Is Acceleware poised for the proverbial liftoff

Acceleware Ltd. (TSXV:AXE) is a company that has survived a global recession that has been compared as second only to the Great Depression of the Thirties. Not only has the management team managed to bring the company through this period, that saw many companies fail, but they have also recently restructured the company, and now seem to be quite possibly on the brink of reaching a point where there could be significant growth.

Acceleware provides High Performance Computing software solutions to the Oil & Gas and Computer Engineering markets for multi-core CPUs and compute GPUs. Additionally, our HPC consulting services are utilized by enterprises needing to harness the power of parallel computing. At Acceleware the goal is always the same – Go Faster!

As you can see Acceleware is not just involved in some small way, in regards to High Performance Computing. They have some of the industries biggest and most well known companies that have come to trust in Accelewares capabilities.
This is a link to one of their solutions partners http://www.cst.com/Content/Company/Partner/Acceleware.aspx
If one explores this site, we begin to get a feeling for just what Acceleware does and the value it carries. Acceleware possesses the technology that brings about this speed-up in computing to any of the projects it is involved with, through a number of solutions partners, with CST being one of them.

Of course in today's world we view our beloved electronic devices as one of the most necessary items and in many ways they have become that critical. However, Acceleware is also involved with applying their technology to actual life and death situations. Take for example, some of the research being done around the world in an attempt to bring cancer under control, or better yet, to find a cure. For the millions affected by this disease, I am sure this does take on a whole new sense of urgency.

"Our new breast-imaging technology, which is being developed for breast cancer detection, incorporates algorithms such as inverse scattering solutions, which are tremendously computer-intensive. Acceleware’s solution provided us with an order of magnitude speed-up of those computations, allowing for image generation in hours instead of days."

Dr. Susan Hagness
Professor Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Wisconsin-Madison

NLCSTR

Nonlinear Control Strategies Inc. specializes in providing photonics software solutions and consulting support in critical areas of semiconductor laser and sub-wavelength nanophotonics/ plasmonics technologies. The former includes the first truly predictive, adjustable-parameter-free seamless path from semiconductor epi design, through wafer-level diagnostics, to the end-running semiconductor laser.
The latter provides a GUI-driven vector Maxwell FDTD software tool Sim3D_Max™ to analyze problems in optical data storage, semiconductor lithography and inspection, photonic crystals, metamaterials etc.

A Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) SimulatorThis simulation package, which implements the FDTD algorithm on a nonuniform mesh, is designed to run as a stand-alone program as well as in conjunction with DIFFRACT™. The interface with DIFFRACT™ makes it especially powerful for simulations that involve near-field interactions with subwavelength structures as well as propagation through complex optical systems. For example, in Optical Data Storage applications, Sim3D_Max enables the user to move beyond the limitations of DIFFRACT™ in resolving reflection from, or transmission through, nano-scale size objects such as grooves, pits, and bumps on an optical disk surface. Sim3D_Max™ can take as its input the vector field generated by DIFFRACT™ (fully propagated from the laser diode to the surface of the optical disk), and returns to DIFFRACT™ the back-reflected beam for further propagation in the return path, all the way to the photodetectors.
Sim3D_Max™ is a computationally intensive code that can run in parallel and take advantage of multiple processors in a multi-core, multi-cpu workstation or a network cluster of such workstations running Windows operating system. Sim3D_Max supports clusters of Windows™ NT,2000 and XP workstations as well as Microsoft™ Windows Compute Cluster Server based High Performance systems that use MS MPI™. In addition, Sim3D_Max™ is also available with the Acceleware™ hardware acceleration option that allows for a several fold improvement in the computation speed for desktop systems. The powerful interface to DIFFRACT™ notwithstanding, Sim3D_Max™ is a stand-alone simulation package, complete with its own integrated Graphical User Interface (GUI). All graphical and analysis functionality is carried out within this GUI environment. For examples of simulations by Sim3D_Max™, please see on-line publications "Interaction of Light with Subwavelength Structures," and "Transmission of Light Through Small Elliptical Apertures, Parts 1 and 2."

As much as many of us would love to see a reduction in the carbon footprint that we as mankind are collectively leaving, this is not something that can happen overnight. It therefore goes without saying that we are, at this point quite dependent on fossil fuels, but the discovery of new areas for oil and gas reservoirs is becoming more complicated. Many new reservoirs are being discovered in ever increasing geologically complex systems. The intense computational abilities needed to successfully interpret the seismic data in the fastest, and most accurate, require a technology that is at the heart of Acceleware. 

Paradigm is one of Acceleware's solution partners. They also happen to be one of the companies that many oil and gas exploration companies turn to, when they need solutions for reaching conclusions, of were to drill for instance, among many other possible reasons. http://www.pdgm.com/.
http://www.pdgm.com/asset-life-cycle/my-asset.aspx


 Paradigm is a company of exceptional people and a leader in rock and fluid interpretation and modeling science and innovation. An independent provider of solutions and services, Paradigm has over 600 employees and a global network of sales, consulting and user support offices in 26 countries.
Paradigm has a well-diversified, global upstream oil and gas exploration and production customer base that includes over 650 national oil companies (NOCs), super-major exploration and production oil companies, medium-to-large independent exploration and production oil companies, and seismic processing service companies.
Paradigm is an active supporter of industry consortia and educational sponsorship in geophysical research and development.
With the price of oil rising this technology will become more in demand as many of the energy exploration companies and producers will turn to Paradigm for the solutions they need to not only remain competitive, but also for the monetary savings in being able to interpret the data they have to work with.

Acceleware also has some very prestigious names that they work with in a business partner type relationship. Microsoft is a name that anyone can quickly and easily identify with. Microsoft works in conjunction with Acceleware to present classes aimed at training programmers in the CUDA language. Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential. Acceleware and Microsoft have joined forces to provide training opportunities for GPU programmers using CUDA and OpenCL that adds detailed instruction on Microsoft’s HPC Server 2008 cluster operating system.
 http://www.acceleware.com/press_release/microsoft-and-acceleware-announce-spring-cuda-training-schedule-gpu-programmers.

Nvidia is obviously quite optimistic about the future of Acceleware as they chose to not only become a business partner of Acceleware but they also invested $3M into the company.
they have worked together for some time now and have achieved many milestones together.  Working closely with NVIDIA, we've developed a suite of software tools, or solvers, designed to accelerate the computation of complex equations for the electromagnetic simulation and geophysical markets. Combining NVIDIA Tesla GPUs with our acceleration software provides unparalleled performance and reliability when accelerating software applications such as cell phone design, seismic data processing, printed circuit board design, drug discovery, nanophotonic communications device design, reservoir simulation and lithography mask design.
"Our customers, including every cell phone manufacturer in the world, see the value in using NVIDIA GPUs with Acceleware's GPU-accelerated solver, to speed up their time to market," said Dr. Nicolas Chavannes, Director Software for Schmid and Partner Engineering AG (SPEAG). "The level of computing performance now achievable with CUDA-enabled GPUs will positively impact our customers' bottom lines."

Advanced Micro Devices is an innovative technology company dedicated to collaborating with customers and technology partners to ignite the next generation of computing and graphics solutions at work, home and play. AMD and Acceleware have just released news on May 11, 2011 that the two companies will be collaborating together to offer professional training programs to help developers learn how to create applications that comply with OpenCL standards. http://www.acceleware.com/press_release/amd-and-acceleware-collaborate-offer-opencl-education

Now to go through all that has been presented here, it leaves in my opinion, the potential of Acceleware definitely being poised for a possible proverbial liftoff. If this were to be true, then at these levels, the investors who enter soon will stand to make a respectable ROI. As with all investments, there is always risk, so all interested parties should do their own due diligence. A perfect place to start would be Acceleware's website, which is located at www.acceleware.com.

For disclosure purposes I have received no compensation of any kind for this post. I own shares of Acceleware and am long on this stock.

