Published: 16 hours ago

Last Updated: 02 Jun 2017

If youre at all familiar with the spinning wheel of death, mocking your vain attempt to salvage seven hours of lost work from your laptop, youll probably take issue with the idea that technology could be good for mental wellbeing. The smartphone indeed has brought in its wake distraction, sleep deprivation and even addiction.

Yet maybe it doesnt have to be that way. The problem, after all, isnt really with the technology itself but how we use it. Used the right way, tech could actually help.

Technology plays an important role in helping to provide support to people experiencing mental health issues. For a start, its instantly accessible to anyone and tends to be free or inexpensive, says Barbara Harvey, mental health executive sponsor at Accenture.

Many apps, chat lines and services are available at any time of the day or night, she adds, while for people who find it difficult to talk about mental health, the ability to open up anonymously is a huge benefit and can represent an important step on the path to getting help.

Accenture gave MT an exclusive window on their internal mental health training for some examples of techs that can help in the workplace. Heres what we found.

Theres a reason all those commuters have their eyes closed when you know full well theyre awake. Mindfulness, which is all about being in the now, is a great way to relieve stress. PauseAble founder Peng Cheng discovered it during six months off work for depression and stress. Finding it a great help, he approached designers ustwo and created Pause.

This calming app (1.99) is all about moving your finger very slowly across a screen, as you listen to relaxing music, growing circles as you go along. There are also free apps like Headspace, which offer guided meditation to improve your mental state.

Apps can also help with mental wellbeing by monitoring patterns and motivating you to progress towards your goals. Bupa Boost, for instance, lets you set targets for wellness, nutrition, fitness and relaxation, while encouraging social support from colleagues or friends (likes, comments etc). Sleepio, meanwhile, is all about helping you get that solid nights kip, through breathing exercises and heart rate monitoring, which allows you to see when youre most stressed and why, so you can do something about it.

Among the most interesting solutions was Ainxiety, an immersive VR chatbot still in development that asks you questions and then sets you appropriate tasks. For instance, if youre angry you have to/get to smash virtual objects, whereas if youre stressed youre taken to a VR beach to chill. You can imagine a day when other VR programmes are used to put you in realistic situations that you find induce stress (eg an interview), to help desensitise you in a safe environment.

So tech could be useful in helping people manage their mental health and wellbeing, but no matter how advanced it gets, you will of course never be able to just plug it in and just wait for mental health problems to disappear.

They are far too complicated for that, and frankly the environment and culture at work are likely to be more significant factors than the presence or absence of technology. After all, guided meditation on your phone could well be fantastic, but if youre judged and berated for taking a ten minute break to do it, its not going to be much help.

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3 ways tech could boost your mental health at work - Management Today

Chives bloom at the Student Organic Farm at Iowa State University. Sales of organic produce continue to rise, according to the Organic Trade Association.

Sales of organic food reportedly climbed to record highs in 2016, an indication organics are edging toward the mainstream.

In a new industry report, the Organic Trade Association says American consumers spent $43 billion on organic products in 2016, which accounts for more than 5 percent of total U.S. food sales, a high water mark for the organic industry.

The counter-culture movement that once agitated the food industry from the periphery has grown much closer to conventional says Iowa State University sociologist Carmen Bain.

I think theres a real tension among some producers, organic producers, consumers, advocacy groups, and so forth about what direction to they want organic to go in, Bain says.

With organic products now coming from some of the nations largest growers and processors, such as Driscolls berries and Kelloggs cereals, many early advocates have turned their attention to small, local farms.

Bain says with demand for organic produce continuing to grow, though, more farmers are likely to look toward organic production. It remains a challenge.

Theres opportunities there for organic farmers and there are farmers who want to take advantage of this demand, Bain says. But they need some help in terms of some investment.

She says that could include government or private sector financial help in transitioning land to organic production, such as a program to help sustain profitability during the three years it takes to transition to organic certification. But she says its also important to resolve differences in supports for conventional crops and organic ones, such as crop insurance.

