Sparton Resources Inc. has provided an update on the activities of VRB Energy Inc., outlining a corporate structure that now spans China and the United States. Beijing Puneng, a battery energy storage manufacturer, is 49% owned by VRB Energy Inc. and 51% by Shaanxi Red Sun. VRB Energy itself is 90.025% owned by Ivanhoe Electric Inc., while Sparton's 90%-owned subsidiary VanSpar Mining Inc. owns 9.975% of VRB Energy Inc.
A Chinese partner, and a US vehicle
Sparton President A. Lee Barker pointed to the introduction of a Chinese partner into VRB Energy's Chinese operations late last year as a significant development for the business. A portion of the funds received from the sale of 51% of Beijing Puneng to Shaanxi Red Sun and the formation of VRB China has been repatriated to the United States and is being applied to establish VRB USA Inc., which will focus on markets outside Asia. Leveraging 18 years of research and development experience, VRB Energy is applying its vanadium redox flow technology to a range of commercial applications.
Chinese projects at scale
The Hubei Province New Energy Storage Pilot Demonstration Project is a 50 MW / 200 MWh installation equipped with 100 units of the Beijing Puneng VRB Pod 500 all-vanadium redox flow battery system. It supports four hours of long-term stable charging and discharging, smooths peak-valley differences in electricity consumption and adjusts output fluctuation, making it suited to large-scale main-grid storage. It was commissioned in January 2026 and built in less than four months.
In Jiangsu Province, the Xuzhou Cement Plant smart energy project adopts a hybrid "lithium battery + vanadium redox flow battery" architecture, configuring 9.225 MW / 18.44 MWh of lithium iron phosphate batteries alongside 0.5 MW / 2 MWh of vanadium flow batteries to balance system economics with long-term stable operation.
Mining as an early overseas market
Labelled the "photovoltaic-storage-charging integrated" energy storage project, the Arizona installation at Ivanhoe Electric's Santa Cruz copper mine targets long-term energy storage and aims to create a global benchmark for lowering carbon emissions from mining.
The project addresses remote mining areas, weak grid support and extremely high ambient temperatures, using vanadium redox flow advantages — safety, stability, reliability, high ambient temperature resistance and long-term storage — to achieve stable photovoltaic output. Together, the deployments illustrate how flow battery suppliers are pairing Chinese manufacturing scale with separate vehicles for Western markets.
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