Focus Metals has more than just graphite

Focus Metals (TSXV:FMS) is becoming well known for its huge high grade graphite deposit. Although the actual NI43-101 is not quite completed and released yet, there is little surprise expected when this document does get released. This is due to the immense amount of work that has been performed historically, not once but twice, as Lac Knife came so close to being brought into production. Both earlier attempts to bring the deposit into production were met with a slumping in prices along with a reduction in demand. This scenario has changed dramatically, and looking forward Focus Metals has achieved what could prove to be the ultimate of timing in their efforts to bring Lac Knife into production, at a time when not only has demand risen significantly with predictions of even more demand growth. Add to this the fact that China, who produces about 70% of the global supply, has put graphite on the list of minerals and metals that are restricted on export amounts. This has pushed prices of graphite up noticeably, with some European buyers reporting rises of up to 50% since the beginning of this year alone, and more price increases forecasted, yet to come. The market seems to be holding back somewhat, in regards to Focus Metals stock, and this could be due in part to the anticipated release of the NI 43-101. While it is common knowledge that the requirements are thus, that the NI 43-101 is necessary, it is not without due respect that we anticipate the historical data to be very accurate. Much of the historical data was accumulated not only by the companies who were seeking to put this deposit into production but is also a compilation of data by various government departments.

If we only had graphite to consider, when discussing Focus Metals, it would be a company worthy of a close look. There is much more to the story of Focus Metals as we look more closely at the entire collection of properties Focus Metals holds.

Focus Metals has another project which is known as Kwyjibo property.  The Kwyjibo Property, totalling 118 mining
titles and covering 6,278 hectares, is located a
few kilometres north of Manitou Lake, Quebec
North Shore Area. It is also located 25 kilometers
east of the Quebec North Shore and Labrador
railway line and is accessible by air from Sept-Îles.

The Kwyjibo Fe-Cu-REE-(Au) mineralization system was discovered in 1993
during a follow-up of regional geochemical lake sediment anomalies.

On surface, more than ten polymetallic showings, including Josette and Malachite,
were found over a strike length of 4 kilometers at that time.

Most of the showings found on the Property consist of massive magnetite
mineralized with copper and REE. The mineralized zones consist of a variety
of minerals including magnetite, chalcopyrite, pyrite, pyrrhotite, bornite,
molybdenite, apatite, and fluorite.

The dominant REE-bearing minerals are allanite and apatite. Less abundant
REE-bearing minerals, but of economic interest, include britholite and kainosite.
With cerium (Ce) and lanthanium (La), neodymium (Nd) is the most prominent
REE and represents a 1/3 of the total REE content.

Since 1993, airborne and ground geophysics (Mag,VTEM, IP and radiometry),
stream and soil sediments geochemical surveys, prospecting and mapping, and
39 shallow drill holes totalling 5,807 meters have been done on the mineralized
zones of the Property. The Kwyjibo Fe-Cu-REE-(Au) mineralized system is still
open in many directions and some geophysical anomalies (VTEM conductors)
were not drill tested.Within the Grenville Geological Province hosts a Mesoproterozoic REE-Cu-(Au)
deposit considered as the best iron oxide copper gold (“IOCG”) exploration
target in Quebec.
http://www.focusmetals.ca/news-focus-metals/mar11-drill-core-meter-intervals.html

I would suggest to anyone who has not yet done so, take the time to do some due diligence on Focus Metals, and I believe you will find these products will bring considerable value to the shareholders of Focus Metals. The fact that the company has these extremely attractive projects added to the fact that they have a management team that has displayed nothing short of dedication and concern to both the company and to the shareholders, brings me to the conclusion this company has enormous potential.

For those interested in taking a closer look at Focus Metals I suggest going to the company website at www.focusmetals.ca. Everyone should do their own due diligence before buying or selling stocks in any company.

For disclosure purposes I have received no compensation of any kind for this post. I do own shares in Focus Metals.

Acceleware Ltd has the potential to surpass many competitors

Acceleware Ltd (TSXV:AXE) is a company that has recently undergone a planned arrangement involving the restructuring of the company. This may make some people nervous, but upon closer examination, I think most people will come away with a much more positive attitude. This is a company that has not achieved the huge size of many companies they may compete against, but they have not only remained ever present in one of the most competitive industries, they have gone on to attract partners who are huge in this field. They have also gone on to attract some very big names in the course of their sales efforts, as we will see by the impressive list of customers that rely on Acceleware to help them reach their individual goals.

As we have seen with the personal computers that we use daily, there is always a newer technology available. This stands true for HPC computing just as much if not more so. Acceleware has managed to stay quite reliably near the forefront of it's competitors. This is noted in this article by HPC Projects, http://www.hpcprojects.com/products/product_details.php?product_id=396. This of course can extremely beneficial to the many unique fields or industries that utilize HPC computing. Whether this technology is used for faster results by a company who is attempting to interpret seismic information, in order to determine the most likely target to drill, or if it were to be used by a medical scientific research team to accelerate computation times, in an effort to find a treatment or cure for a known issue, this clearly is a vastly valuable technology to process.
http://www.youtube.com/user/AccelewareCorp

NVIDIA

Industry-Leading Partner
We're proud to be collaborating with NVIDIA® Corporation, the worldwide leader in programmable graphics processor technologies in bringing award-winning, innovative products for computing into the hands of professionals around the world. In January, 2007 NVIDIA, one of the largest graphics card manufacturers in the world - formed a strategic partnership with Acceleware with a $3M CDN investment in the company.
"The investment reflects our ongoing commitment and enthusiasm toward the ecosystem of high performance computing based on GPU technologies," says Jeff Herbst, Vice President of Business Development at NVIDIA. "We have the highest regard for Acceleware and its management team, and believe they will quickly emerge as leaders in the GPU Computing revolution."
Bundled Technology
Working closely with NVIDIA, we've developed a suite of software tools, or solvers, designed to accelerate the computation of complex equations for the electromagnetic simulation and geophysical markets. Combining NVIDIA Tesla GPUs with our acceleration software provides unparalleled performance and reliability when accelerating software applications such as cell phone design, seismic data processing, printed circuit board design, drug discovery, nanophotonic communications device design, reservoir simulation and lithography mask design.
"Our customers, including every cell phone manufacturer in the world, see the value in using NVIDIA GPUs with Acceleware's GPU-accelerated solver, to speed up their time to market," said Dr. Nicolas Chavannes, Director Software for Schmid and Partner Engineering AG (SPEAG). "The level of computing performance now achievable with CUDA-enabled GPUs will positively impact our customers' bottom lines."

Find out more: NVIDIA Website

This article by PCMag, brings us to the reality that Nvidia has released what has been called "the world's fastest parallel processor for high performance computing.
 http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2385577,00.asp

How much these companies can continue to support the growth, that inevitably has contributed to the success they have shared so far, remains to be seen. Judging from their history to date I can only suggest that in all likely-hood they will continue to complement each other quite well, as they have done for some time now.

This is only scratching at the surface, as to just what and how big, the potential of Acceleware truly is. I would suggest that if this company interests you, please go to their website which is located at www.acceleware.com. Everyone should be responsible for their own due diligence. http://www.acceleware.com/press_release/acceleware-announces-support-nvidias-fermi-architecture

For disclosure purposes I have received no compensation of any kind for this post. I do own shares of Acceleware.

Focus Metals stands to profit from what appears to be acceptance of nuclear power

Focus Metals (TSXV:FMS) stands to possibly reap a monetary windfall with what appears to be somewhat of an acceptance of nuclear power. This would be in addition to the already planned sales of graphite to the lithium battery industry, especially the large batteries to be used in electric vehicles. There are obviously many nations still holding back on progressing any further at this point, as many studies are being conducted as to the potential safety of nuclear power reactors. This following the crisis in Japan which left nuclear power sitting on very uncertain ground. Some people have asked, will this be the end of nuclear power. I strongly believe this will not be the case, and this opinion seems to be bolstered by China stating they are continuing construction on several projects, and of these two will be Generation IV nuclear reactors. Then, only days later India has made a similar announcement, they are also striving to stay close to their initial plans regarding the expansion of their nuclear power program.

Mainland China has 14 nuclear power reactors in operation, more than 25 under construction, and more about to start construction soon.

Additional reactors are planned, including some of the world's most advanced, to give more than a ten-fold increase in nuclear capacity to at least 80 GWe by 2020, 200 GWe by 2030, and 400 GWe by 2050.

