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Progressive Planet's natural pozzolan outperforms fly ash in concrete test, University of Alberta report says

Published: 11:57 14 Aug 2020 EDT

Zeolite
A pozzolan is an aluminous material that can be made similar to fly ash by altering its rheology, the flow behavior of a metal

Progressive Planet Solutions Inc (CVE:PLAN) announced Friday that it received the final report from the University of Alberta, which showed that its improved natural pozzolans outperformed a traditional fly ash blend in concrete compressive strength.  

In December, the company announced a strategic relationship with the academic institution to alter the natural pozzolans from its Z-1 quarry so that it would more closely resemble commercially available fly ash.

A pozzolan is an aluminous material that can be made similar to fly ash by altering its rheology, the flow behavior of a metal. Fly ash is a byproduct of burning coal and is often used in cement mixes. Coal plants around Canada are being decommissioned, the company said, hence the need for materials that behave like fly ash.

READ: Progressive Planet reports anomalous nickel over a 500 metre strike length at Heffley Creek property in British Columbia

The parties substituted 20% of Portland Cement with 20% of PLAN’s proprietary blend of Z-1 Zeolite and pulverized post-consumer glass. The original testing intended to test both the rheology and the compressive strength of the firm's proprietary blend after 28 days of curing and 56 days of curing. The target compressive strength was 30 megapascals (MPA), a unit of pressure.

The results showed that the Z-1 pulverized glass blend beat the fly ash blend in rheology and withstood compressive strength between 37 and 41 MPA.

"We were pleased that we were able to exceed the rheology of the benchmark fly ash blend and extremely pleased to see the compressive strength significantly higher than 30 MPA at 98 days,” CEO Steve Harpur said in a statement. “Pozzolanic concrete is known to continue gaining strength over time as it cures and these tests confirmed our belief that we have an excellent product to bring to market once final CSA and ASTM protocol testing is completed."

PLAN said it intends to complete the following tests over the next nine months: Compressive strength, alkali-silica reaction, sulphate resistance, air void, freeze thaw resistance and comminution toll processing.

Additionally, PLAN has completed the design and construction of its comminution plant. The plant was built to enable easy disassembly and has the capability to reduce rocks from six inches down to 5 microns.

The plant is expected to deliver its first rock powder order next week to a customer in Alberta. The customer owned the product and delivered it for processing. 

Lastly, COO Mike Wypych has resigned his part-time position, the company said, to accept a full time position as mining engineer.

Contact Andrew Kessel at andrew.kessel@proactiveinvestors.com

Follow him on Twitter @andrew_kessel

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