The OTA report also shows growth in sales of organic products such as personal care items and cleaning supplies. Organic produce remains the driver in organic sales, growing last year almost three times as much as the growth in total fruit and vegetable s

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As Organic Industry Grows, It Edges Toward Mainstream - HPPR

Inside a South Carolina factory, in industrial vats that stand five stories high, batches of algae are carefully tended, kept warm and fed corn syrup. There the algae, known as schizochytrium, multiply quickly. The payoff, which comes after processing, is a substance that resembles corn oil. It tastes faintly fishy.

Marketed as a nutritional enhancement, the oil is added to millions of cartons of organic milk from Horizon, one of the nation's largest organic brands. Rich in Omega-3 fatty acids, the oil allows Horizon to advertise health benefits and charge a higher price.

"DHA Omega-3 Supports Brain Health," according to the Horizon cartons sold in supermarkets around the U.S.

What the Horizon milk carton doesn't advertise is that some of its contents were brewed in closed stainless steel vats of schizochytrium. This omission avoids any ick reaction from shoppers, but consumer advocates say it also dodges a key question: Is milk supplemented with an oil brewed in a factory really "organic"?

"We do not think that [the oil] belongs in organic foods," said Charlotte Vallaeys, a senior policy analyst, at Consumer Reports. "When an organic milk carton says it has higher levels of beneficial nutrients, like omega-3 fats, consumers want that to be the result of good farming practices. . .not from additives made in a factory."

Exactly what should be considered an "organic" food? A closer look at how the oil winds up in organic milk offers insight into how the U.S. Department of Agriculture determines what foods may be sold with its coveted "USDA Organic" seal, a label that can double a product's price. At least in part, it's a lobbying tug-of-war: On one side, many companies, seeking to maximize sales, push the USDA for an expansive definition of "organic." On the other, consumer groups advocate for a narrower, "purer," definition.

In deciding to allow the use of the oil and similar additives, USDA officials, at least initially, misread federal regulations. In 2012, five years after the algal oil was introduced into milk, it quietly acknowledged that some federal regulations had been "incorrectly interpreted." The USDA then maintained the status quo - allowing the use of algal oil, among other things - in order not to "disrupt" the market.

Asked this month about the issue, a USDA spokesman declined to address the confusion saying that current regulations have been "interpreted to allow for the use of ...(DHA) algal oil in organic processed products."

Whatever the legalities, the Horizon milk with the DHA algal oil is popular. In the past year, consumers bought more than 26 million gallons of the milk supplemented with the DHA, according to Horizon, representing 14 percent of all organic milk gallons sold. Retail sales of the milk topped $250 million in the past year, the company said. The Horizon milk with DHA typically costs about 30 cents more than plain Horizon milk.

"Millions of people choose our Horizon Organic milk with DHA Omega-3 for the added benefits DHA Omega-3s are thought to deliver," a Horizon spokesperson said in a statement, which says the additive may improve heart, brain and eye health.

To critics, though, the popularity is based on a misconception of what is and isn't organic. They argue that supplementing "USDA Organic" products with algal oil betrays consumer expectations that organic foods need no laboratory-inspired razzle-dazzle, and that the nutrients in organic products are good enough without additives.

"Additives just don't have any place in organics at all," said Barry Flamm, former chair of the National Organic Standards Board, which makes recommendations to the USDA. "You might say additives should be allowed for health reasons, but I never saw an additive that you couldn't get in real foods."

Indeed, when milk is produced by grass-fed cows - as required by organic regulations - it contains substantially more Omega-3 fatty acids than conventional milk, as recent testing conducted by The Post shows.

Some companies, like Horizon, nevertheless like to boost their Omega-3 claims using algal oil.

Costco does something similar with its Kirkland brand "organic" milk. It adds "refined fish oil" to the milk and boasts of high-levels of Omega-3 fats. But Costco acquires much of that milk from Aurora, a mega-dairy of 15,000 cows in Colorado. According to The Post's nutrient analysis, without supplementation, Aurora milk lagged behind other organic milks in the amount of Omega-3s.

Costco did not respond to questions about the fish oil additive.