The Generation IV nuclear reactor is designed to operate, by the bed being filled with uranium enriched graphite spheres, that are about the size of a tennis ball. Testing is still being done to try and bring the economic side of this equation into balance.  While engineers at Japan’s stricken nuclear power plant struggle to keep its uranium fuel rods from melting down, engineers in China are building a radically different type of reactor that some experts say offers a safer nuclear alternative.
The technology will be used in two reactors here on a peninsula jutting into the Yellow Sea, where the Chinese government is expected to let construction proceed — even as the world debates the wisdom of nuclear power.
Rather than using conventional fuel rod assemblies of the sort leaking radiation in Japan, each packed with nearly 400 pounds of uranium, the Chinese reactors will use hundreds of thousands of billiard ball-size fuel elements, each cloaked in its own protective layer of graphite.
The coating moderates the pace of nuclear reactions and is meant to ensure that if the plant had to be shut down in an emergency, the reaction would slowly stop on its own and not lead to a meltdown.
The reactors will also be cooled by nonexplosive helium gas instead of depending on a steady source of water — a critical problem with the damaged reactors at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant. And unlike those reactors, the Chinese reactors are designed to gradually dissipate heat on their own, even if coolant is lost.
If the new plants here prove viable, China plans to build dozens more of them in coming years.
The technology under construction here, known as a pebble-bed reactor, is not new. Germany, South Africa and the United States have all experimented with it, before abandoning it over technical problems or a lack of financing.
But as in many other areas of alternative energy, including solar panels and wind turbines, China is now taking the lead in actually building the next-generation technology. The government has paid for all of the research and development costs for the two pebble-bed reactors being built here, and will cover 30 percent of the construction costs.
Despite Japan’s crisis, China still plans to build as many as 50 nuclear reactors over the next five years — more than the rest of the world combined. I think this definitely paves the way for a full realization of just how extremely difficult, if not impossible, it would be for the world to simply abandon nuclear energy. The crisis in Japan, it seems, will cause great concern all around the world in nuclear power circles, but I think that as technology becomes more enhanced we will see many breakthroughs in these newest generation of nuclear reactors.
http://www.usnews.com/science/articles/2010/01/13/future-nuclear-reactors-could-rely-on-graphite

This technology is, as most technologies are, a work in progress. For a rough comparison, let us consider the automobile, which while it was first invented well over a century ago, still undergoes enormous amounts of testing. This is because of the ever increasing breakthroughs in technology.

There is also a huge increase in the amount of study and testing being performed on graphene. The discovery of graphene is not that new, but little testing was done as the technology to work with a product only one atom thick did not exist to the extent we see today. Graphene has started to be looked at by everybody from the medical field to the highest tech electronics companies. With all of these technological advances it comes as no surprise that graphene will undoubtedly find its way into many more areas of our lives than it already has. Industry at large will continue to push research and testing of graphene, since the viability of successfully incorporating into our daily lives seems unavoidable.
This article from Science Daily, shows just how far this research has progressed. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110512150731.htm

These are only a couple of the reasons I see a very bright potential for Focus Metals. In a future post I will attempt to address further reasons. For those who have found this post to have piqued your interest, I suggest going to the companies website at www.focusmetals.ca

For disclosure purposes I have received no compensation of any kind for this post. I do own shares of Focus Metals.

Yellowhead Mining sure is showing a lot of potential

Yellowhead Mining is a Canadian company with a 100% interest (*) in the Harper Creek copper-gold-silver development project in south-central British Columbia, approximately 150 kilometres by highway north of Kamloops. Harper Creek offers exceptional potential as one of the largest copper development projects in Canada.

HARPER CREEK PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS

• NI 43-101 Preliminary Economic Assessment completed March 2011
• Detailed Feasibility Study to commence April 2011
• Measured and Indicated resource of 532 million tonnes grading 0.31% copper, .032g/t gold and 1.08 g/t silver, plus an Inferred resource of 117.2 million tonnes grading 0.29% copper, .032 g/t gold and 1.32 g/t silver, containing 3.6 billion pounds and 0.7 billion pounds of copper respectively, at a 0.2% copper cut-off (**).
• Estimated total production: 2.857 billion pounds copper, 256,000 oz. gold and 4.876 million oz. silver in concentrate
• Mine life 22 years at a milling rate of 70,000 tonnes/day
• Stripping ratio 0.88:1 life-of-mine
• Projected capital cost of CDN$759 million in Q4-2010 dollars, including contingency
• Site operating costs are estimated at C$1.40/lb before precious metal credits. The breakeven copper price including capital repayment (IRR=0%) is determined to be US$1.94/lb using US$1,058 for gold and US$16.57 for silver
• Harper Creek is located adjacent to rail, highway, power, water and town-sites, resulting in capital and operating cost advantages.
• Test work indicates that the concentrate is clean with no smelter penalties expected
• Senior management has extensive international experience with large scale open pit copper projects
• Drilling data over 60,680 metres, including 29,701 metres by Noranda and US Steel in the 1960's and 1970's and a junior exploration company in 1996, 26,854 metres by Yellowhead in 2006 - 2008 and 5,173 metres in 10 holes in late 2010 through March 2011.
• Excellent potential to significantly expand the resource: numerous exploration targets outside the resource envelope have been identified through airborne and ground geophysics and soil geochemistry.

Yellowhead is well-financed, with a cash position of $4.5 million (March 2011) and an announced bought deal financing of $20 million expected to close by April 5, 2011.

(*) 775 ha subject to a 3% royalty capped at $2.5 million, adjusted for inflation and 618 ha subject to a 2.5% NSR royalty, which includes an estimated 3.3 million tonnes of resource expected to be mined starting in year 9 of the current mine production schedule.
(**) For further information regarding the Harper Creek Project and resources, reference should be made to the March 08, 2011 news release entitled "Yellowhead Mining Reports Positive Results of Preliminary Economic Assessment"

The following is a link for the news release announcing the closing of the bought deal private financing.
http://www.yellowheadmining.com/s/NewsReleases.asp?ReportID=450345&_Type=News-Releases&_Title=Yellowhead-Mining-Announces-Closing-of-Bought-Deal-Private-Placement-for-Gr...

At the close of trading on May 20, 2011 the price of YMI was $1.14. At this level it would seem this could be a good entry point. This is in my opinion a good company to add to your watchlist, and I see the potential for YMI, to increase their market cap, to be well within realistic expectations. This is a company, that for those who are interested in a copper play, I think is worthy of a serious amount of due diligence. I urge everyone to do their due diligence on YMI if you are thinking of investing in the company. A good place to start would be the companies web site at www.yellowheadmining.com 

For disclosure purposes I have not received any compensation of any kind for this post. I do not own any shares of Yellowhead Mining.
For disclosure purposes I have received no compensation of any kind for this post. I do not own any shares in YMI.

Is Hathor Exploration poised to become a mine or a take-out target

Hathor Exploration Ltd.(TSX:HAT) is a junior uranium company focused on exploration projects in the Athabasca Basin of Northern Saskatchewan, Canada. Hathor's goal is to discover, advance and develop high grade, world class uranium deposits.

Hathor's main exploration properties are located within the eastern corridor of the Athabasca Basin which hosts all of Canada's producing uranium mines and accounts for approximately 23% of global production. Current mining reserves in this area exceed 25 years.

Hathor is currently advancing its Roughrider uranium project (Midwest Northeast), the only major discovery ever made in the forty year history of the Basin by a junior company.

With all the debating in regards to just what the future of uranium is in the post Japan crisis, I think the world has come to the realization that it would be impractical, if not impossible to completely abandon nuclear energy. This is stated clearly in this article, http://www.hathor.ca/i/pdf/media/RW-9-5-Hathor.pdf.

Hathor has recently released news of the first mineral resource estimate for the companies East Zone of the Roughrider uranium deposit. As reported by the company, this estimate doubles the overall size of the Roughrider deposit as it is currently defined. The estimate identifies 30 million lbs grading 11.58% U308. Here is a link to the companies news release,  http://www.hathor.ca/i/pdf/2011-05-17_NR.pdf

Hathor Explorations has seen their share price rise from lows of $1.35 to 52 week highs of $3.57. This of course changed dramatically following the crisis in Japan, and Hathor, along with all uranium based companies. Hathor watched their share price fall to just slightly higher than $1.50 immediately following the earthquake and tsunami, but has since recovered to the closing price of $2.75 as of closing on May 20, 2011.

