Sparton Resources Inc., through its majority controlled subsidiary, VanSpar Mining Inc., has executed a contract to finance the commissioning one of the world's largest vanadium redox flow batteries. This battery is located in Hebei province, China, approximately 60 kilometres north of Beijing, where it was recently installed for the PRC State Grid Company.

With a capacity of two megawatts of power and eight megawatt-hours of energy, the unit was pretested prior to installation and features 10 units, each of 200 kilowatts power. It is integrated with large solar and wind power installations at the State Grid's Zhangbei SGCC1 clean energy demonstration project. Located in proximity to the site of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, it is expected that this battery, and the overall project, will be highlighted as a green energy initiative in the area.

By way of example, a battery of this capacity could support approximately 400 modest domestic households, each consuming approximately 20 kwh of electricity, or an industrial plant or service facility, such as a hospital or school, with similar electricity requirements.

The commissioning program is the first of a series of transactions being planned by the company, which could result in the company becoming a participant in the manufacturing and sales of large-scale vanadium flow batteries, and, with vertical integration, the mining, processing and marketing of vanadium products. It is planned to integrate the batteries with green energy power installations (solar and wind) to provide one-stop-shopping solutions for efficient clean electricity production and distribution.

A convertible debenture financing, of up to $650,000 (U.S.), is being proposed in VanSpar to finance the SGCC1 battery commissioning. A series of payments from State Grid will be forthcoming once the commissioning is successfully completed and accepted, and will continue over the next three-year period.

A team of experienced technicians, led by the engineers who previously installed the battery, are currently on-site and the commissioning work is under way. It is expected to be completed prior to year-end.

Company president Lee Barker commented: "This opportunity presented itself during our review of the prospective acquisition of an advanced technology company specializing in manufacturing vanadium-based flow batteries. Our interest in vanadium and new applications for vanadium products goes back several years. We believe that vanadium flow batteries provide the best current solution to storing clean energy produced by wind and solar systems, and that the combination of clean electricity production and storage is an ideal solution for remote areas.

These types of integrated systems can service various industrial and domestic applications including mines, schools and communications terminals. They can also be used as backup power systems for military installations, hospitals, and public utility and transportation control systems in metropolitan centres. At the present time, vanadium flow batteries offer the best commercially viable solution for large-scale electricity storage. They are cost competitive, long life (plus-20 years, plus-100,000 cycles), safe, not prone to overheating and are fully recyclable."