Comet boost on back of $1m

Mineral explorer Comet Resources has received interstate recognition of its new technology with the Perth-based company obtaining more than $1 million in funding from the South Australian Government for its Environmental Oil Solutions project.

The project, based in Adelaide, is for the development of a bacteria technology platform for the clean up and recycling of oil wastes.

The South Australian Government will be funding the project over three years, with the first amount of $405,661 paid immediately.

The research will be used to recycle oil waste by altering the properties of the waste oil so it can be reused.

Comet chairman Roj Jones said he was encouraged to have government recognition of the strategic and commercial potential of the project.

“The South Australian Government has been pro-active in attracting new projects such as Environmental Oil Solutions,” he said.

“They offer opportunities for us to scale up work on the project.”

Mr Jones said the project represented unchartered territory for Comet, with the company working in an area that they would normally not operate in.

“We needed to demonstrate the technology could be used commercially,” he said.

“South Australia was the one who realised the technology had potential, enough potential to invest in it.”

Mr Jones said the funding brought in money to be used for development and commercialisation of the technology without dilution of Comet shareholders.

“It gives credibility to the work we are trying to do,” he said.

Mr Jones told WA Business News that, once the company had demonstrated the technology worked, it would look for further opportunities in other states.

“We are currently in the process of finalising contracts with Flinders and Murdoch universities to carry out research work,” he said.

Mr Jones said industry and governments were demanding solutions to the global oil waste problem.

“The technology is being developed as a cost-effective cleaning technology solution for the waste oil problem, including waste components left in oil storage tanks,” he said.

Mr Jones said the technology developed through the Environmental Oil Solutions project offered a significant improvement to current cleaning methods, which involved chemical additives, and dumping or incineration of waste.

“The work over the next nine months will go through a process of confirming that the bacteria can be produced at commercial prices and quantities,” said Mr Jones.

The company believes the technology developed from the project had the potential to be used on any hydrocarbon oil waste that was surplus to requirements or became contaminated after use.

Last November, the company entered into an agreement to purchase the assets of environmental research company BIO-Tec Pty Ltd related to various patent applications and intellectual property associated with BIO-Tec’s BIO-Paragone bacteria technology platform for the clean up and recycling of oil wastes.

The assets are now held in Comet’s 100 per cent-owned subsidiary Environmental Oil Solutions Pty Ltd.