Canadian cannabis producer installs anaerobic digestion system

Aurora Cannabis Inc., a licensed medical marijuana producer in Cremona, Alberta, and Micron Waste Technologies Inc., a developer of digester solutions for the treatment of organic waste in Vancouver, British Columbia, have announced a collaboration agreement where Aurora will use Micron's technology for the treatment of organic waste generated in the cultivation and production of its cannabis products.

Micron has developed a new technology, based on aerobic digestion and subsequent treatment, that converts organic waste into clean water designed to meet municipal effluent discharge standards. Currently used methods to dispose of organic waste generally require dumping in municipal landfill sites.

Micron will now install a digester unit at one of Aurora’s facilities, where the companies will jointly work to use the digestor for the cannabis industry. Upon successful completion of the project, Aurora intends to acquire multiple units for its various facilities. Micron will retain the intellectual property related to the digestor and will pay Aurora a 4 percent royalty for every unit sold to other licensed producers globally. Upon the first successful sale of a digestor within the cannabis industry, Micron will issue 2 million common shares to Aurora.

"Micron’s technology is a very elegant solution to a time consuming and relatively costly operation at the end of our production process," Terry Booth, CEO of Aurora Cannabis, says. "We love the combination of the technology’s positive environmental impact with its cost effectiveness. Upon successful completion of the optimization process, we will have access to yet another innovation to improve our facilities, and we look forward to working with the Micron team to bring this very promising technology to the cannabis sector."

"Aurora, with its innovative mindset, is the ideal partner to develop a commercially ready unit for the cannabis industry,” Rav Mlait, CEO of Micron, says. “Becoming part of Auroras growing constellation of technology partners would result in considerably expanded market reach, accelerate development of this side of our business and provide strong brand recognition for Micron. We are also pleased having been able to attract additional strategic investors in our placement, raising further funds to accelerate the development of commercial solutions for expansion into other sectors."

Aurora also completed a strategic investment in Micron, taking a 6.46 percent ownership interest on a nondiluted basis, by acquiring 4.411,765 units, for a total investment of $1.5 million, as part of a private placement. The full placement consisted of 6,790,000 units for total gross proceeds of $2.3 million. Each unit consists of one common share and one common share purchase warrant, priced at $0.50, with an expiry date of 2 years following the closing of the placement.