The idea for creating the DHA algal oil that goes into Horizon milk is credited in part to Bill Barclay, a scientist whose quest, in many ways, was as idealistic as those who champion organics. He, too, aimed to remedy the modern diet.

For years, a group of scientists had argued that contemporary meals were lacking in substances known as Omega-3 fatty acids, which are commonly found in larger amounts in fatty fish and grazing animals. Since so many farm animals are fed a grain diet and no longer graze - a practice that leads to more Omega-3s in their meat and milk - these scientists argued that supplementing modern diets with more Omega-3s would provide health benefits.

While recent studies have indicated the Omega-3 supplementation does not produce measurable health benefits, the argument among some scientists continues, and many people still turn to fish oil pills to goose up their Omega-3 consumption.

"In the 70s and 80s there was a lot of medical data that DHA could have a significant impact on human health," Barclay recalled in a phone interview.

Fish oil pills had taste and odor problems, as Barclay noted, so he set out to find an alternative source of Omega-3s. He quickly turned to algae. The challenge was finding a strain that was commercially suitable - one that would grow fast and yield the oil. He persuaded his wife to allow him to take out $25,000 from their mortgage and take a year to lay the groundwork for a business.

Somewhere on the coast of Southern California - he won't say where - Barclay came upon the schizochytrium. While lots of algae replicate just once a day, this strain, when fed properly, could replicate five to nine times a day. Others, too, had been looking at algae as a way of feeding NASA astronauts in space.

DSM, which has succeeded Barclay's start-up, now produces the algal oil and has sold it for use in milk, cheeses, yogurt, cereals and protein bars. When destined for food products, the oil is processed without the use of harsh solvents such as hexane, the company said.

The oil is vegetarian, sustainable and "does not contribute to overfishing," DSM said in a statement. "We highly value our organic partners and believe that our products are consistent with the important values of the organic industry, including health and nutrition, quality, and sustainability."

After Horizon began selling the organic milk supplemented with the algal oil in 2007, sales took off.

There was just one problem. The additive might have violated organic regulations.

In January 2012, after five years of sales, the USDA issued a complicated notice in the Federal Register explaining that the USDA's National Organic Program had "incorrectly interpreted" some federal regulations. The result was that some supplements to organic products had been allowed that shouldn't have been. Among those allowed by mistake was DHA algal oil.

"Examples of ingredients added to organic products which are outside [the regulation] include certain forms of DHA...in fluid milk and dairy products," it said.

Several months later, the USDA issued a new "interim" rule regarding the supplements for organic products. Its intention, the USDA said, was to "provide continuity to the organic industry" and to avoid "widespread disruption."

In ruling at least temporarily in favor of algal oil and other additives, the USDA noted that an advisory board had recommended to allow the oil's use in organic products.

"This action enables the industry to continue with the status quo until additional public comments are received and a final rule is published," the USDA said.

Almost five years later, the status quo continues. A final rule has not been published.

That leaves consumers buying an "organic" milk supplemented with algal oil, though many likely don't know that stainless steel vats of schizochytrium are the source of the Omega-3s in the milk. According to Consumer Reports surveys, 7 out of 10 consumers think the USDA should not permit the use of non-organic ingredients in organic food production if they are not deemed essential, Vallaeys said. The USDA position means that millions of people buying milk may be getting something different than the "USDA Organic"- seal seems to promise.

"Algal oil is one of several nutrient additives that have not gone through this proper review and approval process," Vallaeys said. "It's very disappointing that we have yet to see proper enforcement action from the National Organic Program on this issue."

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How millions of cartons of 'organic' milk contain an oil brewed in industrial vats of algae - Chicago Tribune

Fear is a negative emotion, unless youre facing an actual threat and need to fight or flee. And the usefulness of fear is minimal in daily life, particularly in the form of anxiety. Stressful events can produce short-term anxiety in almost everyone, which disappears after the event. But foran estimated 6.8 million Americans with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), anxiety is a chronic condition they cant shut off. All of us know people we accept as born worriers, but their reality is much more debilitating than that title describes. Being in a state of chronic anxiety can severely limit their daily activity.

