and Jon hold share positions in SONA.

Visit the BMR comments section throughout the day for updates and helpful information!

1. Gold dipped as low as $1,584 overnight but has recovered to $1,611 as of 7:00 am Pacific, down $13 for the day…Russia has become the first central bank during the global pandemic to announce it’s suspending its Gold purchases as of April 1…Russia’s economy is suffering as it engages in an Oil price war with Saudi Arabia…the Russian central bank has dominated the Gold market, consistently increasing its reserves every month for the last 3 years…according to data from the World Gold Council, the Russian central bank bought 158.1 tons last year…Silver is relatively unchanged at $13.98…Copper has gained 3 cents to $2.18, Nickel is flat at $5.08 while Zinc is up a penny at 84 cents…Crude Oil, after dipping below $20 a barrel for the first time in nearly 2 decades, is up 31 cents at $20.40…the U.S. Dollar Index has gained one-third of a point to 99.57…factory activity in China unexpectedly expanded in March from a collapse the month before, but analysts caution that a durable near-term recovery is far from assured as the global pandemic knocks foreign demand and threatens a steep economic slump…China’s official PMI rose to 52 in March from a plunge to a record low of 35.7 in February, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) claimed today, above the 50-point mark that separates monthly growth from contraction…analysts polled by Reuters had expected China’s March PMI to come in at 45.0…the NBS attributed the surprise rebound in PMI to its record low base in February and cautioned that the readings do not signal a stabilization in economic activity…

2. TD Securities on Gold:  “In the immediate term, Gold prices appear to have run ahead of real rates, but looking forward, as the dust settles on COVID’s impact, we expect Gold to perform smartly in the next phase of this narrative.  The extraordinary QE package, combined with large government stimulus packages, reek of MMT [Modern Monetary Theory], which should eventually send real rates on a downward trajectory, particularly as global central banks will be willing to let inflation run hot as part of their symmetric targeting framework.  This should help cement a multi-year rally in the yellow metal”…

3. TC Energy (TRP, TSX, NYSE) is proceeding with its long-delayed Keystone XL pipeline with a $1.1 billion (U.S.) “strategic investment” from the Alberta government…the province is making a preferred equity investment in the 830,000-barrels-per-day pipeline project that would carry oil from Alberta to the U.S. Gulf Coast, which is home to the largest concentration of heavy Oil refineries in the world…in an interview with the Financial Post, Premier Kenney said the company will begin construction on the long-delayed pipeline export project as early as tomorrow…“This is absolutely critical for our economic future now more than ever,” Kenney said…Oil prices have crashed in the last month as the Wuhan COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a dramatic fall in global demand for Oil…at the same time, Saudi Arabia and Russia have flooded the market with Crude as they engage in a price war…however, Kenney said, the price war in the middle of a health crisis “highlights now more than ever why we need energy independence” and an interconnected North American Oil and gas market…

4. Montreal has emerged as Canada’s Wuhan virus hot spot after an early spring break and close ties to New York and France sowed infections that are rapidly growing into new cases and hospitalizations…Montreal, with about 5% of Canada’s population, has about one-quarter of the country’s COVID-19 cases, according to the latest data published by public health authorities…the province of Quebec, with 22% of Canada’s population, has about half of the country’s cases…Quebec had its biggest single-day increase yesterday with 590 new cases, bringing the total to 3,430…Montreal public health declared a state of emergency and identified hot spots in neighbourhoods, including Côtes-des-Neiges, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Côte-Saint-Luc, Rosemont and Plateau Mont-Royal…in several cases, those are neighbourhoods with communities with close ties to New York, Florida and France…public health officials instructed police to enforce the province’s ban on gatherings more closely in those areas…Quebec has rapidly expanded testing and is now capturing milder cases that were not caught under stricter testing criteria a week ago…in recent days, Quebec has averaged about 8,000 tests a day while Ontario has collected about 3,000 samples a day…Quebec has conducted about 808 tests per 100,000 people, more than double the rate of Ontario…