With the amount of resources Hathor now has with this latest estimate, it does lead one to entertain the possibilities of just what the future holds for Hathor. Personally, I think the potential here is significant. At the pace that Hathor has proceeded with their drilling program, I can only imagine where this company will be going forward, but I envision this will only become more of a compelling story looking forward.

For those of you who would like to take a closer look at Hathor Exploration, I would suggest going to the companies website at www.hathor.ca,. There is a wealth of information on their website and is in my opinion worthy of an in-depth look. There is also a listing of analysts who are covering Hathor Exploration, with one who has raised his targeted share price at over $5.00.

For disclosure purposes I have received no compensation of any kind for this post. I do not own any shares in Hathor Exploration.

AMD announces a new collaboration with Acceleware

Acceleware (TSXV:AXE) is a Canadian based technology company, headquartered in Calgary, AB. They recently completed a deal, which although was complex in design, saw Acceleware basically set to restructure the company. After being hit hard with the global recession that caused many companies to fall by the wayside, this was a strategic move by management. One factor of this arrangement was that Acceleware would gain $900,000 in non-dilutive financing. This money will go for several uses, which include accelerating its product development efforts, to increase its marketing and sales presence in its target markets, and for general working capital purposes.

Microsoft has worked in conjunction with Acceleware in the past, presenting classes to provide comprehensive learning opportunities for GPU programmers using NVIDIA's CUDA language while adding detailed instruction on Microsoft's Windows HPC Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2010. Attendees experience a combination of classroom lectures and hands-on assignments that focus on how to optimise their algorithms to achieve the maximum performance potential from the unique capabilities of the GPU. The courses are held in Microsoft training facilities with a dedicated CUDA enabled laptop for each student to ensure a top quality training environment.

With the ever increasing interest in this technology it should not be surprising to see the latest news from Acceleware. This is a link that will take you to the news release of May 11, 2011 http://www.acceleware.com/press_release/amd-and-acceleware-collaborate-offer-opencl-education.

I think it is fair to view this as a big step for Acceleware as they continue to expand their business in all directions, and these training sessions have proven to be quite successful. I continue to see this company constantly pushing forward, as their web site states,

Leverage the Multi-Core Advantage

Acceleware provides High Performance Computing software solutions to the Oil & Gas and Computer Engineering markets for multi-core CPUs and compute GPUs. Additionally, our HPC consulting services are utilized by enterprises needing to harness the power of parallel computing. At Acceleware the goal is always the same – Go Faster!

For disclosure purposes I have received no compensation of any kind for this post. I currently own shares in Acceleware and have intentions of buying more.

Focus Metals closes $20M financing and some info on graphene-powered optical networks

Focus Metals (TSXV:FMS) has just released news that effective May 12,2011, they have closed their $20M bought deal private placement, http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/focus-metals-closes-20-million-bought-deal-private-placement-tsx-venture-fms-1513840.htm. As I discussed in my post titled "Focus Metals should be ready to close their $20M financing" this will definitely help FMS put this project on a fast track towards production. With the upcoming scoping study and the NI 43-101 due within weeks, and the fact that this 43-101 is more of a formality, since they know from all the work that has been performed in the past that this project nearly went to production twice in the past, this company is destined to really start gaining traction going forward. http://www.northernminer.com/issuesV2/VerifyLogin.aspx

http://www.onemine.org/search/summary.cfm/Lac-Knife-Flake-Graphite-Orebody-A-Long-Term-Stable-Source-Of-Supply?d=6F59F778B16DC9F44DB1900EBF5CBA79FB17ADA0B016AF1B26E01E9F13A8E88A174723&fullText=graphite%20deposit

http://www.bgs.ac.uk/research/international/dfid-kar/WG92030_col.pdf

As I have pointed out several times in previous posts, graphene could quite likely become a product of much value. Researchers and scientists are making huge steps towards finding ways that graphene can be possibly integrated into many of the items we use on a daily basis. The following link is an article that points this out quite clearly. http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2385134,00.asp.

Of course there is much work to be done to bring this to a reality, but by all accounts I believe this will be something that becomes a reality in the very near future. If this is the case the end result for Focus Metals would be staggering in financial terms, since the quality of graphite needed to produce graphene goes for between $10,000 and $35,000 per tonne. Focus Metals Lac Knife project has a huge amount of graphite that could be purified to this grade.

This is in my opinion one of the most exciting stories I have followed and been a part of. I would urge anyone who is interested in this company to do your own due diligence, and a good place to start would be the companies website at www.focusmetals.

I do apologize that this post never got published at the appropriate time as planned due in part to a service interruption with the Blogger site. It was originally meant to be published on May 12, 2011. This fact does not change anything in regards to the information contained herein, so I hope everyone will still find this information useful.
For disclosure purposes I have received no compensation of any kind for this post. I do own shares in Focus Metals.

Acceleware possesses technology that truly makes a difference in peoples lives

 Boston Scientific designs and manufactures pace makers and other biomedical implants that are safe for use with MRIs and other diagnostic imaging tools. The process of designing this type of equipment is extremely complex and involves compute-intensive lengthy periods of time. In an effort to try and expedite some of this intensive computing time, Boston Scientific turned to Acceleware for help. As a result of Acceleware implementing their technology, Boston Scientific realized an acceleration of their simulations by 25X. More on this can be read at, http://www.nvidia.com/object/acceleware_boston_scientific.html.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are currently investigating new ways to use short pulses of electromagnetic waves to detect and treat early stage breast cancer. The researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison realized a need for a much more accelerated system for performing computations that involved extremely sophisticated computations. They turned to Acceleware for help in overcoming the obstacles that were impeding their research. As we are aware of the fact that the survival rate of this disease is directly affected by the earliest detection possible, it becomes clear how important this type of research is, and the need for speedier computations. read more on this at, http://www.nvidia.com/object/acceleware_university_wisconsin_madison.html.

Seismic data acceleration software

Acceleware

Acceleware has launched its seismic data acceleration software that reduces processing times and delivers faster results when the oil and gas industry are making drilling decisions.

The software harnesses the parallel processing capabilities of GPU accelerators to increase the efficiency of data centres and reduce total cost of IT ownership. This technique is designed for 2D and 3D land and marine data where a typical processing job can compute from several days to months and solves a major bottleneck in the seismic processing industry today.

Migration is the most common seismic data processing method used to recover subsurface images of the Earth’s interior using surface-recorded data volumes obtained from seismic reflection surveys.

By accelerating the computations involved in seismic migration, the software can achieve denser packaging and improved economics in power and cooling.

The software has already been installed and field tested with a number of commercial data processing vendors on a variety of land and marine surveys.

http://www.acceleware.com/oil-gas

These are just a sampling of what Acceleware is doing to progress their company as they strive to grow from the benefits of their recent restructuring. Given the value of their proprietary technology along with the present management team it is not hard to see the potential going forward from here. For those interested in knowing more on Acceleware (TSXV:AXE) (OTCBB:ACWRF) I would urge you to go to the company website at www.acceleware.com. Everyone should do their own due diligence.
For disclosure purposes I have not received any compensation of any kind for this post. I do own shares in Acceleware.

Acceleware - keeping company with strategic partnerships and more

Acceleware (TSXV:AXE) is a Canadian based company headquartered in Calgary, AB, Canada. This company has just released news of a collaboration with AMD. This will no doubt offer the possibility of a substantial revenue stream. Here is a brief part of this news release - “The developer community is hungry for more education around open standards for software development, and we’re thrilled to work with AMD on this education series,” said Robert Miller, vice president of marketing and product management for Acceleware. “We’re tapping top-notch developers to lead our training courses and know that participants will find the sessions to be highly valuable as they continue to build innovative new applications.” The following link will take you to the full release.
http://www.acceleware.com/press_release/amd-and-acceleware-collaborate-offer-opencl-education

In an attempt to help those of you who may not understand exactly what GPU computing is and how it differs from CPU computing I have found this link that should help many to reach a better understanding of this topic.http://www.hpcadvisorycouncil.com/media/training/NVIDIA/index.htm

If this technology seems new and unfamiliar, it is likely due to the fact that in relative terms it is quite new. GPU computing does however seem poised to sweep through the technology sector as is indicated by this article. http://blogs.forbes.com/tomgroenfeldt/2011/05/06/supercomputing-and-high-performance-see-growing-gpu-adoption/.