You probably know already if you worry excessively. In fact, if you have chronic anxiety, even the smallest thing can trigger it. You find yourself with fearful thoughts about finances, family, your health, and whats happening at work. Some days youd rather hide under the covers.

The first thing to realize is that reality isnt whats actually worrying you, but its your fixed habit of mind thats causing you to respond to everything with anxiety. Second, you need to look rationally at the anxiety response and concede that youre not improving it by feeling anxious. This seems obvious to non-worriers, but somewhere inside, many born worriers believe they are taking care of situations that others are overlooking, like whether they remembered to lock up the house or turn off the gas stove. Any trigger can provoke worry, so the question is how to prevent this from happening.

Because of the mind-body connection, you should also consider the physical side of anxiety. Even if you have accepted worry as a tolerable trait, it exacts a price in the form of insomnia, easy startle response, fatigue, irritability, muscle tension, headaches, inability to relax, trembling, twitching, feeling out of breath, and various stomach and digestive problems. If these persist for more than six months after something bad has happened to you, a diagnosis of GAD may be appropriate. Even if your symptoms are manageable, you shouldnt have to live this way. Anticipating the worst, which has become a habit even when no threat is in sight, distorts how you approach work, family, and the world in general.

There are many theories about what causes chronic anxiety, but they are as diverse as explanations for depression. Its more useful to consider how to retrain your mind so that your worry subsides and is replaced by a normal undisturbed mood. The standard medical advice is to take medication (usually some form of tranquilizer), augmented by talking to a therapist. However, self-care has other tools, such as meditation, diet, sleep, massage, and exercise that you can pursue on your own.

One aspect of anxiety is racing thoughts that wont go away. Meditation helps with this part of the problem by quieting the overactive mind. Instead of buying into your fearful thoughts, you can start identifying with the silence that exists between every mental action. Through regular practice, you experience that youre not simply your thoughts and feelings. You can detach yourself from these to rest in your own being. This involves remaining centered, and if a thought or outside trigger pulls you out of your center, your meditation practice allows you to return there again.

Being able to center yourself is a skill that anyone can learn, once they have the intention and the experience of what it feels like. Anxious people often shy away from meditation for various reasons. I cant meditate is code for feeling too restless to sit still or having too many thoughts while trying to meditate. With a patient teacher, these objections can be overcome. Anyone can meditate, even if the first sessions are short and need to be guided. Being on tranquilizers, which for some anxious people is the only way they can cope, isnt a block to meditation.

Numerous scientific studies have found meditation to be effective for treating anxiety. One study, published in the Psychological Bulletin, combined the findings of 163 different studies. The overall conclusion was that practicing mindfulness or meditation produced beneficial results, with a substantial improvement in areas like negative personality traits, anxiety, and stress. Another study focused on a wide range of anxiety, from cancer patients to those with social anxiety disorder, and found mindfulness to be an effective management tool.

The researchers analyzed 39 studies totaling 1,140 participants and discovered that the anxiety-reducing benefits from mindfulness might be enjoyed across such a wide range of conditions because when someone learns mindfulness, they learn how to work with difficult and stressful situations.

All mental activity has to have a physical correlation in the brain, and this aspect has been studied in relation to anxiety. Chronic worriers often display increased reactivity in the amygdala, the area of the brain associated with regulating emotions, including fear. Neuroscientists at Stanford University found that people who practiced mindfulness meditation for eight weeks were more able to turn down the reactivity of this area. Other researchers from Harvard found that mindfulness can physically reduce the number of neurons in this fear-triggering part of the brain.

Here are three simple, practical ways to take advantage of all this knowledge:

Read more here:

How Meditation Can Help Anxiety | The Chopra Center

FREDERICK, Md. The Frederick Meditation Center, at 1 W. Church St., top floor, in downtown Frederick, will host Jerry Websters four-week course titled The Power of Being Present: The Four Buddhist Foundations of Mindfulness.

The course will take place from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesdays, June 14 to July 12. There will be no class Wednesday, July 5.

