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January 26, 2016 |
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Vanadium Flow Battery Successfully Commissioned |
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Sparton Resources Inc. ("Sparton"or the "Company")is pleased to
announce that the commissioning of the Zhangbei Project's 8 Megawatt Hour
Vanadium Flow Battery was successfully completed on January 23, 2016.
(Please see Sparton News Releases dated November 12, November 23, 2015 and January 7, 2016).
Commissioning Completion
The battery was operated continuously for 10 days (240) hours at 100%
of its design capacity. It was shown to be capable of actually exceeding
specifications by approximately 10%. The final phase involved State Grid North China Company Limited's ("State Grid") smoothing test using States
Grid's proprietary software program and this was completed satisfactorily.
The 240 hour test involved daily charging and discharging of the entire
unit with 2 megawatts of power and 8 megawatt hours of energy released in
each cycle. Power was harnessed from the Zhangbei Project's 200 square
kilometer wind and solar renewable energy installations. The performance
tests were monitored on a 24 hour basis by the Company engineers and
technicians from State Grid to ensure that the battery met design
protocols. This work completed the final phase of the commissioning
program.
Both State Grid and the Company technicians have indicated they are
extremely pleased with the program and will prepare comprehensive reports
on the test procedures and results. These will be submitted shortly to
State Grid for acceptance. After acceptance State Grid will be invoiced for
the next payment.
Subsidiary Funding
Funding for this commissioning project has been carried out by VanSpar
Mining Inc. ("VanSpar"), a 90.4% owned Sparton subsidiary. In the past two
months, VanSpar has raised C$205,000 in convertible debt which could, if
the conversion feature is exercised by all of the current debt holders,
reduce Sparton's ownership in VanSpar to approximately 85% fully diluted.
Funds raised by VanSpar have been advanced to Jiujiang Sparton Vanadium
Trade and Tech Co. Ltd. ("JJSP"), a Sino Foreign Chinese joint venture
company 90% owned by VanSpar. JJSP has the commissioning contract with the
builder of the battery. Additional financing efforts by VanSpar are
continuing.
With the test period now successfully completed, once acceptance is
received from State Grid, a payment, which is expected to be up to RMB
16.44 million (approximately US$2.64 million), will become payable by State
Grid to JJSP's client, the battery builder, under a court-supervised
payment process. After certain deductions are approved by the court for
payment, expected to be in the range of RMB10.56 million, (approximately
US$1.70 million), the balance will be available for payment to JJSP by its
client and JJSP will then repay VanSpar. The amounts payable at each step
of this process are subject to change and the exact timing for each step is
not fixed.
The commissioning contract further provides for JJSP to continue the
service obligations of its client for this battery by providing 3 years of
maintenance on the installation. For this ongoing program, JJSP is to
receive from its client annual payments of RMB5.5 million (approximately US
$880,000) that are required to be paid by State Grid. |
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About the Zhangbei Project |
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The Zhangbei Project, jointly launched in
May
2010 by the Ministry of
Finance, the
Ministry
of Science and Technology, and the National
Energy
Bureau is operated by State Grid. It is
located approximately 180 km north
of
downtown Beijing near Zhangjiakou, in
Hebei Province. It integrates wind
power,
solar power, energy storage, and smart grid
transmission
technologies. Clean power
generated by this project supplies a portion
of
north China's energy needs. The energy
storage equipment currently
installed and
being tested on site includes the 8 Megawatt
Hour Vanadium
Flow Battery commissioned
by VanSpar.
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Zhangbei is China's largest wind and solar energy electricity
generation and storage installation.
It currently includes 500 megawatts of wind power and 100 megawatts of solar power as well as the world's largest chemical energy storage station.
It covers a total land area of 200 square kilometres and is a key component
of China's Golden Sun Photovoltaic Solar Pilot Project.
The project represents state of art installations for all its various
components and will integrate a large number of different operational
technologies in a single new energy project. The successful commissioning
and operation of the 8 Megawatt Hour Vanadium Flow Battery is a milestone
for the Zhangbei Project and the Company. It supports the viability of
vanadium flow batteries as a potentially significant component to increase
efficiencies in Zhangbei's wind and solar power generation and
distribution. |
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Because the renewable energy generated and stored by this project
supplies a portion of north China's energy needs, it will play an important
role in China's "clean, green" 2022 Winter Olympics which are based nearby.
The 8 Megawatt Hour Vanadium Flow Battery is a key element in the storage
and release of clean electricity into the north China power grid.
Currently about 25 megawatt hours of energy storage capacity is
installed at Zhangbei and project planning forecasts this to increase to
approximately 100 megawatt hours.
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Company President Lee Barker commented: |
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"Since initiating the Commissioning Project last fall, we have learned
a lot about vanadium battery technology. We are very pleased to be working
with a very professional and motivated team who successfully executed a
difficult and challenging program under fixed time constraints and
difficult weather conditions. Outside temperatures in the area dropped to
as low as -40 C. during the work and the staff maintained an around the
clock monitoring program in the battery building to ensure that the work
went well. We look forward to cooperating with them on future programs.
We thank the team for their hard work and dedication.
During the commissioning we also received excellent cooperation from
State Grid, the largest utility in the world. We believe that we have
successfully demonstrated the benefits of the vanadium flow battery system
for large scale energy storage and distribution and have contributed to
China's national goal of reducing pollution and establishing significantly
more renewable energy electricity production." |
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For more information contact: |
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A. Lee Barker, M.ASc., P. Eng.
President and CEO
Tel./Fax: 647-344-7734 or Mobile: 416-716-5762
Email: info@spartonres.ca
Website: www.spartonres.ca
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Listed: TSX Venture Exchange
Trading Symbol: SRI
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Forward-Looking Statements
Information set forth in this news release involves forward-looking
statements under applicable securities laws. The forward-looking statements
contained herein include, but are not limited to, financings, equipment
commissioning processes and other transactions being pursued, and all such
forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by
this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements included in this
news release are made as of the date hereof and the Company disclaims any
intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements,
whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except
as expressly required by applicable securities legislation. Although the
Company believes that the expectations represented in such forward-looking
statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations
will prove to be correct and, accordingly, undue reliance should not be put
on such forward-looking statements. This news release does not constitute
an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities
described herein.
We Seek Safe Harbour
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