Nvidia, Defense Metals, Uniper - Valuable commodities for trillion-dollar digital market

Nvidia and Hexagon deliver solution package to accelerate industrial digitalization

In order to take industrial companies to the next level of digitalization, they need accurate virtual representations of their physical systems. Nvidia is partnering with Hexagon, the global leader in digital reality solutions headquartered in Sweden, to do just that. Both aim to provide countless companies with the tools and solutions to create ideally synchronized, AI-enabled digital twins that can be used to digitally transform organizations.

Hexagon is developing solutions for the Omniverse platform launched by Nvidia. Omniverse is an open platform for developing and using industrial metaverse applications from the Mark Zuckerberg universe. Open means that further applications can be docked through interfaces. This platform technology for digital process optimization can be applied to numerous industries: Agriculture, autonomous mobility, buildings, cities, defence, infrastructure, manufacturing and mining.

Professionals and developers can use these digital simulations to visually map and improve complex workflows - from virtual prototyping to digital factories. For investors, this opens up innovative market segments and investment opportunities. The EUR 40.49 trillion manufacturing industry includes millions of factories worldwide that design and develop new products. The solution helps companies unlock collaborative workflows and achieve rapid iteration across their teams - regardless of location.

Digitization enables manufacturers to tackle the most complex engineering problems more efficiently and productively. It also brings industrial companies one step closer to automating their workflows and transforming to a software-defined environment, improving operational efficiency and transforming their services through software.

Defense Metals: Successful completion of hydrometallurgical pilot plant trial and start of feasibility study

Rare earths are an important raw material in the inexorable progress of the global energy transition. Industrialized countries worldwide use these valuable raw materials to strengthen their local energy supplies for greater competitiveness and strategic advantage. Defense Metals Corp. is focused on exploring and developing its 100%-owned Wicheeda Project in British Columbia. The rare earths company's project seeks to deliver key metals commonly used in the defence and national security industries, as well as in the production of green energy technologies.

As early as April 2023, Defense Metals successfully completed the operation of the Phase I hydrometallurgical pilot plant. The data obtained during this test work was used to plan the expanded operation of Phase II of the pilot plant. This involved processing 370 kg of flotation concentrate produced in a previous flotation pilot plant operation. The mixed rare earth product produced in Phase II has a significantly higher purity than the result from Phase I. The higher purity is due to the higher concentration of the flotation concentrate. The reason for the higher purity is the change to oxalate precipitation.

Flotation is a method in mining mineral processing used to separate and concentrate ores by bringing their surfaces into a hydrophobic or hydrophilic state. This means that the surfaces are either repelled or attracted to water.

"With the completion of the recent beneficiation testing, hydrometallurgical testing and operation of the pilot plant, we are now in a position to provide our technical advisors with the metallurgical test data they need to begin the design work that is a critical part of the pre-feasibility study for the Wicheeda project," explains John Goode in his role as metallurgical advisor to Defense Metals. **Based on the results of the Phase I and Phase II pilot plants, Defense Metals' team of experts believes that all the metallurgical test data necessary to support the pre-feasibility study is now available.

Uniper: Focuses on biomass for energy production instead of natural gas

The cards in the energy poker are being reshuffled. Uniper is an international energy company that operates about 22.5 GW of generation capacity in Europe and is one of the largest power producers in the world. Known in Germany more for state subsidies, the energy producer is forging ahead in the Netherlands with the construction of a syngas plant. Syngas is a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide in different ratios. It is mainly used to produce ammonia or methanol. Syngas is combustible and can be used as a fuel.

Uniper wants to build this syngas plant near Maastricht in the Chemelot industrial park. The plant will replace natural gas in chemical production processes with sustainable gas. Biomass is used as the starting material, which is converted in a Torrefaction process. This process produces biogenic CO2, which is used to produce sustainable chemicals. Syngas energy source has the chance to become a central element in the environmentally friendly production of plastics, fertilizers and pharmaceuticals. It is an intermediate step towards the construction of hydrogen plants. At the moment, the infrastructure is not developed enough for this.

The Syngas plant project is currently in an early phase. It is expected to be operational by 2027/2028. Uniper aims to make its European portfolio climate-neutral by 2035. The Company wants to help its customers achieve this goal as well. In addition to the syngas plant at Chemelot, Uniper is also developing an electrolyzer with a capacity of 200 to 500 MW for green hydrogen on the Maasvlakte in the Netherlands.

Rare earths are indispensable for the increasingly massive energy transition. With Defense Metals, investors are directly at the source of an explorer whose potential is growing with its mineral resources. Nvidia is developing an AI-enabled web application based on Omniverse. It enables teams worldwide to visualize and realistically improve real-time comparisons between digital twins and actual production processes. This advanced technology can speed up decision-making processes while optimizing planning and operations. Uniper is also undergoing a transformation. In the Netherlands, the Company is setting up a plant that relies on syngas for energy production - from existing biomass. The energy plant is an intermediate step towards future hydrogen power plants, which so far only exist in the virtual worlds and minds of engineers due to a lack of infrastructure.