The program is open to those new to meditation and mindfulness, as well as those who already established a practice.

According to Webster, the Power of Being Present course is about being open to whatever arises in ones life on the spot. Each week, the course will focus on a different theme, starting with Mindfulness of Body and continuing with such themes as Mindfulness of Effort and Mindfulness of Mind.

Although relaxing is often one of the byproducts of Buddhist meditation, the true purpose is to be present in ones life more fully, being present on the spot rather than being riveted about according to ones hopes and fears, Webster said in a news release.

The course is inspired by Chogyam Trungpas book Mindfulness in Action: Making Friends with Yourself Through Meditation. While it is not required to read the book to participate in this course, some participants might find that the book offers good background. For those who are interested in obtaining a copy, Trungpas book is available at Curious Iguana in downtown Frederick at a discounted rate before the course begins.

Webster serves as the shastri, or head teacher, with the Shambhala Buddhist Meditation Center in Washington, D.C. He began meditation with a 10-day retreat in India with the Burmese teacher Goenka in 1974. Since 1976, he has been a student of the Shambhala Buddhist tradition, and he has taught in this tradition since 1977.

He obtained a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction from the University of Maryland. He has taught numerous courses in literature for the University of Maryland and numerous courses in multiculturalism for Montgomery County Public Schools. He has taught English full time in public-school systems for 40 years, beginning with the Peace Corps in Afghanistan in 1973.

During the past year, he has led three full-day weeklong meditation weekends and numerous programs along the East Coast, including programs for Johns Hopkins University, the U.S. Peace Corps, Frederick Community College and the Frederick Meditation Center.

The cost for the whole course is $80. Those interested can reserve their space at FrederickMeditation.com or by calling 240-397-8080.

Cushions, chairs, tea and water will be provided.

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Meditation teacher offering mindfulness course - Herald-Mail Media

As we left Sunday meditation class, Sister Hemaxi Patel, the facilities manager, gave us each a cookie and a card with the words, I am a soul. I have a body. As a lifelong resident of the Bay Area, this was far from my first attempt at the meditation rodeo, or in my case, the meditation three-ring circus, featuring chattering mind monkeys. But it was my first try at this center.

The Anubhuti Meditation & Retreat Centers gate sign at 820 Bel Marin Keys Blvd. has piqued my curiosity many times as I passed by. The other day a friend and I decided to try the free Sunday class, because lately weve been experiencing more than our usual level of mental turbulence.

The 10-year-old Novato center, which employs some 20 part-time staffers, is part of Brahma Kumaris, a group committed to the practice of self-transformation through Raja Yoga meditation. They began in 1936 and now have 8,500 centers in 110 countries.

Kumaris believe meditation to be key in creating a peaceful and just world, and that spiritual living is a lifelong 24-hour-a-day practice.

Brother Harsha Madatanapalli, retreats facilitator, began the gathering by asking each of us to set our intention. When he asked me what I sought, I said, predictably, peace. Yes. I seek the inner peace one achieves in an hour and a half of free (love offerings accepted) guided meditation.

The meditation part of the class is about 45 minutes. Madatanapalli guided us to relax our bodies, and after that I didnt hear much else he said. I fought to stay awake, which is the alternate challenge meditation offers me. As usual, I seesaw between my monkey mind circus and narcolepsy. But when the time came to open our eyes, I felt refreshed.

Then Madatanapalli had us walk around the room silently. He is a kind, welcoming soul, and when he asked us to make eye contact with the other 15 strangers in the room, I felt only slightly uneasy; after all, we are presumably like-minded souls, aware that our human bodies are temporary homes.

Though I did not miraculously overcome my meditation hurdles during this brief visit, I left feeling more peaceful than when I arrived, and with an interest in exploring future gatherings. I believe any curious visitor would be impressed by the aura of hospitality.

The center offers a variety of retreats and workshops, including Building Healthy Relationships, Art of Communication and Vegetarian Living, to name just a few. Tuesday evening workshops, from 7 to 8:30 p.m., address different topics each week, such as The How of Forgiveness, Positive People Skills and Emotional Detox.