Acceleware at present, following their recent restructuring arrangement, would seem poised to make significant strides in the growth of their company. They have assembled a list of partners and customers that contains the names of some of the biggest companies. Some of Acceleware's partners include Nvidia, Microsoft, AMD, Colfax International, Dell, HP, and Penguin Computing amongst
others. These companies are all considered Business Partners of Acceleware while their list of Solution Partners contains some very impressive names also. This would include the likes of Paradigm, Agilent Technologies, Crosslight Software, QWED, and Tsunami just to name some.

For anyone who finds investing in technology stocks an attractive sector, I would strongly suggest that you do your own due diligence on Acceleware. The company website at www.acceleware.com is a good place to start, as is www.sedar.com where one can find all public filings on the company.

For disclosure purposes I have not received compensation of any kind for this post. I do own shares in Acceleware.

Could this type of research lead Focus Metals to the forefront of the graphite business

Graphite is not only becoming a very familiar name in respect to its valuable use in the production of lithium-ion batteries, for any number of uses, which vary from laptop batteries to electric vehicle batteries. To produce a lithium-ion battery for an electric vehicle there is approximately 20 times the amount of graphite used in comparison to lithium. This all seems to bring tremendous potential to Focus Metals (TSXV:FMS), considering that analysts are predicting a significant shortfall in production compared to global demand. Much of this is due to the fact that China currently produces 70%, by some estimations, and as high as 80% by others. It is therefore realistic to expect a shortfall going forward, since China has added graphite to the list of items that face export restrictions and raised export taxes for what product is allowed to be sold. This has helped to drive graphite prices much higher over the last year or so.

As popular as graphite is becoming there is another product which comes from purified graphite. This product is known as graphene, which although discovered many years ago, it has never been found to contain any known viable uses. This is changing rapidly with the huge increase in nano research. As this research progresses, I think it is relatively safe to expect huge strides to be made in regards to finding commercial uses for graphene. If this proves to be the case, that would present a potential to Focus Metals that would be of the largest type. Graphene as opposed to graphite sells for a much higher premium.

Record levels expected; amorphous graphite’s supply from China still a concern

Graphite prices have continued to rise, with some grades of medium and large flakes reaching or crossing the

threshold of $2,000/tonne, market sources reported to

IM.

“We have seen price increases for material from China. The increase is mainly due to seasonal effect as most of

the mines are still closed and the demand is still high,” a Europe-based trader explained.

“There is now a more strict control from the custom authority and the minimum export prices for calculating the

export tax have been adjusted,” he added.

Crystalline graphite, large flake, 94-97% C, +80 mesh, FCL, CIF European port, increased to $2,000-2,500/tonne

from a previous range of $1,800-2500/tonne.

Graphite, crystalline, medium flake, FCL, CIF European port, jumped to$1,500-1,900/tonne from $1,000-

1,400/tonne to for 85-87% C (+100-80mesh) and to1,800-2,300/tonne from $1,600-2,000/tonne for 94-97% C

(+100-80 mesh).

Meanwhile, fine crystalline graphite, CIF European, increased to $1,400-1,800/tonne from $950-1,400/tonne for

90%C, -100 mesh, and to 1,750-2,150/tonne from $1,500-1,850/tonne for 94-97%C, -100 mesh.

“Prices for natural flake graphite from China have increased significantly during H2 2010,” another European

trader confirmed to

IM, pointing out the discrepancy of graphite requirement and graphite production during that

period as the driving force to explain this rise.

“Economy recovered worldwide, the lithium-ion battery industry requested more and more quantity of graphite

and production was not increasing at the same pace,” he said.

Towards $3,000/tonne?

What will happen during the next few months is not easy to predict and will mainly depend on the

supply/demand situation in China.

“Prices were stagnant in 2010. Now it seems over the last 12-15 months, prices are going up – probably the

tendency is to continue this trend,” a Europe-based trader commented.

“There are rumours that the price rises will cease over the next few months as Chinese producers return in May,

but I don’t think this is the case – Chinese companies are basically already back in the market,” he added.

Some producers have called for even greater price increases, with one trader commenting that large flake

graphite, European port, could climb to $3,000/tonne.

Amorphous graphite

Prices for amorphous graphite also increased significantly, with amorphous powder (80-85% C, Chinese, FCL,

CIF European port) increasing from $430-450/tonne to $600-800/tonne.All graphite mines from the main mining

area in Hunan province in China have been closed for about nine months now, constraining supply.

Focus Metals is currently in the process of having their scoping study and NI43-101 completed, which should be within the following weeks, and is expected to show a resource of 8.2MT. What makes this, the Lac Knife project, so valuable in my opinion is the fact that this deposit is open in almost every direction, and contains graphite that contains 17% carbon content, while most contain between 2% and 5% carbon content. Add to this the fact that the majority of this can be purified to the point that graphene can be produced from it.

How close is graphene to making a breakthrough in the global technology sector as well as the medical field? Here is an excerpt from an article followed by the link to the full article.
 "The work could also help us better understand the basic physics of what happens at the edges of graphene samples", he added. Edges are as important and as useful as any other part of graphene, especially as the size of nanostructuregraphene edge behaviour, however, has lagged behind other graphene research because of the difficulties of preparing and probing smooth graphene edges," said Crommie. "Our new results advance our ability to control and characterise graphene edge nanostructureshttp://nanotechweb.org/cws/article/tech/45979

'Activated' graphite oxide boosts supercapacitors
Researchers in the US have discovered a new form of carbon produced by "activating" expanded graphite oxide. The material is full of tiny nanometre-sized pores and contains highly curved atom-thick walls throughout its 3D structure. The team has also found that the material performs exceptionally well as an electrode material for supercapacitors, allowing such energy-storage devices to be used in a wider range of applications.
Capacitors are devices that store electric charge on two conducting surfaces separated by an insulating gap – the larger the surface area of the capacitor, the greater its capacity to hold charge. Charging a capacitor requires electrical energy, which is recovered when the device is discharged. Supercapacitors, also known as electric double-layer capacitors or electrochemical capacitors, store more charge thanks to the double layer formed at an electrolyte–electrode interface when a voltage is applied. Although already used in applications such as mobile phones, these devices are currently limited by their relatively low energy storage density compared with batteries.
Now, Rodney Ruoff and colleagues at the University of Texas at Austin and scientists at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, the University of Texas at Dallas and QuantaChrome Instruments have synthesized a new form of porous carbon with a very high surface area. The carbon consists of a continuous 3D porous network with single-atom-thick walls, with a significant fraction being "negative curvature carbon" similar to inside-out buckyballs. The researchers used the material to make a two-electrode supercapacitor with high gravimetric densities of capacitance, energy capacity and power per unit mass. What is more, the team claims that the process used to make this form of carbon can be scaled up to produce industrial quantities of the material.

Expanded with microwaves

Ruoff and co-workers begin by converting samples of graphite into graphite oxide, which they expand using microwaves to generate what they have dubbed "microwave-expanded graphite oxide" (MEGO). The MEGO is then treated with potassium hydroxide so that its surface is covered (or decorated) with the chemical. After heating at 800 °C for about an hour in an inert gas, "activated MEGO" or aMEGO is obtained.
"What is quite surprising is that the [potassium hydroxide] remarkably restructures the carbon so that a 3D porous structure is generated with essentially no edge atoms," Ruoff told physicsworld.com. "Every wall in the structure is one atom thick and all the carbon atoms there are sp²-bonded."
The researchers used aMEGO as the carbon for electrodes in a supercapacitor – mixing it with different electrolytes. They obtained "exceptional" gravimetric energy densities that are about four times higher than that of state-of-the-art conventional supercapacitors, for example those based on porous activated carbon, on the market today.

Best BET

The porous carbon produced also has a "BET" (Brunauer–Emmett&nadash;Teller) surface area of up to 3100 m²/g. For comparison, typical activated-carbon materials have BET surface areas in the range of 1000 to 2000 m²
And that is not all: the material is also very stable and continues to work at 97% capacitance even after 10,000 constant current charge/discharge cycles.

For those interested everyone should do their own due diligence or consult a professional adviser. A good place to start your due diligence is at the company website at www.focusmetals.ca and at www.sedar.com .

For disclosure purposes I have received no compensation of any kind for this post. I own shares in Focus Metals.

