Eden Innovations inks long-term concrete supply deal in the United States
The US$48 million agreement covers the supply of EdenCrete to be used in the construction of a West Virginian facility and other proposed facilities.
Australian clean technology developer Eden Innovations (ASX: EDE) has secured a long-term deal worth at least US$48 million (A$69 million) to sell its carbon-strengthened concrete additive EdenCrete to a company constructing a ‘Cleanewable-Hybrid’ facility in the United States.
The agreement signed between Eden’s wholly-owned Colorado-based subsidiary Eden US and Florida-based Silent Partner International Inc (SPI) is an eight-year deal covering the supply of EdenCrete products, as well as specialty polymers or paints incorporating carbon nanotubes or nanofibres that may be developed by Eden US in the future.
The announcement follows last week’s news that Eden had received its first “significant” purchase order from its cornerstone Australian and New Zealand distributor, Parchem Construction Supplies. The order was for a 20-foot container load of EdenCrete products and amounted to more than US$65,000 (A$94,000).
In today’s announcement, Eden executive chairman Gregory Solomon said the two deals represent “major milestones in the global growth of the sales and marketing footprint of EdenCrete products”.
“Not only is this by far the largest contract for EdenCrete that Eden has secured to date, but it also opens up an important new application for the EdenCrete products, that has the potential to develop into a very large market over the coming years,” he said.
Mitigating the impact of radio frequency interference
Eden said its EdenCrete products will be used in the construction and maintenance of “a number of proposed facilities” that SPI plans to build in the US and other countries.
SPI has developed a propriety design to be used in the proposed facilities that mitigates the impact of a broad spectrum of radio frequency (RF) interference and electromagnetic pulses (EMP) that can result from natural occurrences such as solar flares, or human-generated causes including nuclear explosions.
Most of the planned facilities will be for power generation, although some are for desalination, information technology/data storage, aquaculture or agriculture technology operations.
Along with increasing the strength and durability of the concrete in the construction, EdenCrete is expected to help SPI mitigate the impact of RF interference and EMP on the facilities.
Cleanewable-Hybrid facility
On Tuesday, SPI announced the first facility, which is to be constructed on newly leased acreage in West Virginia.
It is designed to be an environmentally-responsible, energy efficient and “highly-secured” mission critical campus for Level5 Data Center Group, a joint venture partnership between SPI, PVD Modular and Stellar Armor.
Utilising the joint venture’s proprietary Cleanewable-Hybrid platform, the facility will feature a “highly-proven grid independent uninterrupted decarbonised power supply, advanced thermal energy capture and reuse systems and ballistically hardened and EMP resistant infrastructure”.
Deal terms
Under the terms of the agreement, SPI will purchase a minimum of US$48 million of products over the eight-year term. At least US$2 million of purchases are required within the first 18 months, followed by another US$2 million in each six-month period for the next 18 months.
After three years, this minimum purchasing requirement rises to US$4 million for each six-month period until the end of the term.
Provided the minimum purchases are maintained, Eden will pay SPI a royalty at the end of each year (calculated at 3% for the first year, 2% for the second and third, and 1% for the sale five years of the term) of the net sale proceeds of products sold by Eden US to a competitor of SPI.
During the term, SPI has also agreed not to engage any other party for the purchase of any products that may be competitive with Eden’s products.
Eden and SPI will each retain ownership of their individual intellectual property (IP) and neither is granted to use the IP of the other.
Tasman Resources (ASX: TAS), which holds a 36.24% stake in Eden through its wholly-owned subsidiary Noble Energy, also shared today’s announcement.