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Interested? The free Sunday session is from 10 a.m. to noon. For information, visit anubhutiretreatcenter.org.

The Novato Art & Wine Festival, our annual street fair, is happening from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 pm. Sunday. Theres food, music and more, stretching a half-mile along downtown Novatos Grant Avenue between Redwood Boulevard and Seventh Street. For full details, visit novatoartwine.music.com.

Free concerts on the green are returning. Finnegans Marin will be selling beverages to accompany your picnic. The concerts are from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Novato Civic Green, 901 Sherman Ave. The first concert is set for June 17, featuring Marty OReilly & The Old Soul Orchestra. Other shows are planned for July 15 and Aug. 19.

The Fourth of July parade is always a Novato favorite, and what better way to start the day than with the 63rd annual Buckaroo Breakfast hosted by the Presbyterian Church from 7 to 10 a.m. July 4 at the Redwood Credit Union parking lot, 1010 Grant Ave. Donations go to the Novato Youth Center, Rotary Books and Art Around Town Foundation.

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Novato: A visit to a meditation center - Marin Independent Journal

WATCH LIVE

Stressed out? Meditation is not just for yogis anymore. Get your morning started right with 4 apps that will help you find your focus.

Often you need to know what type of meditation exercise you need before you start, but the Stop, Breathe and Think app asks you how you're feeling before offering the meditation program that's right for you.

Calm is good for anyone who is stressed out and doesn't have time to meditate. There are special sections for commuters who take trains like the Metro. Some of the exercises are as short as three minutes.

Insight Timer has more than 3,000 guided meditations, music tracks and courses that will help you find your inner peace.

Finally, you can learn how to meditate in just 10 minutes a day with the Headspace app. The app's free introductory series helps you train your mind with 10 ten minute sessions.

Most of the apps are free, but you may have to pay to unlock longer meditation sessions.

Published at 5:33 AM EDT on Jun 5, 2017

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Fit 4 Summer: 4 Apps to Help You Meditate - NBC4 Washington

By Bruce Hull

Ignoring a disease can ruin your life. For most diseases, people have two choices: cure the causes or treat the symptoms. Take obesity as an example. Two causes are overeating and lack of excercise. People can cure obesity by dieting and exercise or they can treat the symptoms with insulin injections, blood pressure medicines, knee replacements, and other expensive and invasive procedures. The cure requires a bit of self-restraint, but provides other benefits like lower medical expenses, better job prospects, and increased energy levels. Treatment of symptoms costs a lot and often doesnt work.

Like obesity, climate change also has multiple causes. The primary cause is emission of greenhouse gasses from the energy systems that power human civilization. The cure requires shifting energy consumption to solar, wind, tidal and other low carbon systems as well asconsuming and using less. Or we can treat the symptoms of climate change by building sea walls, rebuilding infrastructure, relocating cites, inventing new types of crops that produce food in drought and heat, and managing new disease vectors and heat-related illnesses. The cure requires a bit of self-restraint, but provides other benefits like green jobs and healthy air. Treatment of symptoms costs a lot and often doesnt work.

In the parlance of climate change, the cure is called mitigation and the treatment is called adaptation. The Paris Agreement is about mitigation. Most Americans want it, even most Trump supporters want it, but U.S. President Trump still seems willing to ignore its risks and costs.

The climate-obesity analogy goes further. We can blame our obesity on food companies and hope that scientists invent food that is sugar and fat free so that we can eat in excess without harming ourselves. Likewise, we can blame our greenhouse gas emissions on energy companies and hope that scientists will invent a cure. That is, we can risk hubris, continue business as usual, and hope technology invents a cure before the disease kills us.

The analogy goes further still. When a disease pushes you close to death, you may accept riskier treatment. You may volunteer for the experimental drug or organ transplant knowing the treatment might not work and could kill you sooner. Climate change treatment offers a similar high-risk option: geoengineering. We could shoot sulfur into the atmosphere to control sunshine or poor iron into oceans to absorb carbon. The treatments might not work and likely will harm other ecosystem services that sustain human civilization.