5. Sona Nanotech (SONA, CSE) and a European company have entered into a manufacturing deal for the production of the SONA-led consortium’s Rapid Response Lateral Flow test kits for the Wuhan COVID-19 virus…the test is in the final stages of development and SONA, working with GE, The Native Antigen Company, and Bond Digital Health, expects to complete a functional prototype and confirm 3rd party validation tests in the near future…SONA also announced yesterday that it has signed an LOI with a G-20 country (outside North America) for the purchase of 2 million units…other pre-orders or “expressions of interest” are anticipated shortly, subject in part to test validation…SONA’s efforts may also get a near-term financial boost following discussions with Canada’s federal government regarding potential grants from monies dedicated to the pandemic emergency…“SONA is uniquely positioned, having one of the strongest potential products that could assist the COVID-19 problem,” company director Jim Megann told BMR…SONA hit a new all-time high of $1.30 intra-day yesterday before backing off on profit-taking…it’s down 5 cents at $1.07 through the first 30 minutes of trading today…

6. The Dow is off 161 points as of 7:00 am Pacific…U.S. consumer confidence dropped less than expected in March…the Conference Board said today its consumer confidence index fell to 120 this month from 132.6 in February, bearing the consensus estimate of 110…Goldman Sachs says the economy will go through an unprecedened plunge in the 2nd quarter, but that the recovery would then be the fastest in history…the Dow has posted gains in 4 of the last 5 sessions, easing the losses of what’s shaping up to be its worst 1st quarter ever…in Toronto, the TSX has jumped 280 points while the Venture is 3 points higher at 390…CloudMD Software and Services (DOC, CSE), which yesterday closed the final tranche of a $3 million financing at 48 cents, announced this morning that it has expanded its direct-to-consumer telemedicine app, CloudMD, to service Ontarians…the app, which is free to download and use, allows people to book same-day appointments with a licensed physician in their own province…there has been growing demand for digital health care, as demonstrated by the positive reception CloudMD received from its launch in British Columbia earlier this year…then came the pandemic…Canadians are showing more motivation to seek medical advice virtually, preferring to avoid emergency rooms and clinics….DOC is up a penny-and-a-half at 51 cents as of 7:00 am Pacific…

7. Millions of Americans already have lost their jobs due to the Wuhan virus pandemic, and the worst of the damage is yet to come according to a Federal Reserve estimate…economists at the Fed’s St. Louis district are predicting total employment reductions of 47 million, which would translate to a 32.1% unemployment rate…the projections are even worse than St. Louis Fed President James Bullard’s much-publicized estimate of 30%…they reflect the high nature of at-risk jobs that ultimately could be lost to a government-induced economic freeze aimed at halting the coronavirus spread…“These are very large numbers by historical standards, but this is a rather unique shock that is unlike any other experienced by the U.S. economy in the last 100 years,” St. Louis Fed economist Miguel Faria-e-Castro wrote in a research paper posted last week….a 30% unemployment rate would top the Great Depression peak of 24.9%…the 1 potential bright side is the likelihood that the downturn could be comparatively brief…during a CNBC interview, Bullard said the jobless number “will be unparalleled, but don’t get discouraged. This is a special quarter, and once the virus goes away and if we play our cards right and keep everything intact, then everyone will go back to work and everything will be fine”…we’ll see if it turns out to be that simple…

Most Popular Recent BMR Posts

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Commodity Check!

The Nickel Mountain Magma Highway

The Dramatic New Chase For A Nickel-Copper-Rich Massive Sulphide Deposit In The Heart Of A Famous Gold Camp

Visit the BMR comments section throughout the day for updates and helpful information!

