Sparc Technologies and Golden Grove Operations Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of 29Metals Limited, have signed a binding agreement to undertake a field trial of its ecosparc anti-corrosive product on processing plant infrastructure.
The agreement will provide Sparc and its potential customers with additional real-world performance data, building on over five years of research and development and over 10,000 data points based on accelerated corrosion testing in the laboratory. Sparc says the agreement shows continuing market demand from industry for better performing anti-corrosive coatings.
ecosparc is the company’s flagship graphene-based additive product that it says has demonstrated up to 40% anti-corrosion improvement in commercially available epoxy-based coatings when mixed in small quantities to conventional protective coatings.
Under the agreement’s terms, Sparc and 29Metals will conduct a collaborative field trial involving the application of an ecosparc coating on steel processing plant infrastructure at the Golden Grove mine site in Western Australia.
The agreement continues Sparc’s strategy of working with asset owners across government, defence, mining, oil and gas sectors.
The climatic and physical environment at the Golden Grove processing plant, located 250 kilometres east of Geraldton in Western Australia, is significantly different to the coastal environments being used for other field trials with the South Australian Department for Infrastructure and Transport.
As per the South Australian field trials, the trial at Golden Grove will compare the performance of an ecosparc coating with a control area coated with a market-leading anti-corrosive paint.
Sparc’s key obligations, as outlined in the Trial Agreement, are to supply the agreed quantities of ecosparc and unmodified control coatings to Golden Grove, along with specified application instructions.
29Metals’ obligations include to provide and prepare the agreed steel infrastructure and to arrange for the application of ecosparc and the control coatings at its own cost.