There is one more medical analogy of import. This one explains the divide between Republican and Democrat positions on climate change. Republicans worry that the treatment might be worse than the disease. Some treatments for climate change could grow government and increase regulation: cap and trade, for example, requires an enormous bureaucracy to set caps and monitor and redistribute monetary trades. Conservative Republican and former congressman Bob Inglis explains the conservative Republican revulsion to this treatment: it would be like going to the doctor complaining of a back pain and being told that the treatment requires removing and re-attaching your head. Suddenly your back pain becomes tolerable. Instead, he argues, if the treatment were revenue neutral and increased American economic competitiveness, like the border adjusted carbon tax he advocates, then climate change mitigation might be a pill Republicans could swallow.

We know how to cure climate change. The technologies and tools to help us succeed exist. We just need the will to swallow the pill.

Bruce Hull is a senior fellow at the Center for Leadership and Global Sustainability at Virginia Tech, based near Washington DC. He teaches, writes, and speaks about leadership practices for the cross-sector space where business, government, and civil society collaborate.

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When It Comes to Climate Change, Treat the Cause, Not the Symptoms - Triple Pundit (registration) (blog)

Ucore Enters Development MOU with Commerce Resources InvestorIntel (TSX VENTURE:CCE)(OTC:CMRZF) (Commerce) for the purpose of integrating feedstock from Commerce's Ashram Project in Quebec (the Ashram Project) with Ucore's recently announced rare earth separation facility and Strategic Metals Complex ... and more »

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Ucore Enters Development MOU with Commerce Resources - InvestorIntel

by Greg Klein | June 5, 2017

While China dominates the critical rare earths market, two companies plan to work together on potential North American supply and processing. Commerce Resources TSXV:CCE and Ucore Rare Metals TSXV:UCU have signed a memorandum of understanding to conduct metallurgical tests on material from Commerces Ashram REE deposit in northern Quebec. Characterized by relatively simple mineralogy and a favourable distribution of magnet feed elements, Ashram is currently moving towards pre-feasibility.

The MOU would integrate Ashram material into Ucores SuperLig-One molecular recognition technology facility in Utah. A joint venture of Ucore and IBC Advanced Technologies, the MRT process involves selective separation.

The tests would determine the suitability of Ashram concentrate for a Strategic Metals Complex that Ucore plans to build in Utah to process REEs and platinum group metals. Following the tests, Commerce and Ucore would consider long-term supply and offtake agreements.

Metallurgical tests at a Colorado facility have already produced an Ashram concentrate surpassing 45% rare earth oxides at approximately 75% recovery.

Ashrams high-quality and high-grade mineral concentrate looks to be a very promising candidate for processing via an MRT separation circuit, commented Ucore president/CEO Jim McKenzie. The Ashram deposit is large tonnage, good grade, hosts a well-balanced REE distribution with an enrichment in the magnet feed REEs and, perhaps most importantly, is highly accessible. In combination with the SMC, Ashram promises to be a key link in a self-contained North American REE supply chain.

The news comes as U.S. Congress considers a bill to support domestic supplies and processing for minerals vital to defence, including rare earths. A number of recent reports from the U.S. Geological Survey have highlighted that countrys dependency on possibly insecure foreign sources.

Commerce president Chris Grove added, Security of supply is vitally important and, with our simple mineralogy and successful use of standard processing, we look forward with Ucore to realizing the goal of an independent North American REE supply chain.

Another recent MOU signed by Commerce would have independent power producer TUGLIQ Energy study the potential for wind-generated electricity on the Ashram project.

Last week Commerce closed a private placement of $942,630, which followed a February financing that raised $1.72 million including $1 million from Ressources Qubec, a subsidiary of the provincial government corporation Investissement Qubec.

Read more about Commerce Resources.

Read about the Wests dependency on China for critical minerals here and here.

This article was posted by Greg Klein - Resource Clips on Monday, June 5th, 2017 at 1:40 pm.

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Commerce Resources and Ucore Rare Metals to co-operate on rare earths supply chain - Resource Clips