1. Gold, coming off its best weekly performance since 2008, traded as low as $1,601 overnight before rebounding…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is up $1 an ounce at $1,629…Standard Chartered Bank predicts an average Q2 Gold price of $1,725…at BMR, we see the possibility of some immediate/near-term weakness amid volatility in the yellow metal but we’ve raised our 12-month target price range to between $2,000 and $2,500 as U.S. budget deficits explode in response to the Wuhan COVID-19 virus…Gold ETFs tracked by Bloomberg registered inflows of 64 metric tons last week, with the majority going into the SPDR Gold Trust…ETF inflows into Silver were also strong at 774 tons, the biggest weekly inflow since July 2019…Silver, after a big move in recent sessions, has retreated 28 cents to $14.15 to begin the new week…China’s aggressive efforts to expand its 5G wireless network bode well for Silver demand, according to BMO Capital Markets…the analysts cited reports that up to 18 provinces in China aim to build over 413,000 5G base stations this year, which BMO said “would be a positive for Silver demand”…Palladium, coming off its best week on record, has added another $15 an ounce to $2,180…base metals are flat with Copper, Nickel and Zinc at $2.16, $5.11 and 83 cents, respectively…Crude Oil has tumbled another $1.31 a barrel to $20.20 while the U.S. Dollar Index has jumped three-quarters of a point to 99.13…America’s top infectious disease expert said yesterday that based on models, the U.S. could eventually see 100,000 or more deaths from the Wuhan COVID-19 virus which has already claimed more than 2,000 American lives as cases surge…“Whenever the models come in, they give a worst-case scenario and a best-case scenario,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, a key member of the White House’s coronavirus task force, explained…“I mean, looking at what we’re seeing now, you know, I would say between 100,000 and 200,000 (deaths).  But I don’t want to be held to that,” he said, adding that the U.S. is going to have “millions of cases”…President Trump yesterday extended the national social distancing guidelines to April 30 in an effort to keep the projected coronavirus death toll in the U.S. from reaching a catastrophic, worst-case scenario…“Nothing would be worse than declaring victory before the victory has been won,” Trump said at an evening press briefing after suggesting that the death rate from the pandemic in the U.S. would likely peak by mid-April…Johnson & Johnson (JNJ, NYSE) announced this morning that human testing of its experimental vaccine for the coronavirus will begin by September and it could be available for emergency use authorization in early 2021…the company said it is also increasing its manufacturing capacity with a new site in the U.S. and additions to existing sites in other countries to produce and distribute the potential vaccine quickly…

2. The Wall Street Journal reported this morning that a hidden pile of debt threatens dozens of emerging-market countries as the global economy stalls and commodity prices tumble…an estimated $200 billion of emerging-market debt owed to China has gone unreported in official statistics in recent years…the money is upending assumptions made by yield-hungry investors who have poured roughly $2 trillion into risky emerging markets over the last decade…even before the “Corona Crash”, some borrowers were buckling under their debts to China…Pakistan turned to the International Monetary Fund in 2018 for a bailout while Sri Lanka was forced to cede China control of a strategically located port (just what China was hoping for) to shore up state finances…U.S. and European economists are drawing parallels to the 1980’s debt crisis that shattered growth in Latin America…a global recession would undoubtedly magnify the problem…exactly how much China has lent is kept under wraps by state-run banks such as China Development Bank and the countries receiving the loans…China’s opaque lending can lead investors and organizations to underestimate the risk they are taking when they make loans to these countries or buy their bonds, leading them to lend at rates that might be too low given the potential losses…these include global investors and multilateral lenders such as the World Bank…

3. China’s major industrial provinces fully resumed production today, a top government official said, 2 months after a near-nationwide shutdown of factories, workplaces and retail outlets because of the Wuhan virus pandemic…the revving up of China’s economic engine contrasts with the situation in the U.S. and elsewhere…the number of confirmed cases of the virus rose to more than 724,000 across 177 countries and regions today, while the death total topped 34,000, according to Johns Hopkins University…while more than 152,000 people have recovered globally, case numbers have nearly doubled in a week, led by big increases in the U.S. and Europe…deaths outside mainland China are about 9 times that of China where the virus originated late last year…the world is paying a heavy price for how China’s communist dictatorship handled the situation, first by attempting to cover it up after the first reported case December 10…they arrested whistleblowers, lied about infection rates (even to their enablers at the WHO), denied access to the country to American medical experts, kicked out reporters investigating the story, and to this day China still isn’t fully sharing data sets on the virus…a recent University of Southampton study revealed that 95% of this global pandemic problem would not even exist if China had handled things differently…one of the “Big Picture” outcomes of this pandemic will be a major reset of relations with China…will Americans trust Donald Trump to do that, or Joe Biden who doesn’t consider China a major threat?…Trump’s approval ratings are at a new all-time high, much to the chagrin of the mainstream media…a priority for the U.S. will be to greatly reduce its dependency on strategic products from China, beginning with pharmaceuticals…

4. Canadian heavy Oil prices plunged to a new low on Friday that could force the domestic Oil sands sector to shut in production to survive the historic collapse, according to a new report from Wood Mackenzie…the price of Western Canada Select, the domestic heavy Oil benchmark, followed up a brutal 30% plunge on Thursday with another 28% fall on Friday to as low as $4.58 per barrel (U.S.) – just a fraction of other price benchmarks and cheaper than a crispy chicken sandwich at Tim Hortons…the Trudeau government, of course, has exacerbated the problem with its anti-fossil fuel globalist posture and an unwillingness to expand Canada’s pipeline capacity due to an obsession with “climate change”…in short, Canada’s Oil sector has been decimated by this federal government and all Canadians are about to pay a steep price, not just the West…