Weekend wrap up following a few days where Blogger had some issues

Jiminex Inc. (TSXV:JIM) has released news of significant preliminary results on May 4, 2011, concerning their Misehkow River property where they are currently drilling. According to the report, there is visible mineralization in the cores, which were sent to the lab in Thunder Bay, Ontario with a rush requested on the results from these core samples. This is probably some of the best news the company has had in some time, and of course we must remember this visible mineralization does not tell us the actual grade. I will say it can be generally quite good when the mineralization is visible to the naked eye. The Misehkow River property is situated in the Pickle Lake district, which is well known from other major discoveries in the area. This property in addition to their Northern Eagle property, located in the Hemlo area, plus the 2 properties in the Snow Lake region of Northern Manitoba all lead us to see potential for a huge upside if they can only produce the goods. In my opinion Jiminex has as good of a chance as most any of the other companies in these respective areas. I will say that this is at this point, very much a speculative investment, and as such each person needs to due their own due diligence and  to consult a licensed advisor if they feel that appropriate. Probably one of the higher risks I might mention with this company is the fact that they do have certain bodies that have helped to finance the company during the time of the recent global recession. This has left these bodies as reporting insiders, which they are strictly from the point that they control greater than 10% of the share float. This can lead to problems for those who may be inclined to trade the stock as opposed to investing in it. As was pointed out by one reader, that this can have a seemingly negative effect on the share price, it is fair to also say that although it can seem this way at times, this investment body also has a plan for exiting their position from the company, as they tend to do financings but do not usually invest in companies as you or I would. One other thing of importance to note is that as I have mentioned , that this investment firm although considered an insider has no actual inside knowledge of the company, so therefore is only acting upon their plan or strategy to exit the company. For those who have a risk tolerance suitable for this type of company, I suggest that you go to the company website and do your due diligence. The company website is at www.jiminex.com . Also any required filings may be found at www.sedar.com .

The week was generally not an up week for the markets, as we saw most of the markets down nearly everyday. Many are calling it the beginning of the summer doldrums, but I personally think that any of the junior sector companies could still see significant movement, considering that it would appear there is destined to be shortfalls in supplies of several metals, minerals, and of course the constant race by technology companies to be at the forefront of their space. In the tech sector this has turned into quite a struggle between some of the companies as they try to surpass their competitors in the field of faster computing. I will touch on this topic more on Mondays post. I hope everyone has a great weekend and look forward to bringing more info your way next week.

For disclosure purposes I have received no compensation of any kind for this post. I own shares in Jiminex.

Focus Metals should be ready to announce the closing of their $20M financing

Focus Metals (TSXV:FMS) should be ready to release news pertaining to the closing of their latest financing. The details of this financing are contained in the news release dated April 15, 2011, http://www.focusmetals.ca/news-focus-metals/apr15-15-million-bought-deal-private-placement.html.

From conversations with management, it appears that quite likely we can expect that the $15M was fully subscribed , with the optional $5M also being taken. If in fact this is true that will leave Focus with $20M in the till. With the recent news of Focus retaining Roscoe Postle Associates, the fact that the scoping study and NI 43-101 should be nearing completion in the coming weeks, and that management would like to do more drilling, would lead us to believe that Focus is remaining quite dedicated to bringing this project to production as quickly as possible.

Mr. Gary Economo, CEO of Focus Metals, was in Europe last month and attended meetings involving financing talks along with preliminary meetings involving take-off agreements. No further word has been released on the take-off agreements, but I would expect this will be forthcoming in the near future.

Once news is released of the financing being closed successfully I would expect some interest will be shown by the larger investors. Overall I think that the management of FMS has proven their dedication and desire to unlock as much value in this company as possible, and I foresee them continuing on this dedicated mission to bring Focus Metals up to the point of becoming a world class gaphite miner and supplier.

For disclosure purposes I have received no compensation of any kind for this post. I currently own shares in FMS and have recently added to my holdings.

Is Jiminex Inc. ready to start a rally?

Jiminex Inc. (TSXV:JIM) released a news release concerning their Misehkow River property in the Pickle Lake district on May 4, 2011. Pickle Lake is a well known name for anyone following gold. There has been muli-millions of ounces mined from this area and now with this hit of visual gold in the core samples retrieved from Hole #3, it would appear that the potential is high for yet another discovery.

The core samples were prepared and sent to the lab, with a request for a rush on the results, which everyone is trying to patiently wait for.

The host rock seems to closely resemble some that gold was discovered in at some nearby properties. This of course leads to the speculation that this could possibly be a significant discovery.

This is not the only highly prospective property that JIM holds. They also have the Northern Eagle property which is a mere 15 km's west of Barrick Gold's huge Hemlo deposit. Barrick has stated that on their property, they have been drilling to try and expand their own resources even further and have had success doing so. The area they have been drilling is towards JIM's property leading us to the conclusion that Northern Eagle could quite possibly be on trend with Barrick Gold's deposit. Jiminex has been actively drilling on the Northern Eagle property to try and determine if this is in fact true.
The Northern Eagle Gold Property is located in the world-class Hemlo gold mining area of Northwestern Ontario, Canada. Jiminex Inc. management believes that this property represents a high potential deep exploration gold target and is the best regional target area in which to discover a new Hemlo-type gold deposit. The Property is located but a few kilometres west of the Hemlo mega-ounce gold deposit which has current resources and production totalling roughly 21.3 million ounces of gold. It is important to note that approximately 90% of the Hemlo gold deposit is positioned greater than 500 metres (1,640 feet) below surface. In spite of this fact, much less than 5 percent of the historical exploration diamond drilling on the Northern Eagle Gold Property has tested below this depth, even though the geology as relating to rock types, structures, alteration and trace elements very closely resembles that occurring at the Hemlo deposit.

The World-Class Hemlo gold deposit is the exploration target and deposit model for the Northern Eagle Gold Property exploration and is located about 15 km to the east. The Hemlo gold deposit was discovered in 1981 after years of largely unsuccessful exploration attributed to the lack of a surface exposure and any distinct geophysical response. Tom Muir of the Ontario Geological Survey has proposed that the Hemlo gold deposit is “ an atypical, mesozonal-orogenic, disseminated-replacement-stockwork deposit, broadly synchronous with D2 [second stage deformation] and “middle” stage granitoid plutonism, prior to or synchronous with peak regional metamorphism, and involving magmatic ± metamorphic fluids”.
Total production from the three mines on this deposit (David Bell, Golden Giant and Williams Mines) to December 31, 2008 is 626 669 kg (20,147,393 ounces) of gold and reserves/resources are stated to be 35 119 kg (1,129,048 ounces) for an overall total of 661 788 kg (21,276,441 ounces) of gold. Grades and tonnages vary with open pit versus underground operations and within the different locations of underground operations.

The Hemlo gold deposit varies from 5 to 50 metres in thickness extending for approximately 3 000 metres in length to about 2 000 metres deep and dipping at 60 to 70o to the northeast. The ore zone gets thicker moving from the east to the west with a general decrease in average grade. The deposit plunges moderately to the west and is rarely exposed on surface. About 90% of the ore is below 500 vertical metres deep.

The predominant gold emplacement controls appear to be the restraining bend in the Hemlo greenstone belt, a competency contrast at a major rock contact and a permeable fragmental unit. Barite is associated with the deposit and is believed to be a product of the mineralizing hydrothermal system.

The deposit has a West Segment which exhibits many, lower-grade, irregularly mineralized zones with fracture-controlled or disseminated gold mineralization and a Main Segment consisting of two main tabular zones with mainly disseminated mineralization. The Main Segment contains most of the ore. The Hemlo deposit is enveloped by an inner potassic-feldspar alteration zone grading out into a sericitic alteration zone, both combined having dimensions of about 4 kilometres long and up to 400 metres wide.

The main and lower ore zones of the Hemlo deposit are associated with a tight to isoclinal fold in the Moose Lake porphyry and occur at the geological contacts between the porphyry and metasedimentary rocks. Barite is associated with both ore zones and forms part of the barite ore. Both the main and lower ore zones of the Hemlo deposit have feldspathic ore, sericitic ore and several minor types. The ore is variably enriched in molybdenum (as molybdenite), gold (in the native state), arsenic (as realgar), mercury (as cinnabar), antimony (both native and as stibnite), barium (as barite and barium-rich microcline), vanadium (as green vanadium-rich mica) and minor biotite. The ore normally contains 3 to 35 percent pyrite and molybdenite. The molybdenite imparts a bluish color to the ore and is a good indicator of the presence of gold. The feldspathic ore is typically of higher grade.

