TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Nov 23, 2015) - Sparton Resources Inc. (TSX VENTURE:SRI) ("Sparton" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that the commissioning of Zhangbei Project's 8 megawatt hour vanadium flow battery is underway. (Please see Sparton News Releases dated September 10, 2015 and November 12, 2015).
Commissioning Work
Written approval to initiate the on-line tests has been received from the battery owner, the State Grid North China Company Limited ("State Grid"). The testing started on November 21st and will take place over several weeks. These performance tests will be monitored by engineers and technicians to ensure that the battery meets design protocols. Following completion of the testing procedures, the engineers and technicians will prepare comprehensive reports on the procedures and their results, which will be submitted to various participants, including the State Grid.
Funding through Subsidiaries
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 Cdn$153,000 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 88.4% 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 concurrently with the commissioning process.
Once the test period is successfully completed, performance and acceptance reports will be prepared and, upon acceptance, a payment, which is expected to be up to RMB 16.44 million (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, which are expected to be in the range of RMB10.56 million (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 undetermined at this time, as the 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 annual payments of RMB5.5 million (US $880,000) from its client that are required to be paid by State Grid.
About the Zhangbei Project
The Zhangbei Project is located approximately 60 km north of Beijing, in proximity to the site of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, near Zhangjiakou, in Hebei Province, China. It is the world's biggest renewable energy utilization platform, integrating wind power, solar power, energy storage, and smart grid transmission technologies. Clean power generated by this project will be integrated into north China's energy grid operated by State Grid.
As China's largest wind and solar energy electricity generation and storage installation, it supports the storage and release of clean electricity into the power grid in an efficient and controlled manner.
The project was jointly launched in May 2010 by the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the National Energy Bureau, and State Grid. It is a key component of China's Golden Sun Photo Voltaic Solar Pilot Project.
It currently includes 500 megawatts of wind power and 100 megawatts of solar power, with 110 megawatts of energy storage capacity, and covers a total land area of 200 square kilometers. Expansion plans for both electricity generation from wind and solar sources, and additional energy storage capacity have been recently announced.
With a total investment of 12 billion RMB (approximately US$1.8 billion), upon completion, it will be China's largest grid integration photo voltaic solar power generation station and its largest land-based wind farm in unit capacity, as well as the world's largest chemical energy storage station.
The project represents state of art installations for all its various components and will integrate the world's largest number of different operational technologies in a single new energy project.
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