5. G6 Materials (GGG, TSX-V) woke up dramatically last week, doubling to 7.5 cents on a massive jump in volume – just the beginning of what could be in store for the $6 million market cap company poised to benefit from the pandemic and its consequences, short-term and longer-term…besides its graphene business, which shows increasing potential as it relates to multiple sectors (military ships, the general boat/yacht industry, electric vehicles, etc.), GGG is about to hit the jackpot on at least a couple of fronts…the company holds a valuable patent on a chemical compound process used in Phase 2 drug trials by a spin-out of a major U.S. pharmaceutical company…the drug is for a disease associated with the lungs that has a potential application for COVID-19…GGG has some intriguing immediate/near-term options including the outright sale of this patent…meanwhile, interest in GGG’s air filtration and sterilization products is skyrocketing, so much so that G6 is preparing to greatly expand this line of its business to capture a rapidly growing market due to the virus pandemic…G6’s experience with handling powder from graphene at its facility has given them unique insights into the air filtration/sterilization space, so they are well positioned to make this a potential major new revenue and profit source…on the graphene side, G6 has been working closely with a company in Singapore – analogous to Lockheed Martin – that has a contract with the national government for the building of military ships…this is another big potential game-changer because it’s believed that G6’s unique graphene concentrate will improve the impact and fatigue resistance of these ships by 3-fold…if that’s the case, it’ll dramatically speed up G6’s entry into a multi-billion dollar market…technically, the stock has broken out above a downsloping channel on its long-term monthly chart, a highly reliable indicator of a major change in trend…GGG is up another penny to 8.5 cents as of 7:00 am Pacific…

6. The Dow, coming off its best week since 1938, is relatively unchanged at 21,643 as of 7:00 am Pacific…in Toronto, the TSX has shed 95 points despite a 10-point jump in the Gold Index, while the Venture is off 1 point at 387…Sona Nanotech (SONA, CSE), a BMR subscriber recommendation at 30 cents last month, was halted pre-market, pending news…the stock closed Friday at $1.09…a SONA-led consortium including GE has been optimizing the working prototype of a rapid response screening test for COVID-19, unparalleled in the lateral flow space…Seabridge Gold (SEA, TSX) has entered into an agreement to acquire a 100% interest in the 3 Aces Gold Project in the Yukon from Golden Predator (GPY, TSX-V) for 300,000 Seabridge common shares, potential future cash payments totalling $2.25 million, continuing royalty participation in the project by Golden Predator and the immediate cash payment of $263,000 as reimbursement for project-related payments made by Golden Predator…Seabridge Chairman and CEO Rudi Fronk says 3 Aces is a first rate exploration play with the potential to host a high-grade commercially-viable ore body…“We think 3 Aces is a worthy addition to the three outstanding exploration opportunities we already own in British Columbia, Nevada and the Northwest Territories.  Golden Predator has done an excellent job of demonstrating the exploration potential at 3 Aces, confirming the project’s positive metallurgy and establishing excellent relationships with local First Nations and communities.  Their focus has shifted to the much more advanced and permitted Brewery Creek Mine”…

7. The Wall Street Journal reports that government officials across the U.S. are using location data from millions of cellphones in a bid to better understand the movements of Americans during the virus pandemic and how they may be affecting its spread…the federal government, through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and state and local governments have started to receive analyses about the presence and movement of people in certain areas of geographic interest drawn from cellphone data that comes from the mobile advertising industry rather than cellphone carriers…the aim is to create a portal for federal, state and local officials that contains geolocation data in what could be as many as 500 cities across the U.S. to help plan the epidemic response…the data, which is stripped of identifying information like the name of a phone’s owner, could help officials learn how the virus is spreading around the country and help blunt its advance…it shows which retail establishments, parks and other public spaces are still drawing crowds that could risk accelerating the transmission of the virus…

Most Popular Recent BMR Posts

How This Pandemic Will Ultimately Help Copper

Wuhan COVID-19 Virus Update

The Cost Of Doing Business With China (The CCP)

“Silver Lining”: Innovative Vancouver Company Provides Help During Crisis

COVID-19 Update

Smithers Shakes Off Turmoil For A Major 3-Day Event Connecting Hockey And The Resource Sector

Turbocharged Nickel

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The Dramatic New Chase For A Nickel-Copper-Rich Massive Sulphide Deposit In The Heart Of A Famous Gold Camp

1:30 pm Pacific 

BullMarketRun.com

Just One Way This Pandemic May Change The World

There’s no question the Wuhan COVID-19 virus pandemic, and the wide-ranging responses to it by governments and the private sector including mainstream media across the globe, will change the world as we know it, just as 9/11 did nearly 2 decades ago.

