Steenkampskraal Thorium Limited seeks funding for thorium plant project at Viridis Africa

Steenkampskraal Thorium Limited (STL) is a South African registered company in the business of beneficiating Thorium as a clean, safe energy resource. Founded in 2011, Steenkampskraal projects include commercialising the TH-100 which is a 35 MW Thorium-fuelled gas-cooled pebble bed reactor.

The TH-100 project is a Generation IV Reactor and associated fuel plant which can be built and commissioned within the next 5-10 years.

The same TH-100 reactor can be configured to cater for a variety of applications:
- Electricity generation using a standard off the shelf steam turbine generator,
- Process heat for use in chemical plants, paper mills or petrochemical plants,
- Heat for desalination or water purification plants,
- CO2 free steam for lifting bitumen from oil sands
- Power packs for Off-shore oil platforms
- Off-grid distributed power on islands and remote areas.
- Power plants for large electricity users such as mines, smelters, cement plants, refineries etc.

Associated projects are the Thorium/Plutonium mixed oxide fuel test qualification program with Thor Energy in Norway and the Pebble fuel plant project for production of thorium-based fuel spheres.

Steenkampskraal seeks to beneficiate thorium through the development of its Th-100 generators and associated fuel technologies and thereby contribute to sustainable energy solutions.

Steenkampskraal owns the technical capability to produce the Th-100 generators and associated thorium-based fuels. The company also works in conjunction with the Norwegian company, Thor Energy in which they hold a 15% stake.

According to Eben Mulder (CEO), “Steenkampskraal has developed a unique model to fund the thorium energy-based project. The model encompasses three phases. The concept design phase, the basic design phase and the detailed design phase. Steenkampskraal is seeking to obtain the necessary start-up capital to facilitate plant and equipment acquisition. The project is structured to award participants the opportunity to evaluate the outcome of every phase and to assess their own level of participation accordingly. Since every participating member would ideally also be a potential customer they will be in a position to acquire the first reactors and without having to pay a royalty fee.”

The company seeks to form a consortium of potential clients who will fund the project through the different stages of its design. With the concept design already being funded by STL, the company now calls on clients to further assist in funding the basic and detailed phases of the project. Clients can determine the extent to which they will be involved in the third phase, the detailed phase, depending on their evaluation of the basic design phase’s success. Risks and profits will be shared accordingly with the investors.

Steenkampskraal seeks to find investors mainly in the private sector and more specifically clients that wish to build their own reactors.

The pilot plant is planned to be approximately 36 meters long, 34 meters high and 28 meters wide and can be fully submerged below ground should it be required. Safety systems will be located to avoid foreign penetration and destruction to the plant. Depending on practical consideration the demo plant can be constructed either locally or internationally.

STL intends to make use of proven technology so as to ensure a swifter attaining of an operating license from regulators. This approach is also to ensure that STL achieves simplicity and predictability in their operations.

STL strives to deploy this technology for achieving an intrinsically safe fuel cycle commercially. In addition to this, observations from the US indicate that this alternative energy can serve a big market as there is a need for small sized, distributed, off-grid power plants.

“I believe that the country that makes the decision to licence and build this plant will    establish itself in the nuclear industry through this Small Model Reactor (SMR) and the market.

The Steenkampskraal Th-100 plant is the only SMR that can be built in the near future that addresses issues relating to fuel cycle and that produces less problematic waste with less proliferation resistance than any other vendors today.” Mulder concluded.

STL will be presenting its investment opportunity at Viridis Africa on 16 – 17 October 2012 at the Killarney Country Club, Lower Houghton, Johannesburg. Viridis Africa is a venture capital and private equity investment summit for clean tech companies to raise capital for their technologies, projects or business expansion.

Visit www.thorium100.com and www.viridisafrica.com for more information

Viridis Africa attracts significant clean tech investors

2012 is shaping to be a decisive year for commercialization of clean technology projects deployed throughout South Africa and the African region.

Despite much jostling and positioning by local and international players to become a preferred supplier of renewable energy to ESKOM, a late change of terms reference, effectively  resulted in reducing power purchase prices and has caused many of the bidders  to go back to the drawing board.

However this has resulted in a more efficient process of elimination of sub optimal technologies which have been drawn ashore to African coasts, as surplus from developed markets, which themselves are seeking newer technologies and solutions.  It is already evident that certain projects may lack the flexibility to incorporate newer technologies cost effectively, and thus assume greater price efficiencies in generating electricity.  It would be challenging to predict the future regarding the greater usage of alternative or renewable energies, catapulting them out of their relative obscurity.

For this to happen the cost of technologies would have to continue go down, and reliability up.

In a country and region where climatic conditions can and will dictate the wealth of a nation and by extension the individual level of disposable income much cognizance needs to be given to clean technologies, that by virtue of their introduction can resolve  or alleviate not only environmental priorities, but also enhance economic well being of communities.

Striking the balance between environmental and economic well being has a particular and profound meaning in the African context. Delivering the provision of water, electricity to economically marginal communities throughout the continent in efficient manner, coupled with extending the continent’s drive to beneficiate its natural resources – mining/mineral industry   with reduced impact on the environment is the ultimate objective.

Thus innovative technologies that can answer for the said challenges would prove commercially rewarding for entrepreneurs seeking their deployment in manufacturing sectors and region of human habitation where need is the greatest.

The Viridis Africa clean technology investment summit is an event is designed to bring about innovators, inventors, technology partners, academia, project promoters, investors, and government agencies to investigate, evaluate, and elucidate commercial opportunities relating to clean technologies, being appropriate environmentally sustainable and commercially sound, so they may address human and environmental needs not as mutually exclusive objectives but rather complimenting each other.  

 The Viridis Africa event will introduce amongst its distinguished list of speakers. Representatives of  leading investment and financial institutes include Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), the National Empowerment Fund ( NEF), the Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA), the Technology Innovation Agency ( TIA), the US Trade and Development Agency and the World Bank as well as private equity firms, such as Lerako Metier Sustainable Capital and Osmosis Investment Management, venture capitalist and other project financiers, seeking investments into clean technologies initiatives, the size and scope of which would be widely  ranging.

Inventors seeking to commercialize their inventions via establishing a startup vehicle, consulting engineering companies, project promoters, international /multinational consortia, all will find fertile ground of interacting with the appropriate type of funder and or partner most suitable for their initiative.

The organizers of this event are inviting any party who has a project/initiative/technology solution within the ambit of the clean tech sector to consider introducing it at the event. Business plan submissions should be forwarded to suza@viridisafrica.com

For more info, visit www.viridisafrica.com