If that does not seem to be quite enough for interesting properties, then let's look at the 2 properties Jiminex holds in the Snow Lake district in Northern Manitoba.

The 55 square kilometre Parres Properties cover, in part, about 4 kilometres of favorable copper-zinc-gold-silver massive sulphide and gold mine rock stratigraphy located between the past-producing Stall and Rod Mines to the west and the Osborne Mine to the east.

The newly discovered Lalor Lake copper-zinc-gold-silver volcanic massive sulphide deposit is located about 20 kilometres to the southwest hosted in rocks similar to those occurring on the Parres Properties The past-producing Britannia Gold Mine (formerly the Nor-Acme Gold Mine) is located about 15 km southwest in a similar geological environment to that occurring on the Parres Properties.

In early October 2009 HudBay reported indicated and inferred resources for the Lalor deposit which have a combined total of approximately 17.3 million tonnes grading roughly 9% zinc and 0.6% copper. HudBay have also reported associated gold zones and a higher grade copper-gold zone (13.35 g/t gold, 5.33% copper and 0.35% zinc over 34.5 metres at a depth of about 1275 metres) making Lalor Lake possibly also a gold discovery as well. Additionally, HudBay plans to immediately begin a $85 million production ramp from their Chisel Lake North mine to the Lalor deposit. Nine past-producing HudBay mines in the immediate Snow Lake region have had past production and resources totalling roughly 25 million tonnes with grades ranging from 0.1 to 10.9% zinc and 0.2 to 6.4% copper. HudBay reports five diamond drills working on Lalor suggesting that this deposit may eventually exceed the production and reserve tonnage total of all the local base metal mines discovered and operated since the early 1950’s. In December 2009 and February 2010, HudBay Minerals reported favourable results on their continuing exploration of the new deep copper-gold zone discovered in September 2009.

The Lalor Lake deposit is a significant deep discovery with the mineralization being located deeper than 800 metres below the surface. The Parres Property was extensively explored from 1960’s to 1980’s by ground geophysical surveys, geological mapping and by diamond drilling. Most of this geophysical surveying didn’t test below about 200 metres of depth and all of the historical drilling didn’t test below 100 metres of depth from the surface. Therefore, the Parres Property is essentially untested below 100 metres of depth, and is highly prospective below this depth, for Lalor and other similar massive sulfide copper-zinc deposits (Chisel, Anderson, Stall-Rod, Osborne Mines etc.) and for Lalor Lake deposit and Britannia Mine-types of gold mineralization.

In February 2010, the Parres and Parres Two properties were flown with a mega versatile time domain electromagnetic (Mega VTEM35) and high sensitivity cesium magnetic, state-of-the-art airborne geophysical system which can detect conductive geological zones such as copper-zinc sulfide mineralized rock to depths of 500 to 600 metres, or even deeper depending on the geological characteristics of the survey region. The airborne survey data has been interpreted by the company’s geophysical consultants, Condor Consulting Inc., Lakeview, Colorado, and 12 diamond drill holes totalling 2,200 metres are recommended. Diamond drilling began October 17, 2010. The following is a link to a map showing the Parres and Parres two properties,http://www.jiminex.com/docs/parres%20rg%20feb23-10.pdf.

For a company with their market cap and with the share structure they have, it is easy to visualize the potential this small company holds. For those interested in Jiminex, I urge as always to do your own due diligence. An excellent place to start would be Jiminex's website at www.jiminex.com.

For disclosure purposes I have received no compensation of any kind for this post. I currently own shares in JIM. 

Acceleware and Microsoft Announce Spring CUDA Training Schedule for GPU programmers

Four new course dates announced with CUDA 4.0 added to the curriculum
Calgary, Canada, April 12, 2011 – Acceleware® Corp. (TSX-V: AXE) a leading developer of high performance computing applications, today announced the spring 2011 schedule for advanced CUDA training, sponsored by Microsoft Corp. Course dates have been announced for the following locations:

• Calgary, Canada
• Mountain View, California
• Houston, Texas
• Boston, Massachusetts

Acceleware’s training classes presented in cooperation with Microsoft are designed to provide comprehensive learning opportunities for GPU programmers using NVIDIA’s CUDA language while adding detailed instruction on Microsoft’s Windows HPC Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2010. Attendees experience a combination of classroom lectures and hands-on assignments that focus on how to optimise their algorithms to achieve the maximum performance potential from the unique capabilities of the GPU. The courses are held in Microsoft training facilities with a dedicated CUDA enabled laptop for each student to ensure a top quality training environment.
“We are pleased to continue our sponsorship of Acceleware’s advanced CUDA training for GPU developers,” said Stevan Vidich, Director Technical Computing Marketing, Microsoft Corp. “GPUs are being widely adopted for high performance computing needs and Acceleware is uniquely positioned to share their advanced knowledge and experience to satisfy this market growth”
“We have seen the demand from programmers for advanced CUDA training grow strongly as GPUs become more common in the HPC strategy for many organisations,” said Robert Miller, VP of Marketing and Product Management for Acceleware. “Microsoft’s continued sponsorship of this program to deliver industry leading techniques provides a real benefit to programmers who need to acquire these skills.”
The training classes will take place at the following locations:
May 2-5 in Calgary, Canada – www.acceleware.com/calgary-may2
May 10-13 in Mountain View, California – www.acceleware.com/mountainview-may10
May 24-27 in Houston, Texas – www.acceleware.com/houston-may24
June 20-23 in Boston, Massachusetts – www.acceleware.com/boston-jun20
For more information on Acceleware’s CUDA/OpenCL training classes including pricing and customized options, please visit: www.acceleware.com/cudaopencl-training
About Acceleware
Acceleware develops and markets solutions that enable software vendors to leverage heterogeneous, multi-core processing hardware without rewriting their applications for parallel computing. This acceleration middleware allows customers to speed-up simulation and data processing algorithms, benefiting from high performance computing technologies available in the market such as multiple-core CPUs, GPUs or other acceleration hardware.
Acceleware solutions are deployed by companies worldwide such as Philips, Boston Scientific, Samsung, Eli Lilly, General Mills, Nokia, LG, RIM, Medtronic, Hitachi, Fujifilm, FDA, Mitsubishi, Sony Ericsson, AGC, NTT DOCOMO, and Renault to speed up product design, analyze data and make better business decisions in areas such as electronic manufacturing, oil & gas, medical and security imaging, industrial and consumer products, financial, and academic research. For more information about Acceleware, please visit www.acceleware.com.
Acceleware is a public company on Canada’s TSX Venture Exchange under the trading symbol AXE.

These training sessions seem to be met with much anticipation and most if not all classes seem to be fully subscribed. The training sessions contribute a significant cash flow to Acceleware and could conceivably grow to a more robust offering of courses in the future. This added to some of the work they are performing, in such sectors as the oil and gas sector and the pharmaceutical or healthcare sectors just to name a few, could potentially become very growth oriented looking forward.

For disclosure purposes I have not received any compensation of any kind for this post. I own shares in AXE and may buy more in the future.

Possible breakthrough in the use of graphene for superfast transistors

Focus Metals (TSXV:FMS) would be a wealthy recipient if this new breakthrough proves to be the answer to one of the biggest problems facing the use of graphene in the production of superfast graphene transistors. Below is an excerpt from an article on New Scientist Tech and is followed by a link to the article in it's entirety.
But Moktadir reckons he has discovered a third way to get graphene switching more efficiently. By making a normally flat transistor similar to a U-shape, but with corners instead of a curve at the bottom, he has found that he can switch it off entirely, increasing the current on/off ratio thousandfold. "We are still trying to explain why it's happening, but we attribute it to the corners," he says.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20089-ubend-breakthrough-for-superfast-graphene-transistors.html


The implications here are enormous at the very least. With the ability of FMS to produce 50,000 tonnes per year of graphite, as is currently being looked at as a likely production figure from the companies Lac Knife project, this could translate into a company with a value that is beyond everyones expectations. Obviously there is much needed research into this field but as this article points out, steps are being made, and these steps are more to likened to leaps and bounds.