From the implications of shutting down vast parts of economies to defend against the spread of a virus, to how we adjust to prepare for the next pandemic, the “Corona Crash” will have far-reaching consequences (bad and good).

One of those consequences – a bullish one for investors – will be in the metals space where Copper will likely become more sought-after than ever.  Coming into this pandemic, Copper’s short-term and longer-term demand-supply dynamics were viewed very positively by most analysts. The red metal has taken a big hit this month due to the obvious sudden and sharp global economic slowdown triggered by the Wuhan virus, but there will be a powerful recovery (fueled in part by major new infrastructure projects governments will be embarking on, thanks to record low interest rates and the need to create jobs).  And when this recovery kicks in, Copper’s rebound could be spectacular with the metal becoming more popular than ever due to its antimicrobial properties.

Robert Friedland, currently advancing some exciting Copper projects, hit the nail on the head recently when he commented that antimicrobial Copper would face increased demand as superbug viruses continue to emerge and pose threats to society in the years ahead.

“Every surface in every hospital will be now covered in Copper,” Friedland said, adding, “I don’t think anybody’s going on a cruise ship anytime soon until all surfaces are covered in Copper.”

What’s so magical about Copper when it comes to the defense it provides against viruses?

Copper Mountain mine in southern British Columbia.

Copper and its alloys are natural antimicrobial materials, and scientists continue to actively demonstrate the intrinsic efficacy of Copper alloy “touch surfaces” to destroy a wide range of micro-organisms that threaten public health. Ancient civilizations exploited the antimicrobial properties of Copper long before the concept of microbes became understood in the 19th century.  In addition to several Copper medicinal preparations, it was also observed centuries ago that water contained in Copper vessels or transported in Copper conveyance systems was of better quality (i.e., no or little visible slime or biofouling formation) than water contained or transported in other materials.

When influenzas, bacteria like E. coli, superbugs like MRSA, or even coronaviruses land on most hard surfaces, they can live for up to several days.  But when they land on Copper, and Copper alloys like brass, they begin to die within minutes are are undetectable within hours.  “We’ve seen viruses just blow apart,” explains Bill Keevil, professor of environmental healthcare at the University of Southampton.  “They land on Copper and it just degrades them.”

Keevil believes it’s time to bring Copper back in public spaces, and hospitals in particular (just as Friedland noted). In the face of an unavoidable future full of global pandemics, we should be using Copper in healthcare, public transit, and even our homes.

New Research Further Supports The Case For Copper 

A new study (November 2019) has found that Copper hospital beds in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) harbored an average of 95% fewer bacteria than conventional hospital beds, and maintained these low-risk levels throughout patients’ stay in hospital.  The research was published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

The Calama Hospital, located very close to the big Chuquicamata Copper mine in northern Chile, was a pioneer in the use of Copper because of its anti-bacterial benefits when it was built more than a decade ago.

Copper Long-Term Chart

Copper closed Friday, March 27, at $2.17, up from its low during this crisis of $1.97.

Historically, Copper has bottomed whenever RSI(14) has touched the 30% RSI(14) level on this 20-year monthly chart.  RSI(14) is currently 34%, suggesting the metal is approaching an important low.  Price support at $2 is very strong as demonstrated several years ago following a multi-year bear market (also a Fib. level on this chart).

In hindsight, when we look back at the Wuhan COVID-19 crisis, investors will much better appreciate the life-changing investment opportunities it created in the metals markets, just like after the Crash of 2008.

We know what Gold and Silver are going to do, but Copper will have its turn, too.   At BMR we’ll be highlighting some of the most prospective Copper situations in the days and weeks ahead.

Four things to look for that would confirm the Venture has hit bottom…

Learn more in today’s Week In Review And A Look Ahead!