For disclosure purposes I have received no compensation of any kind for this post. I currently own shares in FMS and may buy more in the near future.

"Graphene will change the way we live"

I found this to be of particular interest, considering the percentage of graphite that Focus Metals (TSXV:FMS) possesses in their Lac Knife property, that grades high enough for the production of graphene. Looking forward, as this relatively new technology continues to be explored, it would appear that the potential for FMS is quite huge. At this point it would seem that graphene is being looked at from so many different sectors and for so many uses it is quite exciting to see where this will lead to ultimately.

Graphene Will Change the Way We Live   

Michio Kaku on October 6, 2010, 5:06 PM

The theory behind the substance graphene was first explored by theoretical physicist Philip Wallace in 1947 as kind of a starting point when he was doing research trying to understand the electronic properties of more complex, 3D graphite. although the name graphene wasn't actually coined until 40 years later, where it was used to describe single sheets of graphite. In other words, it's the name given to a flat monolayer of carbon atoms that are tightly packed into a 2D honeycomb lattice; like a molecular chicken-wire that is one atom thick. It's essentially the basic building block for graphitic materials of all other dimensionalities; it's a stepping stone to building bigger things. Graphene in itself however wasn't discovered until 2004 in its full observable and testable form.

Since then, in the past 6 years, scientists have discovered that the substance retains some amazing properties. Some say that it will be heralded as one of the materials that will literally change our lives in the 21st century. Not only is graphene the thinnest possible material that is feasible, but it's also about 200 times stronger than steel and conducts electricity better than any material known to man—at room temperature. Researchers at Columbia University's Fu Foundation School of Engineering who proved that graphene is the strongest material ever measured said that "It would take an elephant, balanced on a pencil, to break through a sheet of graphene the thickness of Saran Wrap."
If you follow my work, you have surely heard me speak about Moore's Law and the race to find a suitable replacement for silicon semi-conductors. Graphene may in fact be the answer to these problems. The fastest growing problem facing chip engineers around the world is that everyone wants to increase power, make chips smaller and achieve both of these without significantly rising the temperature. The development of graphene transistors would in theory be able to run at much faster speeds and be able to ultimately battle the heat at a microscopic scale.
Just yesterday, two scientists; Konstantin Novoselow and Andre Geim, were awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in physics for their pioneering work on the discovery of graphene. The award acknowledged graphene's promise to revolutionize the electronics industry and the potential production of lightweight, stronger-than-steel materials among a long list of other coming applications. Putting things into perspective, Geim states that he would "compare this situation with the one 100 years ago when people discovered polymers. It took some time before polymers went into use in plastics and became so important in our lives."
Andre Geim (left) and Konstantin Novoselov (right) and an artist's impression of a corrugated graphene sheet.
Potential applications for the material include the replacing of carbon fibers in composite materials to eventually aid in the production of lighter aircraft and satellites; replacing silicon in transistors; embedding the material in plastics to enable them to conduct electricity; graphene-based sensors could sniff out dangerous molecules; increasing the efficiency of electric batteries by use of graphene powder; optoelectronics; stiffer-stronger-lighter plastics; leak-tight, plastic containers that keep food fresh for weeks; transparent conductive coatings for solar cells and displays; stronger wind turbines; stronger medical implants; better sports equipment; supercapacitors; improved conductivity of materials; high-power high frequency electronic devices; artificial membranes for separating two liquid reservoirs; advancements in touchscreens; LCD's; OLED's; graphene nanoribbons could be a way to construct ballistic transistors; and nanogaps in graphene sheets may potentially provide a new technique for rapid DNA sequencing.
As I stated, this is only a short-list—imagine some of the applications that haven't been examined yet! Imagine the implications just on the computer revolution alone. IBM has already demonstrated a 100GHz graphene-based transistor and stated that a 1THz processor is on the horizon. The future of graphene holds limitless possibilities into literally every corner of industry and manufacturing, and as the years pass it will likely become a commonplace substance, the way that plastic is today.

For disclosure purposes I have received no compensation of any kind for this post. I currently own shares in FMS.

Graphene shows very promising potential in the world of faster computing

Focus Metals (TSXV:FMS) has just recently released news that they have retained the services of Roscoe Postle Associates, an internationally recognized expert in mine and infrastructure, including construction and mine operations, cost assessment, process design and administration in Canada, United States, and Europe. This will definitely help to accelerate the progress at the companies Lac Knife project in Quebec, Canada.

Lac Knife is a world class graphite deposit that has many positive aspects, including the fact that this deposit contains graphite which contains 17% carbon content, and that a high percentage of this deposit is graded as large flake graphite. Large flake is what is required to process further to attain the 99% pure graphite which draws a much higher price than just regular graphite. One of the most promising things being worked on currently is a product of graphite called graphene.

IBM shows smallest, fastest graphene processor.
IBM on Thursday demonstrated its fastest graphene transistor, which can execute 155 billion cycles per second, which is about 50% faster than previous experimental transistors shown by the company's researchers.
The transistor has a cut-off frequency of 155GHz, making it faster and more capable than the 100GHz graphene transistor shown by IBM in February last year, said Yu-Ming Lin, an IBM researcher.

The research also shows that high-performance, graphene-based transistors can be produced at low cost using standard semiconductor manufacturing processes, Lin said. That could pave the way for commercial production of graphene chips, though Lin could not say when manufacturing of such chips would begin.

Commercialized graphene transistors will provide a performance boost in applications related to wireless communications, networking, radar and imaging, said Phaedon Avouris, an IBM fellow. Graphene is a single-atom-thick layer of carbon atoms structured in a hexagonal honeycomb form.

The transistor was developed as part of research IBM is conducting for the U.S. Department of Defense's DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) program to develop high-performance RF (radio frequency) transistors. Avouris said the military has considerable interest in graphene transistors.

The flow of electrons is faster on graphene transistors than conventional transistors, which enables faster data transfers between chips, Lin said. That makes it promising technology for applications such as networking that require communications at fast speeds and high frequencies.

Graphene transistors may be able compute faster than conventional transistors, but are not ideal for PCs yet, Lin said. Because of the lack of energy gap in natural graphene, graphene transistors do not possess the on-off ratio required for digital switching operations, which makes conventional processors better at processing discrete digital signals.

By contrast, the continuous energy flow makes graphene better at processing analog signals, Lin said. Graphene's high electron speed allows for faster processing of applications in analog electronics where such a high on-off ratio is not needed.

The graphene transistor benefited from the use of a new and improved substrate IBM called "diamond-like carbon." The graphene transistor exhibited excellent temperature stability from room temperature down to minus 268 degrees Celsius, which the company called "helium temperature."

"The performance of these graphene devices exhibited excellent temperature stability ... a behavior that largely benefited from the use of a novel substrate of diamond-like carbon," IBM said.

The graphene transistor is also IBM's smallest transistor to date, researchers said. The gate length of the radio-frequency graphene transistor was scaled down from 550 nanometers to 40 nanometers, compared to the gate length of 240 nanometers for the graphene transistor shown last year, which used a silicon carbide substrate.
But more importantly, the performance was achieved using manufacturing technologies compatible with those used in silicon device fabrication, Lin said. That brings the commercial production of graphene chips one step closer to reality, Lin said.

The possibilities of graphene have proved attractive to scientists. Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov of the University of Manchester in the U.K. were awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics for their groundbreaking research in graphene. The scientists isolated graphene in 2004, which laid the groundwork for further research.

Graphene holds great potential for semiconductors, but the industry is still trying to understand its benefits, said Jim McGregor, chief technology strategist at In-Stat.

Graphene cannot yet operate as a digital transistor replacement in conventional silicon chips. However, it could be beneficial as a complementary technology in other carbon-based devices for tasks like signal processing.

"Like any new materials technology, it takes billions of investment dollars to make it a viable alternative to existing technology. Then again, it may eventually be a necessity if the current materials technology hits another physics brick wall," McGregor said.



Graphene has to fit into the three primary pillars of semiconductor manufacturing, which are materials, transistor design and lithography, McGregor said.

"If graphene can be supported through existing and future lithography processes and transistor designs, then it could be a viable materials technology, but only if those two conditions are satisfied," McGregor said.

For disclosure purposes I have received no compensation of any kind for this post. I currently own shares of FMS.